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GAVLORD

PR1NTCOINU B.A.

Cornell University Ubrary
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Victoria history,,of the co^^^^^^^^

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Xlbe Dtctotta Ibtstortg of the
Counties of lEnolanb

EDITED BY WILLIAM PAGE, F.S.A.

A HISTORY OF
LINCOLNSHIRE

VOLUME 11

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE
VOLUMES I AND II EDITED
BY WILLIAM PAGE, F.S.A.,
VOLUMES III, IV, AND V EDITED
BY WILLIAM PAGE, F.S.A., and
REV. W. O. MASSINGBERD, M.A.

THE

VICTORIA HISTORY

OF THE COUNTIES
OF ENGLAND

LINCOLNSHIRE

LONDON

ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE

AND COMPANY LIMITED

This History is issued to 'Subscribers only
By Archibald Constable & Company Limited
and printed by Eyre & Spottiswoode
H.M. Printers of London

INSCRIBED

TO THE MEMORY OF

HER LATE MAJESTY

QUEEN VICTORIA

WHO GRACIOUSLY GAVE

THE TITLE TO AND

ACCEPTED THE

DEDICATION OF

THIS HISTORY

THE

VICTORIA HISTORY

OF THE COUNTY OF

LINCOLN

EDITED BY

WILLIAM PAGE, F.S.A.

VOLUME TWO

LONDON
JAMES STREET

HAYMARKET
1906

CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO

Dedication . . . . .

Contents . . . . .

List of Illustrations

Editorial Note . . . .

Ecclesiastical History (To a.d. 1600) .

„ „ (From A.D. 1600)

Religious Houses : —

Introduction

Lincoln Cathedral

Monastery of Ikanho

Monastery of Barrow

Abbey of Bardney

Abbey of Partney

Abbey of Crowland

Cell of St. Pega

Abbey of Stow .

Priory of Spalding

Priory of Belvoir

Priory of St. Leonard, Stamford

Priory of Freiston

Priory of Deeping

Priory of St. Mary Magdalene,
Lincoln

Cell of Sandtoft

Cell of ' Henes '

Priory of Stainfield

Abbey of Humberston

Abbey of Kirkstead

Abbey of Louth Park

Abbey of Revesby

Abbey of Vaudey

Abbey of Swineshead

Priory of Stixwould

Priory of Heynings

Priory of Nuncotham

Priory of Legbourne

Priory of Greenfield

Priory of Gokewell

Priory of Fosse

Priory of Axholme

Abbey of Grimsby or Wellow

Priory of Hyrst

Abbey of Thornton

PACE
V

ix
xiii

By Miss M. M. C. Calthrop ....
By Miss S. Melhuish

By the Sister Elspeth of All Saints' Community

By Miss Phyllis Wragge, Oxford Honours School of

Modern History .....
By the Sister Elspeth of All Saints' Community

By Miss Rose Graham, F.R.Hist.S.
By the Sister Elspeth of All Saints'

Community

1 04

105

118

12+
127
128
129

129

130
130
131
'33
135
138
141

■43
145
146
149
151
153
iSS
156

IS7
158
i6i
163
163

CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO

Religious Houses {continued) : —

Priory of Thornholm

Priory of Nocton Park

Priory of Torksey

Priory of Elsham

Priory of Kyme

Priory of Markby

Priory of Newstead by Stamford

Abbey of Bourne

Priory of St. Leonard, Grimsby

Priory of Sempringham

Priory of Haverholme

Priory of St. Catherine outside
Lincoln

Priory of BuUington

Priory of Alvingham

Priory of Sixhills

Priory of North Ormsby, or Nun

Ormsby

Priory of Catley

Priory of Tunstall

Priory of Newstead-on-Ancholme

Priory of St. Saviour, Bridgend in
Horbling ....

Abbey of Newhouse or Newsham

Abbey of Barlings

Abbey of Hagnaby

Abbey of Tupholme .

Abbey of Newbo

Priory of Orford

Commandery of Maltby by Louth

Commandery of Skirbeck .

Commandery of Lincoln

Preceptory of Willoughton .

Preceptory of Eagle .

Preceptory of Aslackby

Preceptory of South Witham

Preceptory of Temple Bruer

Austin Friars of Boston

Black Friars of Boston

Grey Friars of Boston

White Friars of Boston

Grey Friars of Grantham

Austin Friars of Grimsby

Grey Friars of Grimsby

Austin Friars of Lincoln

Black Friars of Lincoln

Grey Friars of Lincoln

White Friars of Lincoln

Friars of the Sack, of Lincoln

By the Sister Elspeth of All Saints' Community

By Miss Rose Graham, F.R.Hist.S.

By the Sister Elspeth of All Saints' Commun

ity

By A. G. Little, M.A.

1 66
i68

I 70
171
172

'74
176
177
179
179
187

188
191
192
194

195
196

197
197

198
199
202
205
206
207
209
209
210
210
210
211
211
212
212
213
214
21S
216
217
218
219
219
220

222

224
225

CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO

Religious Houses {continued) : —

Austin Friars of Stamford .

Black Friars of Stamford

Grey Friars of Stamford

White Friars of Stamford .

Friars of the Sack, of Stamford

Hospital of Holy Innocents with-
out Lincoln

Hospital of St. Mary Magdalene,
Partney

Hospital of Boothby Pagnell

Hospital of Glanford Bridge, or
Wrawby

Hospital of St. Giles without
Lincoln

Hospital of Mere

Hospital of St. John Baptist with
out Boston ...

Hospital of St. Leonard without
the Castle of Lincoln

Hospital of St. Mary Magdalene.
Lincoln

Hospital of Grimsby .

Hospital of Louth

Hospital of Spalding

Hospital of St. Bartholomew with
out Lincoln

Hospital of St. John Baptist and
St. Thomas the Martyr on
Stamford Bridge .

Hospital of St. Giles, Stamford

Hospital of All Saints', Stamford

Hospital of Walcot

Hospital of Langworth

Hospital of Thornton

Hospital of Holbeach

Hospital called Spittal on the
Street

Hospital of Grantham

College of Spilsby

Cantilupe College

College of Tattershall

College of Thornton

Priory of Covenham

Priory of Burwell

Priory of Minting

Priory of Wilsford

Priory of Haugham

Priory of Willoughton

Priory of Bonby

Priory of Wenghale

Priory of Great Limber

By A. G. Little, M.A.

225
226
227
229
230

By the Sister Elspeth of All Saints' Community . 230

232
232

232

233
233

233

234
234
234
234

234

234
234
234
235
235
235
235

23s
235

236

237
237

238
238

239
240
240
241
241
241
242

CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO

Religious Houses {continued) : —
Priory of Long Bennington
Priory of Hough
Priory of Cammeringham
Priory of West Ravendale
Priory of North Hylceham

Political History

Social and Economic History

Table of Population, 1801-1901

Industries : —

Introduction . . . .

Deep Sea Fisheries and Fish
Docks

Mines and Quarries
Agricultural Implement Manu-
facturers
Agriculture
Forestry
Schools

Sport Ancient and Modern
Fox Hunting

The Brocklesby Hunt
The Burton Hunt
The Blankney Hunt
The Southwold Hunt
Mr. Ewbank's Hunt
The Belvoir Hunt

The Marquess of Exeter'i
Hunt .
Harriers and Beagles
Otter Hounds
Racing
Polo
Shooting
Wild Fowling
Coursing .
Angling .
Golf
Athletics

By the Sister Elspeth of All Saints' Communi'Ly

By C. H. Vellacott, B A. .

By the Rev. W. O. Massingberd, M.A.

By Geo. S. Minchin

By the Rev. W. O. Massingberd, M.A.
By Miss Ethel M. Hew^itt .

By G. E. Collins ....
By the Rev. J. C. Cox, LL.D., F.S.A.
By A. F. Leach, M.A., F.S.A.
Edited by E. D. Cuming
By G. E. Collins

By the Rt. Hon. Lord Monson, and G. E
By G. E. Collins

By CuTHBERT Bradley .

By the Rev. J. F. Quirk, M.A

By Henry Sharp

By J. W. Bourne .

By R. Mason

By W. T. Warrener

By J. E. Fowler Dixon

Collins

242
242

243
243
244
245
293
356

381

388
393

394

397
417
421

493
493

499

502
503
505
505

505
506
506
506
Sn
Sii
S14
518

519

525
528

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PACK

Lincoln. By William Hyde .......... frontispiece

Ecclesiastical Map of Lincolnshire ......... between 78, 79

Seals of the Bishops and the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln . . full page plate facing 42

Seals of Lincolnshire Religious Houses

Pl="el „ „ ,04

Plate II „ „ ,86

EDITORIAL NOTE

The editor desires to express his great indebtedness to the
Rev. W. O. Massingberd, M.A., for his constant advice and assistance
w^hile passing this volume through the press. From his great knowledge
of local history much important material has been added and small errors
which would have escaped the attention of anyone less skilled in the
topography of Lincolnshire have been corrected. The editor has also to
acknowledge the assistance of Mr. J. Horace Round, M.A., LL.D., who
has kindly read some of the proofs and made many valuable suggestions,
and of Mr. Maurice H. Footman, who has given notes regarding
the Industries of the county.

A HISTORY OF
LINCOLNSHIRE

ECCLESIASTICAL
HISTORY

THE conjecture that '■Adelfius episcopus, de civitate Colonia Londinensium,'
summoned with the bishops of York and London to attend the
Council of Aries in 3 1 4/ may be an error of the scribe for Colonia
Lindemium has been held to indicate the existence of a bishop of Lin-
coln as far back as this remote period. There is nothing, however, beyond the
mere surmise to connect this county with the Romano-British church and no
proof that Christianity existed in Lincolnshire till the seventh century. Bede
has described in graphic language the manner in which the conversion
of Lindsey, or the northern and largest division of Lincolnshire, was
brought about in the earlier part of that century.' On the mar-
riage of Ethelburga of Kent, granddaughter of the royal convert of
St. Augustine, in 625 to Edwin, the yet unconverted king of Northumbria,
Paulinus, originally despatched by Pope Gregory in 601 to strengthen the
earlier Kentish mission, was chosen to accompany the princess as chaplain
and spiritual guide. Full of missionary zeal the bishop ' penetrated into
outlying portions of the northern kingdom, and crossing the Humber came
into Lindsey, then by virture of conquest under Northumbrian sway.
Advancing as far as the Roman town of Lincoln, he there gained as the first-
fruits of the Church in this district Blaecca the governor, who himself was
baptized with his whole house.* Bede records that the ' stone church of
beautiful workmanship ' built by Paulinus in the town of Lincoln was
still standing in his day though the roof had fallen.' Nor was this the
only visit paid by Paulinus to this district. According to the account of one

■ Labbe, Sacr. Concil. ii, 477. Mr. Haverfield says with regard to this : — ' Three British bishops arc
said to have attended the Council of Aries, Eborius, ' de civitate Eboracensi ' ; Restitutus, ' de civitate
Londinensi'; Adelfius, ' de civitate colorvia Londinensium '; also a 'Presbyter,' Sacerdos, and a ' Deacon,'
Arminius. There is an obvious error in the third entry, ' Londinium ' vi^as not a ' colonia ' (municipality),
and ' Londinensium ' merely repeats the preceding ' Londinensi.' The easiest emendation is to read ' Lind-
ensium'; 'Lindun ' or Lincoln was a ' colonia,' and was flourishing in the fourth century, and the confusion
between ' Lindensium ' and ' Londinensium ' would not be difficult to a careless scribe. Another alternative
would be to.suppose ' Londinensium ' an error for ' Camulodunensium,' the municipality or 'colonia ' which
is now Colchester. That is textually a more violent change, but makes equally good sense. On the other
hand, the common view that we should read 'Legionensium ' and suppose Caerleon to be meant is inadmissible.
Caerlon was from first to last a fortress and not a ' colonia,' and its military character makes it a most unlikely
centre for Christianity, about 3 14. So far as I know, all the MSS. read 'Londinensium' except one, which
omits that word. If that were the right reading, namely ' de civitate colonia ' simply, the reference would be
to Colchester. The relative value of the different MSS. which contain this list of bishops is not, I believe,
quite settled, but as far as is known at present, the inclusion of ' Londinensium ' has the better authority.'

' The early ecclesiastical history of this district is rendered more complicated by the fact that it did not
constitute a kingdom in itself, but occupied the position of a border province and bone of contention between
the powerful kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia, falling under the sway, now of one, now of the other.

' Bede, Eccl. Hist. lib. ii. cap. ix. Before starting he received consecration as bishop of the prospective
Church in Northumbria at the hands of Justus of Canterbury. Ibid.

* Ibid. cap. xvi.

' In this same church, generally identified with that of St. Paul's-in-the-Bail, churches at that time
being frequently named after their founders, Honorius was consecrated by Paulinus to Canterbury on the
death of Justus. Ibid.

2 I I

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Deda, abbot of Partney,^ the apostle of Lindsey appeared at another time with
his royal convert Edwin on the banks of the Trent and baptized a great
multitude in its waters.* An ancient eye-witness of the scene who himself
received baptism on this occasion thus describes the bishop, ' tall of stature, a
little stooping, his hair black, his visage meagre, his nose very slender and
aquiline, his aspect both venerable and majestic' To Northumbria therefore
Lindsey owes its conversion and its first Christian Church, and through the
teaching of Paulinus is linked with the Roman school ;' yet in spite of political
fluctuations which brought it into temporary subjection to the northern
kingdom, the province recognized mainly Mercian rule, and from the date
of the conversion of Mercia was placed under Mercian bishops, whose see
was established at Lichfield and whose traditions were of the Irish or Scottish
school.*

Of the work or influence in Lindsey of the earlier Mercian bishops
nothing is recorded till the time of Ceadda, commonly known as St. Chad,
669 to 672.

The first mention of church organization in Lincolnshire occurs in con-
nexion with King Wulphere, who gave to his new bishop the land of fifty
families at a place called ' Ad Baruae ' or ' at the wood ' generally identified
with Barrow on Humber ; ' the object of the grant being to found a
monastery and thus provide a mission centre on an outlying border of the
vast diocese. Traces of this foundation still remained in Bede's time, but the
house was swept away during the Danish ravages of the ninth century and
never rebuilt.

The rule of Chad's successor Wynfrid was brief, as he was deposed by
archbishop Theodore in 675 ' for some disobedience,' his offence probably con-
sisting in a refusal to allow his diocese to be sub-divided as had been suggested

* One of the first monastic establishments in Lindsey.

* Ibid. The place is given by Bede as ' near the city called in the English tongue Tiouulfingacaestir,'
generally identified with Torksey, an important burgh in Domesday; the actual spot for the baptism has more
recently been fixed in the parish of Marton and opposite to Littleborough, a little to the south of Gains-
borough. See Ear/y Traces of Christianity in North Lines. Line. Arch. Soc. xix, 320.

' ' The conversion of England was accomplished principally, if not entirely, by monks either of the
Roman or of the Irish school.' Stubbs, Chron. and Mem. ofRic. I. (Rolls Sen), Introd. ii, xiii.

* Strong evidence of the feeling of the inhabitants of Lindsey against their annexation to Northumbria
is shown in the attitude of the monks of Bardney towards Oswald, king and martyr, who re-conquered this district
after it had fallen to Mercia on the death of Edwin in 633. After the death of Oswald in battle fighting
against the heathen power of Mercia (Bede, Eecl. Hist. lib. iii, cap. vii), his niece Osthryda, who by her
marriage with Ethelred of Mercia for a time united the warring dynasties, desired to bestow on the monastery
of Bardney, which she and her husband much loved, the remains of her sainted uncle, then regarded as a
martyr to the cause of the faith. But the monks of Bardney refused to admit the waggon when it arrived
before the gate of the monastery with its sacred burden, alleging that Oswald though a holy man had en-
deavoured to establish an alien yoke over them, and the relics were left outside in the open air with only the
shelter of a tent to cover them. During the night, however, miraculous proof was afforded of the king's
sanctity. A pillar of light reaching up to heaven, which was seen by all the inhabitants of Lindsey, stood over
the waggon, and in the morning the monks, convinced, intreated that the holy relics might be deposited among
them. They were accordingly washed and placed in a shrine, over which was suspended a banner of purple
and gold symbolical of the royalty of the saint. (Ibid, iii, cap. xi.) Many were the miracles reported to
be performed there, but during the Danish invasion, which swept away Christian evidences in the county
the relics were carried off and deposited at Gloucester. The murder of Queen Osthryda by the nobles of
Lindsey (Ibid. lib. v, cap. xxiv. and Floren. Wigom. i, 45) is another proof of the dislike in the district to
Northumbrian rule. Ethelred, like many another Mercian prince, resigned his kingdom in 704 and retired to
the abbey of Bardney, of which he died abbot in 716. Ibid, i, 46-9.

' Local tradition here still preserves the name of St. Chad. In 971 King Edgar made a grant to
JEthelwold, bishop of Winchester, of land at Barrow on Humber to be assigned to the monastery of Peter-
borough, in his deed recalling that it had formerly been in the possession of St. Chad before it was wasted by
the Danes. Cart. Saxon, iii, 566.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

by the council of ' Hereutford.' The bishop returned to his former home in
the monastery at Barrow, where he died ' in all holy conversation.'^

Saintliness of life and the study of sacred learning flourished in that
halcyon period succeeding the conversion of England, the old dreamed
dreams, the young saw visions. William of Malmesbury, contrasting the state
of the nation in that primitive age with the period which succeeded before the
Conquest, exclaims ' What shall I say then of bishops, hermits, abbots ? Does
not the whole island blaze with such numerous relics of its natives, that you
can scarce pass through a village of any importance but you hear the name of
some new saint ? And of how many of them the memory has perished for
want of record !'* Lincolnshire, however, still preserves the memory of many
who have bequeathed their names to the county and whose fame has not yet
departed : Etheldreda, the virgin queen of Northumbria, whose flight across
Lincolnshire to her island home at Ely, legend has connected not only with the
little church at West Halton, dedicated in her honour,' but with the minster
at Stow, which tradition presents to us as the mother church of Lindsey ;*
St. Higbald or Hybald, whose name, not to be forgotten in the early
annals of this district, though we know little of his history ,° is retained in
the dedication of three churches in North Lincolnshire* and in that of the
church of Ashby-de-la-Launde, near Sleaford, while further south we have
the great names of St. Botolph and St. Guthlac.

This southern district beyond Witham was originally held by that tribe
of the northern Gyrvii which occupied north Cambridgeshire and North-
amptonshire. It is probable that from its geographical position and political
affinities this part of Linconshire was at an early period more closely identified
with the kingdom of the East Angles, with whom it embraced Christianity,
than with Mercia under whose sway it eventually fell. Thus it has been
noted that in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle the foundation of the monastery
at Icanho in 654 by St. Botolph^ is associated with the death in the same
year of Anna, the devout king of East Anglia and the father of St. Etheldreda.

' Bede, Eccl. Hist. lib. iv, cap. vi. ' Gesta Regum. ii, 417.

' The queen in her flight from Coldinghara to evade the pursuit of her husband reached the northern
shores of the Humber. Aided by favouring winds she crossed the channel and arrived safely at Winteringham,
where the great north road touches the Humber. From this place, accompanied by her maidens, Sewara and
Sewenna, she fled on to a village near, almost surrounded by marshes. Here, in return for the hospitality of
the inhabitants among whom she sojourned for some days, she caused a rude church to be built, the site of
which is said to be occupied by the present church of West Halton, dedicated to St. Etheldreda. Thomas of
Ely, Jngl. Sacr. i, 598.

* Continuing her journey, the queen, so runs the story, being weary lay down with her companions to
rest in a shady place. On awaking she found that to increase the shade the dried up ashen staff which she
had planted in the ground at her head had clothed itself with fresh bark and pushed out leaves and branches
eventually becoming the largest ash tree in Lindsey. A church being built in after days in honour of the
Virgin Mary on the spot where the queen had rested, the former designation of St. Etheldreda Stow, or the
resting place of St. Etheldreda, was changed to St. Mary Stow. Ibid, i, 599.

' Bede speab of Higbald as abbot of a religious house in Lindsey, ' a man of great holiness and self-
restraint,' the tutor of Swidbert who accompanied Willibrod on his mission to the Frisians, and a friend of
Egbert, the Irish monk, who described to him the manner of the passing of St. Chad from this world. Eccl.
Hist. lib. iv, cap. iii, v, ix.

* The three churches dedicated to him are Hibaldstow itself, Manton, and Scawby close by. His name
remains in his • stow,' probably his missionary station.

' Aug. Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 5 1 . According to the life given by Mabillon and attributed to Folcard,
abbot of Thorney soon after the Conquest, Botolph was by birth an Englishman who was sent with his
brother Adulph to receive religious training in Germany, where both became monks. Adulph is said to
have become bishop of Utrecht, but Botolph returned to his native land and received the offer of a site for
the establishment of a religious house.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

On its conversion the Mercian kingdom sprung immediately into the front
rank of Christian powers with a well organized diocese of which the Fen
country formed a border province. The connexion, however, between this
district and East Anglia was not quickly lost and its almost inaccessible
situation, buried deep in the marshes of the fens, presented many attractions
to those royal and noble exiles, who sought refuge from the storms of state
and perplexities of existence. Here in 699 came the princely youth Guthlac,
type of the striving, wistful spirit of his age, attracting pilgrims of all degrees
to his island sanctuary by the report of his piety and austerity. On the par-
tition of the Mercian diocese^ by Theodore in 680 this district came under
the bishop whose see was established at Leicester, but the final separation
from the mother diocese of Lichfield was not fully accomplished till the year

737- . . ^

The northern division of the county, to return to Lindsey, first obtained

a bishop of its own in 678. In that year, Ecgfrid of Northumbria " proceeded
by the advice of Archbishop Theodore to sub-divide the huge diodese presided
over by Wilfrid of York, and having subdued Mercia, and driven out Wulphere,
he set up a new and separate bishopric for the province of Lindsey, and
caused Eadhed to be consecrated its first bishop.' Bishop Saxulf retired from
Lindsey, but retained Mercia and the Middle Angles under his superintend-
ence. The rule of Eadhed was cut short in the following year when the
Mercian king Ethelred again wrested Lindsey from Northumbria.* North
Lincolnshire nevertheless continued a succession of bishops of its own, and
Ethelwin ' of the English nobility ' was consecrated to the deserted see in 680.^
The bishop was of a family already well connected in these parts, his brother
Aldwine being abbot of Partney, and his sister ./Ethelheld the venerable abbess
of a neighbouring monastery.* He fixed his see at ' Sidnacester ' ^ and ' long
ruled the diocese worthily.' °

Bede records the names of Eadgar the third bishop, and of Cyneberht,
who died in 732,' and was succeeded by Alwig, consecrated by Archbishop
Tatwin in 733.'° Alwig was present at the council of Clovesho in 747, and
signed as episcopus Lindissae provintiae}^ On his death in 750 he was followed
by Eadulf, his deacon,^*" who in turn was succeeded in 767 by Ceolwulf, in
whose time the see of Sidnacester was placed under the primacy established
for a brief period at Lichfield by the council of Cealchyth in 787." His
successor Eadulf, consecrated in 796, was present at the council of Clovesho
in 803, which put an end to the Mercian archbishopric.^* Berhtred, conse-

' Stubbs considers it conclusirely fixed that the northern fens came under the superintendence of Mercian
bishops from the time of the conversion of Mercia by the fact that St. Guthlac received the rite of ordination
from Bishop Headda of Lichfield. ' Foundation and Early Fasti of Peterborough ' v/r^i. Joum. rviii, p. 107

" The baffled husband of St. Ethcldreda.

' Bede, Ecd. Hist. lib. iv, cap. xii ; Vita mifridi. Hist. ofCh. of York (Rolls Ser.), cap. xx.

' Bede, Eccl. Hist. lib. iv, cap. xii.

' Ibid. He is said to have received instruction while resident in Ireland, at that time the favourite
resort of godliness and learning. Ibid. lib. iii, cap. xxvii.

^ This establishment at Skendleby appears to have been a double monastery, i.e. for men and women
presided over by an abbess, after the example of Whitby. On the occasion of one of her visits to Bardney
Queen Osthryda bestowed on her friend the abbess who came to visit her some of the sacred dust of St. Oswald
enclosed in a casket. Ibid. lib. iii, cap. xi.

' Generally, but without direct evidence, identified with Stow. ' Ibid. lib. iii, cap. xxvii.

' Ibid. lib. iv. cap. xii. '" Sim. Dunelm. (Twysden), p. 100.

" Birch, Cart. Saxon, i, 250. " Sim. Dunelm. (Twysden), p. to.

" Wilkins, Concil. i, 152. " Ibid. 166, 167.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

crated by Archbishop Ceolnoth in 838,^ is the last name that occurs before
that dark and gloomy period of the Danish invasion sets in, during which the
episcopal succession in Lindsey vanishes, to re-appear but for a time before it
merges in that of the see of Dorchester, w^hich had existed side by side v^^ith
it for nearly 300 years. Established as the see of Leicester, in 680 as we
have already seen, its first bishop Cuthwine was consecrated in the same year.^
From 692 to 705 the diocese was administered by the exiled Wilfrid of York,'
and in the latter year was again united with the mother see of Lichfield under
Bishop Headda,* On the death of Bishop Aldwine in 737 it was finally separated
from Lichfield, and presided over by a succession of prelates, beginning with
Totta or Torhthelm, Eadberht, Unwona, Werenberht, Hrcthun, Aldred,
Ceolred, Alcheard, Ceolwulf, Winsige, Oskytel, translated to York in 958,
and Leofwine, who filled up the gap in the episcopal succession of Lindsey by
the union of the two sees.' As bishop of Lindsey he signed acts in 953 and
965 ; his successor Sigeferth did the same in 997 and 1004,' but only the
bare title remained, all reality of episcopal rule in Lindsey had passed away
even as the name was destined to do.' Nor did Leicester itself long survive
the sister see. Leofwine, having accomplished their union, was driven by ever-
increasing pressure from the Danes to fall back on Dorchester, the original
seat of the West-Saxon bishopric, now transferred to Winchester, and this place
continued from that time to be the head of the diocese until it was transferred
to Lincoln after the Conquest.

The Danish invasion was regarded by the thoughtful of that age as the
punishment of Heaven incurred by the sins of a corrupt and enfeebled nation
who having lost the fervour of their early faith, had laid themselves open to attack
from without. In the primitive days of the church, says Roger of Wendover,
' religion shone with so bright a light that kings and queens, princes and
dukes, earls, barons and churchmen alike inflamed with desire of the heavenly
kingdom became monks, recluses, voluntary exiles, forsaking all to follow
their Lord ; but a time succeeded when virtue became so feeble among
them that none could find their equal in treachery and fraud, nothing was
unknown among them save piety and justice, wherefore as a punishment God
sent upon them nations cruel and pagan who spared neither the sex of women
nor the age of infancy.' * To the Danes this district held out peculiar attrac-
tions in the prospect of rich plunder offered by the monasteries of the Fen
country. Previous attacks, however, were but a prelude to the ' thorough '
performance of 869—70, which desolated Lindsey, reduced the monastery of
Bardney to ruins, and left its hundred monks slaughtered amid the ashes of
their home. Kesteven next followed ; the gallant stand made against the
slaughtering army by Earl Algar and his little band of patriots proved but a
temporary check, the enemy did not stay their hand till the work of ruin

' Wharton, Angl. StKr. i, 79. ' Ibid, i, 424 ; Fkrett. Wigprn. i, 242.

' Stubbs, Reg. Sacr. Angl. 5. * Wharton, Angl. Sacr. i, 427-8.

' Flonn. Wigorn. i, 242. ' Stubbs, Reg. Sacr. Angl. 28, 31.

' Roger of Wendover, writing at the close of the twelfth or beginning of the thirteenth century, records
the death of Eadulf I, bishop of Lindsey, and the succession of Ceowulf, adding, ' where these bishops had their
episcopal seat is altogether unknown.' Flores Hut. (Engl. Hist. Soc), i, 237.

* Ibid. 281. Learning, so marked a feature of an earlier century, had become so decayed that Alfred
jn his Preface to Gregory's Pastoral, states that few priests on this side the Humber could understand the
Common Service of the Church, and he knew none south of the Thames who could turn an ordinary piece of
Latin into English. Will, of Malmes. Gesta Regum, ii, 417.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

had been accomplished. Not a church was left standing, nor a religious house
spared throughout the county. To the south at Crowland the only survivor
was a lad who is said by tradition to have carried the tidings of the fate of
his house. ^

After the peace concluded by Alfred in 888, this district, definitely ceded
to the Danes, formed an important part of the Danelagh. The bishop's see
retreated to Dorchester on Thames, for Lindsey, occupied by men of Danish
origin, was now no place for a Christian bishop. The revival of monasticism
under Edgar played but little part in Lincolnshire. Of those early foundations
in this county destroyed by the Danes, Crowland was not rebuilt till 966 ;
Bardney was a post-Conquest restoration ; the history of Barrow as a religious
house with its associations with St. Chad ceased from this time ; of the re-
building of Stow by Eadnoth, the ' good bishop ' of Dorchester, more will be
said later,' Under Canute, church life again sprang into existence, the parish
churches in Lincolnshire, so numerous in the time of Domesday, were pro-
bably largely built during his reign, and that of Edward the Confessor. Canute,
we are told, desired to raise commemorative churches on the scene of his
former battle fields, but his thoughts turned chiefly, as was most natural, to
the fen country with its great monasteries of Ely and Ramsey, where slept
the brave who had fallen at Maldon and Assandun.' Of the immediate
successors of Bishop Leofwine of Dorchester we hear little beyond their con-
nexion with Ramsey and Ely. Eadnoth, or Aelfnoth, appended his signature
to the charter of the foundation of Ramsey by Edgar in 974,* and the men of
Kesteven, with Aescwige their bishop, were present at the consecration of the
church in 991.' Aelfhelm, consecrated in 1002, was succeeded in 1006 by
Eadnoth, the first abbot of Ramsey," who, after the murder of Alphege by the
Danes in 10 12, with Alfhun of London received the body of the archbishop
and gave it burial in St. Paul's, London.^ Four years later the bishop himself
fell by the side of Edmund Ironside at Assandun, whither he had gone ' to
pray for the English army.' * His body was carried to Ely and buried in the
church, the many miracles reported to be wrought there exciting envious
comment from the rival establishment at Ramsey.' Aethelric, consecrated in
1 016, came also from Ramsey, and was buried before the high altar on his
death in 1034.^° Through the favour of Canute he was able to procure many
grants and privileges for his community, his gifts and good deeds being

' Ingulph (Gale), p. 22.

' ' Very few of the religious houses which perished during the Danish wars ever rose again from their
ashes. The cathedral and city monasteries were almost the only exceptions ' ; Stubbs, Chron. and Mem. of
Ric. I. (Rolls Ser.), Introd. i, xviii.

' Freeman, Norman Conquest, i, 487-8. ' dart. Rames. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 58.

' Chron. Abbat. Rams. (Rolls Ser.), 93. ' Ibid. 115. ' Ibid.

' Ibid. 118 ; Chart. Rames. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 172. Abbot Wulfsius of Ramsey was another churchman
who fell on that occasion in 1016.

' The chronicler of Ramsey gives the story of the forcible detention of the body by the monks of Ely as
it was being brought home for burial at Ramsey, the home of his boyhood, according to the bishop's own
desire. The bearers tarried a night at Ely on the way, and being weary slept soundly, but, as they thought,
safely. In the morning, however, the body was gone, and they were told that their hosts considered they had
a greater claim to it, for Eadnoth was their bishop and they intended to keep him {Chron. Rames. [Rolls Ser.],
1 18-19). T^^ ^'y chronicle adds the edifying particular that that 'holy man' Aelfgar, bishop of
Elmham, who had retired from his see to Ely, managed the trick by making the watchers drunk (ibid. Preface,
p. xxxv). Such devices were not uncommon in those days, especially in such hard-drinking districts, and
were regarded as meritorious rather than otherwise. Bishop Aethelric is said to have obtained the promise of
a grant of land from a Dane when in his cups which he forced him to adhere to when sober.
'" Chart. Abbat. Rames. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 173.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

acknowledged by the chronicler of Ramsey to have amply compensated for
the bell which he helped to crack by his bad ringing when a scholar of the
abbey.^ Eadnoth III, known as 'the good bishop' of Dorchester,
succeeded in 1034; like his predecessor he came from Ramsey, and was
high in favour with Canute. Besides large grants to the abbey where he
died in 1049, he restored the minster at Stow so long left in ruins. This
may be noted as constituting the only mention we get of Lindsey during the
rule of bishops, whose sphere of interest seems entirely confined to the
southern district.

On the death of Eadnoth in 1050 ' King Edward,' says the chronicler,
• gave the bishopric to Ulf, his priest, and ill bestowed it, for he performed
nothing bishoplike therein, so that it shames us now to tell more.'' The new
bishop owed his appointment to the blind partiality of the Confessor for
Normans, and managed to retain it by bribes, for he showed himself so unfit
for the post on being sent to Rome to receive confirmation ' that they were
very near breaking his staff' and cancelling the appointment * if he had not
given the greater treasures.' * This worthless occupant of the see held it but
for a brief span ; with Robert of Canterbury and other foreign favourites he
took refuge in flight on the triumphant return of Earls Godwin and Harold
in 1052.* Wulfwig, a Saxon, after some delay was appointed to the deserted
bishopric, and with Leofwine of Lichfield sought consecration over seas in
consequence of well-founded scruples as to the canonical position of Stigand
of Canterbury. During his rule he established a college of secular priests at
Stow on the plan of St. Paul's Cathedral, being assisted in his scheme by the
generous gifts and benefactions of the Lady Godiva, in conjunction with her
husband Earl Leofric of Mercia.' Wulwig was the last bishop of Dorchester
before the Conquest, and his death on 6 December, 1067, created the first
gap in the ranks of the episcopacy since that great event.

The ecclesiastical configuration of the county in the eleventh century
may fairly be gathered from a glance at the Domesday Survey of 1086. In
Lincolnshire, already parcelled out under the parochial system into local areas,
each with its parish church, and presumably its parish priest, the number of
churches mentioned has been estimated at 222,' and as a return of churches
was not specifically within the scope of the Survey, this did not in all proba-
bility represent the total number in existence. The paucity of Lincolnshire
religious foundations is explained by the fact that the monastic system swept
away by the Danes did not fully revive till the days of Henry I and Stephen.''
Among the ninety-two tenants in chief, including the thegns, are recorded the
names of six prelates : the archbishop of York, the bishops of Durham,
Bayeux, Salisbury and Coutances, as well as the bishop of Lincoln ; of four

' Chnn.Rames (Rolls Ser.), 126, 146.

' ji.S. Ciroft. (Rolls Ser.), 140-2. ' Ibid. 143.

* Archbishop and bishop, when the tidings came of the return of the exiles, mounted their horses and
rode through the streets out of the east gate of London, hacking down all who barred their progress. Making
their way to the coast at Walton-on-Naze they came on a ' crazy ship,' and so betook themselves over sea.
Ibid. 132.

' See copy of agreement between the bishop and the earl and his wife under Eynsham ; Dugdale,
Mott. iii. No. iii, p. 14.

' Sir H. Ellis, Introd. to Domesda'^, i, 286. The largest number returned for any county, except Norfolk
with 243, and Suffolk with 364. Ibid. 287.

' Till that time the few houses of Norman foundation appear to have been erected as cells to foreign
houses.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

religious houses : the abbeys of Peterborough, Westminster, Ramsey and
Crowland ; and of one ecclesiastic, Osbern the priest. Besides these tenants
in chief other religious bodies are named as under-tenants : the abbey of
St. Karileph in Maine, holding land under the bishop of Durham in Covenham
and Skidbrook : ^ the canons of Lincoln holding in demesne of the manor
of Welton under the bishop, and jointly with the bishop in Redbourne:^ the
abbot of St. Germain, Selby, holding in Crowle under Geoffrey de Wirce : *
the monks of St. Sever, Avranches,* under-tenants of Hugh de Abrincis in
Hougham. ' Thorold the abbot ' held land in ' Hochtune ' or Houghton in
Spittlegate, Grantham, under Colegrim the Saxon thane.'

To the period immediately succeeding the Norman Conquest the diocese
of Lincoln owes the enormous development and improvement in its organiza-
tion and administration which, welding in a compact whole the disconnected
elements that had hitherto composed its vast area, advanced it into the front
rank as one of the best governed sees in England. On the death of Wulfwig,
the Conqueror proceeded to fill up the vacancy thus created in the see of Dor-
chester with one of his own Norman ecclesiastics, his choice falling on

' Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 430. In the later Roll of Lindsey the monks of Covenham, a cell founded
by the Conqueror at the instance of the bishop of Durham, are returned as tenants in chief in Covenham.

' Again in the later roll the canons have become tenants in chief of 1 4 carucates of land in Welton,
Riseholme and Willingham.

^ The holdings recorded in 1086 may also be compared with the return of landowners in Lindsey made
in the time of Henry I. The archbishop of York, besides his fief in Lindsey, amounting in the twelfth century
roll to 35 carucates 4^ bovates (R. E. C. Waters, Roll of Landowners in parts of Lindsey temp. Hen. I, 10), held
manors at Dowsby, Billingborough, Horbling, North and South Witham, Billinghay and Lavington
in the Kesteven division of the county {Dom. Bk. [Rec. Com.], i, 339-40). The bishop of
Durham, whose estates in Lindsey are returned in the roll as amounting to 56 carucates 4-^ bovates
(Waters, op. cit. p. 10), held manors also at Kirkby Green, Great Gonerby, Pickworth, Kelby in Haydor,
and Evcdon in Kesteven {Dom. Bk. [Rec. Com.], i, 340—1). The estates of the bishop of Bayeux were
already in the king's hand at the time of the Survey (ibid, i, 342). The bishop of Salisbury had no holding in
Lindsey, and is therefore not entered on the roll. The Conqueror bestowed on him lands at Grantham
(which had previously been held by Queen Editha as a royal borough, and was thus claimed by the Conqueror)
belonging to St. Wolfran's church there, with which he endowed two prebends in his own cathedral church
of Salisbury. (See under Salisbury, Chart, of Foundation, Dugd. Mon. viii, 1 294.) The estates of Bishop
Geoffrey of Coutances lay in Canwick and Bracebridge, outside Lindsey {Dom. Bk. [Rec. Com.], i, 343 d.). He
was implicated in the conspiracy of Bishop Odo in favour of Robert of Normandy, and died in 1094. The
bishop of Lincoln, besides large estates in Lindsey, amounting in the roll to 130 carucates 6 bovates,
(Waters, op. cit. p. 10), held manors in Dunsby, Ringstone in Rippingale, Carlby, Corby, Sleaford,
Lobthorpe, Leasingham, Silk Willoughby and Hougham in Kesteven, Gosberton and Cheal near Gosberton, in
Holland, with numerous other sokes and berewicks {Dom. Bk. [Rec. Com.], i, 344-5). The abbey of Peter-
borough's lands lay chiefly in North Lindsey, and the monks held manors besides at Thurlby near
Bourne, Holywell, Osgodby and Walcot by Folkingham, Donnington and Witham on the Hill, with
other sokes and berewicks {Dom. Bk. [Rec. Com.], i, 345-6). Westminster Abbey held the manor of Doddington
near Lincoln with the bcrewick of Thorpe on the Hill (ibid, i, 346). The abbey of Ramsey held manors in
Quarrington and Threckingham (ibid.), granted to them by one Jol in 105 1, and confirmed by the
Confessor (See under Ramsey, Nos. ii, ix, Dugdale, Mo». ii, 555, 559). To the south of the county
St. Guthlac's, Crowland, held I carucate of land with the manor of Holbeach and Whaplode, the berewick of
Spalding, where the monks had forsaken their cell by reason of the cruel oppression of Ivo de Tallibois {Ingulph
[Gale], 94), the manors of Langtoft and Baston, the manor of Dowdyke in Sutterton with berewicks in Drayton
and Algarkirk, and i bovate in Burtoft {Dom. Bk. [Rec. Com.], i, 3461^. At the time of the Survey the abbey
held the Lindsey manor of Bucknall, but is not entered among Lindsey landowners in the later roll. Ingulph,
in his chronicle, gives the interesting particular that his house obtained favour with the commissioners who
completed the Survey, and they were induced not to set down the full value of its possessions {Ingulph [Gale], 79).
The estate of Osbern the priest in the manors of Faldingworth and Binbrook {Dom. Bk. [Rec. Com.], i, 366 d.)
had in the reign of Henry I descended to his son William de Torriant, who held the sheriffs office, like his
father previously (Waters, op. cit. p. 14).

* A house founded by Hugh, earl of Chester, about 1035.

' Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 370</. In the Lindsey Roll of Henry I we also find mention of St. Mary's
Abbey, York ; St. Katharine's, Lincoln, a Gilbertine house founded in the suburbs ; St. Mary's Cathedral
Lincoln ; Spalding Priory, which had then been granted by Ivo de Tallibois as a cell to St. Nicholas of
Anglers ; Covenham Priory ; and Wighale or Werghale Priory in South Kelsey.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

Remigius or Remy, almoner of Fecamp. The wisdom of the selection was
fully justified by results, but the circumstances said to have prompted the
appointment have ever been regarded as a blot on the fame of one of Lincoln's
greatest bishops/

Having firmly established his own position^ Remigius proceeded to devise
various schemes for the improvement of Dorchester as the episcopal seat, in-
cluding the erection of a cathedral there,' till the decision of the council held at
Windsor in 1072 ordaining that bishops should fix their seats in cities and not
in villages* enabled him to take that momentous step in the removal of the
see to Lincoln, which a preliminary trial of Dorchester, ' villa exilis et in-
frequens,' must have convinced him would be necessary for the efficient
administration of the diocese. The actual date when this transference took
place is much disputed,^ the Domesday Survey, which notes the fact of its
accomplishment under Lincoln," omits all reference under Dorchester (Oxon)
to the church so recently the head of the diocese. But whatever the date,
here at Lincoln, a city at that time, says William of Malmesbury, ' emporium
hominum terra marique venientium,' on the hill already occupied by the
Conqueror's castle, having obtained by purchase the grant of a site already
partly consecrated by the earlier church of St. Mary Magdalene,^ the bishop
laid the foundations of the first cathedral of Lincoln, in the stately language
of the chronicler, ' he built a church to the virgin of virgins, strong as the
place was strong, beautiful as the place was beautiful, that it might be as
pleasing to the servants of God, as according to the necessity of the time it
should be invincible to their enemies.'* Like more than one Norman bishop'
Remigius, though himself a monk, seems to have had a somewhat qualified
regard for monasticism, and in connexion with his new cathedral, dedicated to

' William of Malmesbury says that he received the bishopric as the price of the help he afforded to
William at the battle of Hastings (G«/<J Po»/i/C [Rolls Ser.] 312). Eadmer states that he bought the see
{Hist. Nov. [Rolls Ser.], p. 11). Giraldus says that he was elected, as nominally were all William's bishops,
and offers no explanation of the statement of John de Schalby, from whom he derived most of his sources for
the Vita S. Remigii, that it was obtained 'ob certam causam.' Girald. Cambr. vii, 14 ; App. E. p. 193.

' While on a visit to Rome in 107 1 the bishop was suspended by the Pope on a double charge of having
bought the appointment, and of having received consecration at the hands of Stigand. He was reinstated at
the intercession of Lanfranc, to whom he then made profession of canonical obedience. Will, of Malmes.
Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 66 ; Cott. MS. Cleop. E. i.

^ Will, of Malmes. Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), p. 312.

* Ibid. Gesta Regum. (Rolls Ser.), ii. 352.

' Matt. Paris. Hist. Minor. (Rolls Ser.), iii, «. 3 ; Girald. Cambr. O/. (Rolls Ser.) vii, App. E. 1 94.

' ' In qua nunc est episcopatus ' Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 336. The authors of the Diocesan Hist, of Line. (pp.
47—8), have placed it between 1072, when Remigius signed at the council of Windsor as bishop of Dorchester
(Wilkins, Concil. i, 324), and 1075, when at the council of London he attested his signature as 'Lincolniensis
episcopus' (Ibid. p. 364). As Lincoln is not mentioned at the later council among the sees yet to be trans-
ferred, the inference would be that the change had already taken place.

' Hen. of Huntingdon, Hist. Angl. (Rolls. Ser.), 212. The parishioners of St. Mary Magdalene had
their church in the nave of the cathedral and were entitled to have their children baptized in the cathedral
font, and their dead buried in the cemetery of the cathedral (Girald. Cambr. Op., John de Schalby, App. E.
vii, pp. 194-5), till two centuries later when Bishop Sutton built a chapel for them on a site which he had
procured outside the cathedral. Ibid. p. 209.

° Hen. of Huntingdon, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 212. The royal charter of the Conqueror, confirming
the transference of the see to Lincoln ' by the authority and counsel of Alexander the Pope, and Lanfranc the
Archbishop,' bestowed on the church his two manors of Welton and Sleaford, the three churches of Kirton,
Caister and Wellingore with their lands and tithes, and the two churches in Lincoln of St. Lawrence and
St. Martin ; the king fiirther confirmed to the bishop the manor of Leicester, the gift of Earl Waltheof, and
the manor of Woburn, which the king had bestowed with the pastoral staff, as well as the four churches of
Bedford, Leighton, Buckingham, and Aylesbury, previously held by the bishops of Dorchester. Dugdale, Mon.
under Lincoln, viii. No. iii, p. 1 270.

' Samson, bishop of Worcester (1096-1112), much displeased his own chapter and the monastic order
generally by replacing secular canons at Westbury. Green, Hist, and Antiq. of Wore. p. 182.

292

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

the Virgin Mary, 'virgini virginum,' he established a community of secular
canons constituted after the model of the church of Rouen/ with twenty-
one canonries, to each of which he allotted a share or prebend of the
estates of the church as an endowment.'' On the other hand he re-built
the secular college at Stow, established by his predecessor "Wulfwig and
fallen to decay, and re-organized it as a house of Benedictine monks
under the rule of Abbot Columbanus,* The re-building of Bardney,
which for two centuries had lain in ruins, has also been attributed to him,
but was more properly the work of Gilbert de Gant between the years
1086 and 1089.*

The transfer of the see to a stronger base was not effected without diffi-
culty and the encounter of strong opposition on the part of Thomas of York,
who claimed Lindsey as subject to the northern primacy and regarded the step
as a usurpation of his rights,^ The claim was abandoned temporarily in con- '
sequence of the decision in 1072 of the Council of Windsor to whom the
question had been referred by the pope,' but was not finally disposed of till
the next reign. The bishop's other scheme for the better administration of
the diocese was necessitated generally by the Conqueror's great measure
separating the secular from the ecclesiastical courts, but he appears to have
been the first prelate to inaugurate the new development. He divided
the diocese up into districts, over each of which he placed an official, known
before the Conquest as the bishop's deputy, his archdeacon or ' eye,''' who now
under the new order of things became a territorial officer with definite
functions, holding courts and presiding over an area for which he was made
personally responsible to the bishop. The seven archdeaconries thus created,
corresponding roughly with the counties within the area of the diocese, were
Lincoln, Buckingham, Bedford, Leicester, Huntingdon, Northampton, and
Oxford.' The archdeaconry of Stow was established later, and the date of its
creation is very uncertain.' The establishment of rural deaneries following
the hundred is also assigned to this period, and mention is made of them in

' Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Sen), vii, 19.

* Ibid.

' Will, of Malmes. Gesta Ponttf. (Rolls Ser.), 312. See Dugdale, Mon. under Eynsham, iii, Nos. vii,
viii, pp. 14, 15.

* Ibid. The bishop's signature appears on the charter of its refoundation. Dugdale, Mon. under Bard-
ney, No. ii, p. 629.

' The claim so long put forward by York to the see of Lindsey was not without some shadow
of reason. The bishopric of Lindsey was created at a time when the province by a political fluctuation formed
part of the kingdom of Northumbria, and for this reason it might fairly be claimed as a sec carved out of the
Northumbrian diocese on its sub-division. The neighbouring county of Nottingham was until quite recent
years included under the northern primacy. Giraldus speaks of the transfer to Lincoln as a step which prac-
tically secured the acquisition of this district to the see of Dorchester and the province of Canterbury. Girald.
Cambr. Op. (Rolls Ser.), vii, cap. iv.

^ Wilkins, Concil. i, 324. The council definitely upheld the supremacy of Canterbury over York, and
fixed the limits of the latter province to the district north of the Lichfield diocese on the west, and to the
Humber on the east.

' ' The first person who occurs as archdeacon,' says Stubbs, ' is Wulfred who became archbishop of Can-
terbury in 805, and who is so given in a charter of his predecessor. The office of the deacon or bishop's
officer of Bede's period is purely ministerial.' Const. Hist. \, 267, note 3.

»Hen. of Hunt. De Contemptu Mundi (Rolls Ser.), p. 312. Henry also gives the names of the
various archdeacons, and of some of their successors. Richard was the first archdeacon of Lincoln and
after him came William of Bayeux, and Robert the Younger, ' of all the archdeacons in England he was the
richest.'

' The first mention of an archdeacon of the West Riding, as that part was then called in the
Lindsey Roll temp. Hen. I, occurs in 11 38. Dioc. Hist, of Lincoln (S.P.C.K.), p. 51.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

the councils of 1 1 08, 1 195, and 1200,' but the date when their territorial
limits were fixed is uncertain.^

Nor did Remigius confine his attention only to schemes of organization
and administration ; he endeavoured by all means within his power to raise
the moral tone of his flock, then at a very low ebb according to Giraldus/ a
very unreliable authority, however. He traversed the whole district, preaching
and teaching ' from end to end,' penetrating into every quarter, and did not
cease until he had as far as was possible eradicated the enormities of his flock
and 'as a good pastor and not a hireling having uprooted vices had set virtues
in their place.'* The author of the Vita S. Remigii enlarges on his piety,
humility, and above all his charity, and says that alone among the English
bishops of that period he showed himself ' the defender of orphans, the sustainer
of the afflicted.'' In weighing the character of Remigius much depends on the
point of view from which he is judged. The claims to sanctity preferred for
him by later writers are based, as all modern critics seem agreed, on very insuffi-
cient grounds, but his claim to gratitude and respect as a warm-hearted and
active prelate rests on a very sure foundation. He falls below the standard
that humanity upholds ever for the saint, but rises in estimation as a statesman
and organizer whenever the critical test is applied to his work. There is
something of significance in the fate which obliged him to have recourse at
the close of his career to the means he had employed at its outset. Being
opposed ° in his desire to see the dedication of the great cathedral as the seal
of his life work, Remigius obtained from the unworthy Rufus, at the
price of a timely bribe, a mandate ordering the magnates and bishops of the
kingdom to assemble for the ceremony.^ By bribery Remigius had secured
the position which years of strenuous and devoted work had made good, and
now by bribery he endeavoured, and more excusably, to secure the accom-
plishment of his last desire. The day for the ceremony to take place was
fixed for 9 May, 1092, all preparations were completed, the guests had
assembled,* but he who should have been the centre figure on the occasion
lay cold in death having passed away three days previously,* leaving the

' London, I lo8 (Wilkins, Concil. i. 388) ; York, 1 195 (ibid. p. 502) ; and London, 1200 (ibid. p. 505).

' Many [rural] deans are mentioned in charters belonging to the cathedral, and dating about i zoo, but
in no case do- they seem to have territorial designations except ' the deans of the city of Lincoln.' Sometimes, a
little later, they are called deans of the place where they lived. Thus ' William the dean of Redbourne,' vicar
of Redbourne, became vicar of Hibaldstovir, 1223, and is still called 'William the dean.' See Hist. Notes con-
cerning the Deanery of Corringham, by the Rev. C. Moor.

' Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Ser.), vii, 20. ' They would sell,' says Giraldus, * their sons to slavery and
their daughters to prostitution. Perjury, adultery, and incest they counted as little, promiscuity and illegiti-
macy even as nothing.'

* Ibid, vii, p. 20.

' Ibid. p. 15, 'He was short of stature,' says Henry of Huntingdon, commenting on the contrast afforded
by his insignificant exterior and powerful personality, 'but great of heart, swarthy in complexion, but comely
in deeds.' Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 212 ; Will, of Malmes. Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 313.

' By the archbishop of York, who still regarded Lincoln as standing within his jurisdiction.

' Roger de Hoveden (Rolls Ser.), i, 145.

* Save one, Robert of Hereford, the friend of Wulfstan the saintly bishop of Worcester, who, con-
vinced by a study of the stars that the dedication would not take place in the lifetime of Remigius, remained
at home. Will, of Malmes. Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 165.

' Florence of Worcester, Simon of Durham, and Roger de Hoveden state that the consecration was fixed
for 9 May, and that Remigius died two days before. Diceto says he died two days before the consecration
which was fixed for 10 May. William of Malmesbury and Henry of Huntingdon state that he died one day
before that fixed for the consecration, but do not give dates, and Giraldus says he died on 6 May, being
Ascension Day, and also the day of St. John ' ante portam Latinam,' or four days before the consecration.
Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Ser.), vii, 21.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

concourse to bury him hastily and disperse, the cathedral to be consecrated
by his successor. With many great and endearing qualities Remigius yet
missed the grace of sanctity, as his cathedral spite of all his efforts lacked
the glory of its dedication.

The twelfth-century bishops who succeeded Remigius bring before
us men of secular aim and character, whose weight and ability left their
mark on the history of the country but did little for the advancement
of religious life within the diocese. Robert Bloet, chancellor of Rufus, was
not appointed till his illness at Gloucester, in Lent, 1093, drove the rapacious
king to fill up those vacant sees whose revenues he had been plundering;^
even then the bishop's consecration was delayed for another year.' The
unfavourable reports of Bloet circulated by later chroniclers, and mainly
based on the earlier account of William de Malmesbury,' can generally be
traced back to the umbrage given by the bishop to various parties in the
state. The removal of the monks from Stow to Eynsham and the annexa-
tion of the manor to the episcopal see * roused the enmity of the monastic
party, while the separation and erection of Ely into a new and independent
diocese, offended a large section who regarded a bishop's see as a lay fee to
be handed down intact to successors, though the change can hardly with
fairness be charged to Bloet, as it appears to have been brought about ' by the
will and violence of the king.' ' However unjustly earned, his reputation
until recent years years has found permanent record in the derisive effigy on
the west front of Lincoln Cathedral known as the ' Swineherd of Stow.*
Probably the most correct impression of Bloet may be gathered from the
account of Henry of Huntingdon, his archdeacon, to whom we owe a vivid
picture of the pomp and magnificence attending the court of one of the
wealthiest prelates in England.'^ The archdeacon gives us an anecdote which
reveals unmistakably the mind and temper of one described as ' the father of
the fatherless and the delight of his own friends,' who yet ' overmuch loved
and cherished this world.' * The bishop had resigned the chancellorship on
his promotion to Lincoln, but was justiciar under Henry I, and in the
later part of his life was much harassed by the machinations of a justiciar
of inferior rank and standing and by fines imposed on him by the king. On
one occasion, the archdeacon being seated by him at table, the bishop was
observed to shed tears, and on inquiry being made as to the reason said,
' Formerly those waiting on me were wont to be dressed in rich apparel, but now,
owing to the fines imposed by the king whose favour I have sought, they are

' A. S. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 196. Lincoln on the death of Remigius had been handed over to Ralph
Flambard, Rufus's evil genius. Ann. Man. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 37.

' Owing to the continued opposition of Thomas of York, who now claimed the right to consecrate
bishops of Lincoln as belonging to the northern primacy, recourse was had to the usual bribe and the king
thereupon summoned Anselm to Hastings, where Bloet's consecration took place in the chapel of St. Mary within
the castle, 12 February, 1094. The archbishop of York was eventually brought to relinquish his claim and
to receive as compensation rights of patronage over the abbeys of St. Germain, Selby, and St. Oswald of
Gloucester. Dugdale, Mot. vi, 1271. Under Lincoln, No. v. '

3 Considerably modified in a later edition of the Gesta Ponttficum Anglorum, but forming the basis of the
attacks of Knighton and others.

* Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Ser.), vii, 32. Matters were not smoothed by the prominent part taken by
Bloet in a petition to the king on the part of the bishops praying that a secular might be appointed to Can-
terbury, and not a regular clergy. A. S. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 218.

' Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Ser.), vii, 32.

^ Represented blowing a horn. Dimock, Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Ser.), vii, Pref. xxvi.

' De Contemptu Mundi (Rolls Ser.), 299. « Ibid. pp. 299-300.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

clad only in lambswool. To comfort and reassure him the archdeacon repeated
words of praise that the king had applied to him in his absence. ' Ah,' sighed
the other, ' the king praises no man unless he has first a mind to ruin him.' ^

On Bloet's death,^ or, in the words of the author of De Contemptu Mundi,
when he had ' left the dreams of this deceitful world and awakened to the true
and everlasting verities,' a candidate for promotion stood ready to the king's
hand, and the Eastertide following, 1123, Henry I, 'for love of the bishop,'
bestowed the vacant see on the nephew of his justiciar the famous Roger
of Salisbury.'

It is not surprising to find that Alexander the Magnificent * presents no
contrast to the prevailing type of mundane prelate of which his uncle Roger
of Salisbury is so striking an example. The chief events of his episcopate
occur in connexion with the civil wars of Stephen's reign, in which the
city of Lincoln played so prominent a part. Notwithstanding his oath of
fidelity to the empress, the bishop appears to have had no scruple in follow-
ing the example of his uncle and transferring his allegiance to Stephen on
the death of Henry.' It was the king's hasty and ill-advised action against
the bishops of Salisbury and Lincoln which turned the scale of fortune
against him. The crisis of affairs came in this manner : the Normans, and
Norman ecclesiastics in particular, were great builders ; Alexander shared the
taste of his age to the full, but the passion, which in his predecessors had
found an outlet in the erection and beautifying of the house of God, in him
as in most of his contemporaries sought expression in the raising of military
works and fortresses. ' Every powerful man made his castles,' says the
chronicler, ' they filled the land full of castles.' ° And in the nineteen
terrible years of Stephen's reign, when want and famine stalked through the
land and oppression and extortion ruled the people, the part played by the
bishops seems little better than that of other freebooting barons, for they
built castles ' quod tamen non erat opus episcoporum,' stored them with arms
and provisions, and filled them with soldiers and archers;^ ' devils ' the Anglo-
Saxon chronicler calls them,' who tortured and cruelly entreated the people
of the land.' A check came at last in the growing jealousy of the lay barons
and the suspicions they contrived to arouse in Stephen. At the Council
of Oxford on 24 June, 1139, the bishops of Salisbury and Lincoln were
on some excuse seized and thrown into prison until they should have com-
plied with the order to surrender their castles." Stephen, to hasten submission

' De Contemptu Mundi (Rolls Ser.), 300.

''It befel,' says the Anglo Saxon Chronicle (Rolls Ser. 217—18), *on a Wednesday, January 10,
1093, that the king was riding in his deer-fold, and the Bishop Roger of Salisbury on one side of him and the
Bishop Robert Bloet on the other; and they were there riding and talking. Then the bishop of Lincoln sank
down and said to the king, " Lord king, I am dying." And the king alighted down from his horse and lifted
him between his arms and caused him to be borne to his inn ; and he was then forthwith dead.'

' Ibid. 2 1 9.

* Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Sen), 33. So named by the greedy officials of the Roman court on
account of his profuse liberality. Hen. of Hunt. Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 253.

' Gesta Stephani (Rolls Ser.), i, 57; iii, 149; Hen. of Hunt. Hist. Jngl. (Rolls Ser.), 260.
« A. S. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 231.

' The charge is specially made against the bishop of Salisbury and his two nephews, Alexander of Lincoln
and Nigel of Ely. Gesta Stephani (Rolls Ser.), iii, 46.

* A. S. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 231. ' Gesta Stephani (Rolls Ser.), iii, loi.

'" Their treatment was most villainous : Roger was thrust into a cow-house, and the bishop of Lincoln
who in addition was charged with inciting his men to an affray with the followers of the count of Brittany,
was confined in a 'vile shed.' Fhren. fVigorn. (Engl. Hist. Soc), ii, 107 ; WUl. of Malmesbury, Hist.
NovelJ. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 548.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

and after securing the bishop of Salisbury's fortress, dragged the unfortunate
Alexander to Newark-on-Trent, and promised him that he should not taste
of food until the castle there had been placed in his hands. The castles of
Sleaford and Banbury followed the fall of Newark,^ and Alexander was left
to reflect sorrowfully on the admonitions put forward by the council that
bishops should devote themselves to the weUare of their flocks rather than to
the building of castles.* As a set off, we are told, to these military erections
the bishop founded the monasteries of Louth Park and Haverholme (Lines.),
Thame (Oxon.), and the house of Austin canons at Dorchester. The brief
account of him given by Giraldus states, however, that he not only con-
tinued the gift of an annual mantle to the king begun by Bloet, but used
the funds of his own church to build these monasteries, thus ' robbing one
altar to clothe another.' '

For the remainder of his episcopate Alexander appears to have been
content to remain quietly in the background. The next mention of him
occurs on the eve of the battle of Lincoln, 2 January, 1141,* from which
Stephen in his turn was carried off a prisoner, the town sacked, and the
citizens slaughtered." Towards the close of his life he began to restore the
cathedral, which had been much mutilated in a previous fire. The work
was carried out in such a manner as to render the church ' more beautiful
than before and second to none in the realm.' ' In 1 147 the bishop started
again for foreign parts, and was honourably received by the pope at Auxerre,
but during this visit he contracted the low fever which brought on his death
after his return in 1 148.^

It is impossible to review the period occupied by the episcopate of
Alexander, and see the part played by this county in the events of Stephen's
reign without being struck by that curious phenomenon, the revival of
monasticism in the midst of that dark and troubled episode in English history.
Yet the incongruity, strange as it may appear, was probably the natural out-
come of that sad time ; ' men said openly,' says the chronicler, ' that Christ
and his saints slept,' * but it is at such times that the devout raise their eyes in
the expectation of a happier day for which they would even now prepare.

It may be recalled that the first mention of an archdeacon of the ' West
Riding,' or Stow, occurs during the episcopate of Alexander, and it has been
conjectured that he founded it.*

Robert de Chesney, ' cujus cognomen est de Quercito,' ^° who succeeded
to Alexander, is said to have been elected by the common voice of the church
of Lincoln." Though still a young man the new bishop as archdeacon of
Leicester had acquired a reputation for virtues not universally attributed to
youth, or characteristic of his predecessors, ' great humility and simpHcity.' ^^

' J. S. Chrm. (Rolls Ser.), 230; Hen. of Hunt. Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), z66.

* Floren. Wigom. (Engl. Hist. Soc), ii, 116, 216.

» Gesta Stefhani (Rolls Ser ), i, 37 ; Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Ser.), vii, 33. The annual charge with
which Bloet saddled his church was finally redeemed by Bishop Hugh in 1194 by the payment of a large
sum of money. Magna Vita S. Hugonis (Rolls Ser.), 183-7 ; Roger de Hoveden, Chron. (Rolls Serl iii ^ol

* Hen. of Hunt. H«/.^»^/. (Rolls Ser.), 271. *• » ^"-^ "i, 3°3-
' Ord. Vital. (Bohn Antiq. Lib.), iv, 2 ; Will, of Malmes. Hist. Novell. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 570.

' The walls were vaulted with a stone vault in a fashion hitherto unknown to England. Hen of Hunt
Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 278-9 ; Roger de Hoveden, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 208.

' Hen. of Hunt. Hist. Angl (Rolls Ser.), 250. « A. S. Chron. (Rolls Ser) 231

' Dioc. Hist, of Line. (S. P. C. K.), 51. '« Hen. of Hunt. Hist. Angl (Rolls Ser ^ 28,

" Ralph de Diceto, Abbrev. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 258. » Ibid. ' ''

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

The great event of his rule, the ever memorable struggle between Henry I
and Becket, served however to bring out his cardinal defects, a failure to
grasp the importance of spiritual claims and the absence of a lofty conception
of duty. Henry II, acting upon the advice given him early in the conflict
by Ernulf of Lisieux to detach some of the bishops from the archbishop's
party and thus break up the solid wall of support on which Becket was
relying, summoned to him at Gloucester the three whom he considered most
pliant, Roger of York, Robert of Hereford, and Chesney of Lincoln, and
induced them to desert to his side.* The advice tendered by this ' man of
simplicity and less discretion ' at the Council of Northampton in October,
1 1 64, shows an almost irritating lack of comprehension of the issues at stake.
' It is clear,' he remarked, ' that the life of this man and his blood are sought
after, and it comes to this, that he must yield either the archbishopric or his
life, and what use his archbishopric is to be to him if he lose his life I do
not see.' During the interview which the king allowed the bishops to have
with their metropolitan on the last day of the council in order that they
might induce him to yield, Robert of Lincoln is said to have ' wept con-
tinuously.' ' He was sent by the king to the Roman court to complain of
Becket's conduct,' but did not live to see the final tragedy ; ' a man of great
humility ' he passed away to the Lord on 29 December, 11 66.*

The death of Chesney was followed by an interval of nearly seventeen
years in which the church of Lincoln was practically without a pastor.'
The appointment of Geoffrey Plantagenet, natural son of Henry II, in 1173,
was merely a device to enable the king to retain the bishopric while
apparently yielding to remonstrances from Rome." Geoffrey held the arch-
deaconry of Lincoln at the time of his ' election,' but was barely twenty years
of age nor yet in priest's orders,^ and there seems to have been no intention
that he should proceed to consecration or act the part of more than nominal
head.' This semblance however ended in 1 1 8 1 , f or on being brought to the
point either to be ordained or resign his office, Geoffrey to his credit chose
the latter alternative and wrote to the archbishop of Canterbury declaring
his intention of resigning, fearing ' to impose on my youth a burden too
heavy even for those of elder years.' A similar letter to the canons of
Lincoln, renouncing all rights of his election, followed, and the formal resig-
nation of the see was publicly announced at Marlborough, on the Feast of
the Epiphany, 1182.'

' Materials for Life of Becket (Rolls Ser.) ; Will, of Cant, i, 14 ; Edto. Grim, ii, 377 ; Anonym, iv, 30.
' Gervase of Cant. (Rolls Ser.), i, 183 ; Materials for Life of Becket (Rolls Ser.), ii, 327 ; iii, 65 ;

iv, 3H-

^ Jnn. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 381. * Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Ser.), vii.

' Jnn. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 33. ' Epist. {Materials for Life of Becket), [Rolls Ser.], vi, 460.

' Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 363.

' William de Newburgh rather unfairly charges the young man with being content to delay consecration
as long as he could enjoy the fruits of his benefice, ' knowing not how to feed the Lord's sheep though apt at
fleecing them.' Gesta Stephani (Rolls Ser), i, 154.

' Bened. Abbas, Gi»//a Hen. Sec. (Rolls Sen), i, 271-2. GeofFrey'schief title to respect and consideration
lies in the loyalty he manifested towards his father, in marked contrast to the behaviour of Henry's other children.
On the rebellion of the sons abroad in 1172, followed by the rising of the disaffected barons in the north,
Geoffrey rallied the men of Lincolnshire round him, and mustering his tenants seized the castle of Roger
de Mowbray at Kinnardsferry in the isle of Axholme, joined forces with the archbishop of York, and
forced the king of Scots to retire northwards. He then, the rebellion crushed, met his father at Huntingdon
where he was greeted with words of grateful recognition from the king, ' base born have my other children
showed themselves to me, this one alone has proved himself my very son.'

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

The next occupant of the see spent so short a time at Lincoln that his
connexion with the diocese can be described only as a brief episode. Walter de
Coutances had been employed by Henry II in various embassies, and held at
different times the offices of chancellor and seal-bearer {archisigillarius) to the
king.^ He was consecrated to Lincoln by the archbishop of Canterbury at
Angers, 3 July, 1183, having previously received ordination as a priest at the
hands of John, bishop of Evreux.* He did not visit his diocese till the
following December, but was then received by the clergy and people ' cum
hymnis et canticis.' His advent indeed did much to allay the feeling of general un-
easiness, which found expression in the prophecy that there should never again
be a bishop of Lincoln, but his stay was of too short duration to effect much
more. The bishop, promoted the following year to the archbishopric of
Rouen,* hesitated long, we are told, between the pre-eminence of Rouen and
the wealth of Lincoln, but counsels of ambition finally prevailed.* His con-
nexion with this diocese ceased with his enthronement at Rouen, 24 May,
1 185, after a rule lasting only one year, eleven weeks and five days.' It is
interesting to note how close up to this time was the connexion of the Church
of England with the continent, so that no incongruity was observed in
an exchange which gave a Walter de Coutances to Rouen and secured a
St. Hugh of Grenoble to Lincoln.

With the next occupant of the see the diocese entered on a fresh phase
and inaugurated a type of pastor hitherto almost unknown to it. Under the
successors of Remigius, who had striven to emulate the power and magnifi-
cence of temporal princes, the see had become not merely one of the largest
but one of the richest in England, but till we come to Hugh of Grenoble,
there is little evidence of care on the part of bishops for the spiritual welfare
of their flocks. The view taken by contemporary writers of the moral and
religious condition of the church in the twelfth century is a very gloomy one,
and as the severest strictures on the clergy of that period come from the pen of
two writers,' who had special means of local information as to this district,
it may be inferred that this county was no exception to the general rule.
The bishops at that time, characterized roundly by Giraldus as 'hirelings and
not true shepherds,'^ are represented as unscrupulous in the extortion of fees,
shameless in diverting to themselves all the secular offices they could lay their
hands on, indifferent on whom they bestowed benefices, and, according to the
archdeacon, directly responsible for the low state of the beneficed clergy by
their neglect to examine candidates presented to them for ordination and to
make inquiry into their general fitness.* As for the archdeacons, so associated
had they become with every sort of oppression and robbery that Giraldus
remarks, the very name of archdeacon sounded like ' archdevil ' in the

' Ralph de Diceto, T'maginej Hist. (Rolls Ser.), i, 367 ; ii, 4, 14.

' Bened. Abbas, Gesta Hen. Sec. (Rolls Ser.), i, 299, 304-7.

' Roger de Hoveden, droit. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 284. ' Gej/a Stepkani (Rojds Ser.), i, 236.

* Ralph de Diceto, Tmapnes Hut. (Rolls. Ser.), ii, 21, 33.

° Giraldus Cambrensis, archdeacon of St. David's, who during the time spent in study at Lincoln
towards the close of the century wrote the Lives of the Bishops of Lincoln and his famous treatise, ' Gemma
Ecclesiastica ' giving a lively picture of the English as well as of the Welsh clergy to whom it was specifically
addressed. Walter de Mapes, the well known satirist of the twelfth century, held at one time the office
of precentor of the cathedral, and in 1 196 was made archdeacon of Oxford. He addressed himself par-
ticularly to the vices of the monastic orders.

' Speculum Eccl. Op. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 3 1 2.

' Gemma Eccl. Op. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 294, 300, 334.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

popular ear,^ The rural clergy and parish priests, harassed by the rapacity
of greedy officials, resorted in like manner to the most doubtful expedients
in order to supplement their scanty stipends and scrape up a living.^
Examples of their dense ignorance and illiteracy furnish Giraldus with some
of his most amusing anecdotes, while the practice of keeping '■focaria ' if we
are to believe him, and the later constitutions of Wells and Grosteste confirm
the report, had become almost universal in spite of repeated canons enforcing
the celibacy of the clergy.*

Such we may suppose was the general state of the diocese on whose
direction Hugh entered in 1186.* He lost no time in attacking some of its
crying abuses, and in the very first year of his consecration published a set of
synodal decrees which incidentally confirm many of the charges brought against
the clergy/ The biographer of the bishops of Lincoln, after setting forth St.
Hugh's singular immunity from covetousness and simony, states that inhis virtues
he stood alone among the bishops." In spite of many outside demands, his activity
concentrated itself mainly on the work of his huge diocese. It has been pointed
out that he avoided when he could being mixed up in purely secular matters,^
and that the many stories related of him occur mostly ' while the bishop is
riding hither and thither ' engaged in the pastoral execution of his office."
Two points to which he particularly directed his attention were the consecra-
tion of churches and the holding of confirmations. He endeavoured to
restore the reverent administration of the latter rite by refusing to confirm from
on horseback, as appears then to have been very general. Many instances are
recorded of his unwearying devotion in the care of the sick and the reverent
burial of the dead.' With the object of restoring the ancient custom of the

' Gemma Eccl. Op. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 325.

' The archdeacon devotes much time to exposing many of their devices for the object of gain : the
multiplication of Gospels, the sale of masses, the exaction of fees for obits, trading on the superstitious credulity
of the ignorant by encouraging the multiplication of anniversaries and tricennaries, degrading the service of
the Holy Eucharist into a source of pecuniary profit to themselves. Gemma Eccl. Op. (Rolls Ser.), ii,
130,137,281.

^ Speculum Eccl. Op. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 211. Marriage of the clergy is shown to have been common by
many early Lincoln charters (cf Mr. Massingberd's papers in Assoc. Arch. Soc. Rep.). Henry I nullified all
the efforts of the bishops to enforce the observance of the canon in 1 1 29 by allowing the clergy to retain
their wives on payment of a large sum of money on the plea that it was an ancient custom. The
amount which he got for this exemption shows how common was the nature of the offence (Matt. Paris,
Hisl. Minor [Rolls Ser.], i, 242). During the interdict John vented his spite against the clergy by seizing
their 'focaria' and holding them up to ransom (ibid, ii, 1 11). That it still lingered is shown by the fact
that it was made the subject of a special inquiry by Bishop Grosteste. Grosseteste Epist. (Rolls Ser.), 3 1 7.

* The contempt of the proud and wealthy canons of Lincoln on the king's nomination of an obscure
individual like the prior of the Carthusian house of Witham (Somers.) was rapidly changed to astonishment when
Hugh refused the honour they deemed too high for him on the ground that the election had been forced, and was
therefore uncanonical. This objection they proceeded at once to remove by a second and unanimous choice,
but even then Hugh declined to leave Witham until the consent of h !s superior, the prior of the Grande
Chartreuse, had been obtained. Bened. Abbas, Gesta. Hen. Sec. (Rolls. Ser.), i, 345, 346; Magna Vita
S. Hugo. (RoUs Ser.), 104.

' That gifts should be neither offered nor received for the purpose of hastening or obtaining the process
of justice. That priest-vicars should neither ask nor give anything for their offices. That archdeacons and
their officials should not presume to suspend or excommunicate any church or ecclesiastic without due trial.
That the celebration of masses should not be inflicted as a penance on any layman or any person not in holy
orders. That anniversaries and tricennaries and fixed masses should not be celebrated for temporary gain.
That no one should be admitted to the priestly office until proof had been offered that he was canonically ordained
by the archbishop of Canterbury ox one of his suffragans. That all holding ecclesiastical benefices should
wear the tonsure and ecclesiastical crown. That no clerk should sue another clerk in a secular court for an
ecclesiastical cause. Bened. Abbas, Gesta Hen. Sec. (Rolls Ser.), i, 357. From the absence of comment we
may infer that Hugh made no violent stand against the ' clerici uxorati ' of his day.

* Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Ser.), vii, 42. ' Dimock, Pref. to Magna Vita (Rolls Ser.), xxxii.
' Pref. to Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Ser.), vii, Ixiv. 'Ibid, vii, 98-9, 102, 107, 175.

2 17 3

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

annual pentecostal visit of the faithful to Lincoln, as the mother-church of
the diocese, he instructed his archdeacons to summon the rural deans and the
clergy to recall to their parishioners the duty of sending a representative from
every house to Lincoln to make their annual offerings.^ He took pains to admit
worthy men only to the benefices in his diocese'' as w^ell as to the stalls in
his cathedral.* It w^as a pleasant and thoughtful custom of his to invite the
parish priest to dine with him wherever he might be stopping in the course
of his travels.*

One can refer but briefly to the part played by Hugh in the political
and ecclesiastical game of his day, strictly subordinated as it was to his immediate
work in the diocese. If Henry II had expected by the promotion of a
simple monk to gain a tool willing to adapt himself to his master's schemes,
he was speedily undeceived. In Hugh, whose chief characteristic seems to
have been a hatred of oppression and extortion rampant in all classes," the
spiritual fervour and personal abnegation of the true ascetic were mixed with
the keen worldly wisdom and happy tact of the trained man of the world.
These qualities, somewhat rare in combination, were called into requisition
not long after his promotion. For the bishop being brought up against the
iniquitous game laws of the period proceeded to excommunicate no less a
person than the king's chief forester for some act of oppression," indignantly
declined to soothe the royal anger by acceding to a request for a vacant
prebend to be given to a court favourite,'^ and on being summoned to meet
Henry at Woodstock managed to induce the angry monarch by good-
humoured and fearless address to hear his reasons and finally approve his
actions.* This was not the only occasion in his career where ready wit and
a fine courage preserved Hugh from what seemed to promise absolute
destruction. As he had not feared to oppose the exactions of the father, he
was fearless in withstanding the demands of the son. The daring declaration
that the church of Lincoln was only bound to perform military service
within the limits of the realm of England,' with which Hugh stood

■ Pref. to Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Ser.), App. E, 200. ' Magna Vita (Rolls Ser.), 121-4, 246-7.

' Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Ser.), App. E, 200. * Magna Vita (Rolls Ser.), 2+2-3.

' On the very day of his enthronement he refused to pay the archdeacon of Canterbury the perquisites
he was accustomed to exact for installing a bishop. At the same time he was the reverse of mean in his
orders for the entertainment to be supplied at his installation feast. Three hundred deer were to be taken
from his park at Stow, and ' if that should not be sufficient take more ' he added, the words becoming a
standing joke at court (ibid. 1 14-15).

* Ibid. lib. iii, cap. iv. The fact that this official, after receiving public chastisement for his offence
became one of the bishop's staunch friends, shows the charm that Hugh possessed with all his severity

'Ibid. 126.

' Ibid. cap. X. On his arrival at Woodstock the bishop found Henry with his court seated in a wood-
land glade. By the king's orders no notice was taken of his approach, no one returned his salutation or offered
to make place for him. Undaunted, however, Hugh laid his hand on the shoulder of the lord nearest the king,
forced himself into the circle, and sat down silent as the rest. Henry, after a time, seeing that he could make
nothing at a game of silence with a Carthusian, but with looks of evident displeasure, called for needle and
thread and began to mend a finger-stall on a wounded finger. The bishop perceiving that speech was now
possible, turned to the king and said pleasantly, ' Now, how like you are to your kinsfolk of Falaise ! ' Henry burst
out laughing at this, to say the least, uncourtier-like reference to William the Conqueror's connexion through
his mother with the thread-and-needle inhabitants of the Norman town, and then proceeded to explain the
nature of the joke to the astonished court.

' The proposals put forward at the Council of Oxford, December, 1197, were that the barons, among
whom were included the bishops, should maintain a force of 300 knights to aid the king in his foreign wars
Roger de Hoveden {Chron. [Rolls Ser.], iv, 40) and Giraldus Cambrensis {Op. [Rolls Ser.], vii, 103) state
erroneously that Hugh stood alone in opposing this demand which was supported by the archbishop of
Canterbury, his example in refusing was followed by Herbert of Salisbury {Magna Vita [Rolls Ser.] lib v
cap. v). ' '

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

out against the impositions of Richard I at Oxford, has been described as ' a
landmark in constitutional history, the first clear case of refusal of a money
grant demanded directly by the crown.' ^ As on a previous occasion the
bishop's coolness and courage in the interview which followed with his
sovereign brought the incident, as far as the direct issue was concerned, to a
happy conclusion.^

A sketch of the bishop would be incomplete that did not touch on the
more tender and intimate side of his character ; ^ his love of children who
also loved him ; * his friendship with bird and beast, recalling familiar stories
of saints of the Latin and Celtic races ; ' his care for the sick * and compassion
for the bereaved ; ' the Jews claimed him as a protector * and criminals
turned to him for succour.' Himself an ascetic of restricted diet and simple
habits, he yet clothed his household well, kept a good table,^" promoted mirth,

' Stubbs, P/r/. to Roger de Hoveden (Rolls Ser.), iv, xci.

' The bishop, on an order being issued for the confiscation of his property, crossed the sea and went
straight to Richard whom he found hearing mass in his chapel at Roche d'Andeli. Hugh made his
salutation to the king on entering, and receiving no reponse said, ' Kiss me, my lord king.' Richard turned
his head away, his eyes blazing with fury, whereupon Hugh, seizing him by the vest and shaking him, said,
' You owe me a kiss, for I have come from far to see you.' The king, declining the embrace, said in a surly
manner, ' No, you have not deserved that I should kiss you.' ' Nay, but I have deserved ; you must kiss me,'
replied the bishop, shaking him more vigorously. Finding there was nothing else to be done Richard
yielded, and the bishop addressed himself devoutly to his prayers. At the close of the service the king taking the
pax from the archbishop presented it himself to Hugh. Before leaving the king on the occasion of this visit
it was suggested that Hugh should be the bearer of letters to England demanding an aid from the barons.
This mission he declined, and Richard in consequence refused to see him again, desiring him to return to his
church with the blessing of God and give the king the benefit of his prayers [Magna Vita [Rolls Ser.],
lib. V, cap. V, vi).

' The universal respect for his judgement is shown in the number of times he was selected to arbitrate in
delicate and difficult cases (Roger de Hoveden, Chron. [Rolls Ser.], iii, 279, 287, 305-6). The terror of his
anathema was so great that it was regarded as amounting practically to a sentence of death {Magna Vita
[Rolls Ser.], 251, 263). The instances given of death following his anathema include the parties palming off
a supposititious child (ibid. 173, 176), a forester (ibid. 1 78), an adulterous bride of Oxford (ibid. 181), and
the invaders of a Yorkshire benefice (ibid. 1 8 3).

* Ibid. lib. iii, cap. xiv.

' This friendship with the animal world was characteristic of Hugh throughout his career. At the
Grande Chartreuse the little birds and squirrels he had tamed would come to his cell at the hour of supper
and share his meal, getting up on the table and eating from the dish or his hand (Girald. Cambr. Op. [Rolls
Ser.], vii, 92). A little bird called a ' burneta ' was his special pet at Witham (ibid. 93). The story of the
wild swan of Stow that appeared on the day of Hugh's enthronement at Lincoln, and made friends with him
on his arrival at his manorial residence, is too well known to need repetition. The bird constituted itself the
bishop's guardian when asleep, and would drive away all intruders who sought to approach him. The
neighbours were warned beforehand of the bishop's arrival by the strange and expectant behaviour of his bird
friend (ibid. 73-6). In nearly all pictorial representations of St. Hugh he is accompanied by his famous swan.

' Hugh devoted special attention to the poor lepers in his diocese, not only in the bestowal of alms but
in personal tendance. Rehearsing examples of our Lord's kindness to the wretched and afflicted he would
visit them frequently and even take up a lodging with them. A story is told that his chancellor once
remarked in reproof of his custom of kissing the lepers he met, ' Martin [referring to the saint] by his kiss
healed the leper,' to which Hugh replied, ' Martin by his kiss indeed brought health to the leper in body,
but the leper by his kiss to me restores health to my soul' (Girald. Cambr. Op. [Rolls Ser.], vii, 107—8 ;
Magna Vita [Rolls Ser.], 162-5).

' On one occasion he remitted to a poor woman the payment of the heriot on the death of her
husband, saying, ' This poor woman had two who worked for her. Death has taken from her the one, and
shall we deprive her of the other ? ' Another time he forgave the son of a knight the relief that should
have been paid on his father's death (Girald. Cambr. Op. [Rolls Ser.], vii, 96-7).

° Perhaps the most touching tribute paid to Hugh was the grief displayed by the Jew community at his
funeral ; weeping and wailing they followed their friend's body, ' declaring he indeed had been a great
servant of the Lord.' Magna Vita (Rolls Ser.), 373.

' As he was passing through the territory of the abbey of St. Albans on his way to Normandy in the
spring of 1 1 29, he met a thief on his way to the gallows who threw himself at the bishop's feet and
implored his mercy. Hugh immediately released the man from the officers of justice declaring that a bishop
could himself exercise the Church's right of sanctuary (ibid. 277-8).

'° Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Ser.), vii, 106. He was fond of saying to those about him, ' Eat well and
drink well and serve God well.'

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

and enjoyed a fair jest.^ The current superstitions of the age found no
sympathiser in him, indeed the attitude he displayed towards alleged
miracles was singularly in advance of current thought and opinion.'
In the midst of an active career he never lost his love of the monastic
retirement he had quitted for a larger stage. It was his habit to
retire once a year to Witham, where a cell was always reserved for him, and
to remain there for a month or two at a time, laying aside all state and
becoming again the simple monk, conforming to the rules of his order and
undertaking its menial duties.^ In the last year of his life it was granted to
him to revisit the scenes of his boyhood and earlier manhood. Having kept
the Easter of 1 200 at Stow,* he crossed over in May to Normandy at John's
special request to negotiate the ratification of a treaty with the king of
France.^ An ardent desire for rest seems then to have seized on Hugh, but
he was too valuable a man to be lightly laid aside and the pope was deaf to
his entreaties to be allowed to lay down the burden of office ;* nevertheless
the time was near at hand. His mission completed, he turned his face
homewards to Grenoble, where he was received with deep reverence, and
had the pleasure of greeting members of his own family ; ^ but the return
journey was rendered painful through illness and low fever aggravated by
weakening remedies. London was reached with difficulty, and on arriving at
his house, the Old Temple, 1 8 September, he took to the bed from which he
was not destined to rise.' He lingered on, suffering intense pain and weak-
ness, his last hours troubled by previsions of the evil coming upon the church
and nation, until 17 November, when his prayer for rest was finally granted
and the bishop yielded up his righteous soul.' His body was conveyed
by stages to Lincoln, where it was met by such a throng as had never before
been seen in the city." Borne on the shoulders of the noblest in the realm,
King John, who was present, not disdaining to aid, the corpse of the sainted
bishop was carried into the choir of his cathedral and placed in view of the
crowds who flocked to adore and make offerings." The actual ceremony of
the interment took place the following day, when Hugh was buried near the
altar of St. John Baptist on the north side of the church.'^

The death of Hugh was followed by a vacancy in the see which lasted
more than two years in consequence of the refusal of the chapter to forego
their right of free election and accept a nominee of John." The persistence
of the canons at last gained the day, and they were permitted, in the summer
of 1203, to elect William of Blois, who was accordingly consecrated on

' Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Ser.), vii, 68 ; Magna Vita (Rolls Ser.), 138. • Ibid. 97, 245, 248.

' Ibid. 193-4, 199, 217-38. His fellow monks remarked that he seemed to take as much delight in the
washing of pots and pans as in handling the sacred chalice.

• Ibid. 120. ' Ibid. 299. « Ibid.

' Ibid. 311-19. * Ibid. 325-6. » Ibid. 331, 345.

"> There were present the king of England, three archbishops, nine bishops, and all the great lords of the
kingdom (Girald. Cambr. Op. [Rolls Ser.], vii, 1 14-15).

" Ibid. ; Magna Vita (Rolls Ser.), 371, 377-8.

" The worship of Hugh as a saint dates from the time of his death. In 1 2 1 9 Honorius III ordered
an inquiry to be made into the validity of the alleged miracles wrought by him, and as a result a bull for
the canonization of ' the most blessed and glorious Hugh bishop of Lincoln,' was issued on 1 7 Feb. the
following year.

" John visited Lincoln in January, 120 1, and made an unsuccessful attempt to force an appointment on
the canons (Roger de Hoveden, Chron. [Rolls Ser.], iv. 156). The author of the Magna Vita (p. 234)
incidentally reveals the name of the king's nominee, Roger bishop of St. Andrews, a brother of the earl of
Leicester.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

St, Bartholomew's Day.^ The new bishop was no stranger to the diocese, as
he had held the office of precentor to the cathedral since 1196,^ but his rule
was brief, for he died on the vigil of the Ascension, May, 1206.^ Shortly
before his death we are told the prior of Dunstable received an order to visit
all the religious houses within the diocese with the exception of the
Templars, Hospitallers, Cistercians, and Premonstratensians.* One act of
Bishop William's should not be forgotten, as it heralded the greater work of
his successor: the ordination of a vicarage at Redbourne, 1203-6, the church
of which was held by the abbey of Selby/ It was probably one of the
earliest vicarages established in Lincolnshire.'

Another vacancy of more than three years followed the bishop's death,
while John plundered the revenues of the see/ The promulgation of the
pope's ban in 1208, following his dispute with the king, found the
unfortunate diocese with no head to stand between it and John's fury, and
taking advantage of the fact the king issued letters patent to the clergy and
laity of the diocese of Lincoln stating that from the Monday before Easter
next he had committed to William de Cornhill, archdeacon of Huntingdon,
and to Gerard de Camville the lands and possessions of all abbots and priors,
religious men, and all clerks, who should refuse to celebrate divine offices from
that date, and they should be regardful to them as to the king's bailiffs.*

By promoting Hugh, archdeacon of Wells, the brother of Jocelin bishop
of Bath and Wells,' to Lincoln the following year John doubtless congratulated
himself on gaining another adherent in the episcopal ranks, but his hopes
proved illusory. The bishop obtained permission to receive consecration at
the hands of the archbishop of Rouen, but no sooner got abroad than he
went straight to Langton archbishop of Canterbury, and was consecrated by
him at Melun, 20 December, 1209." This action of course cut him off
from England ; the king again seized on the temporalities which he had
restored, and the bishop remained abroad till the royal charter of submission,
dated 13 May, 12 13, enabled him to return with the exiled primate, and
promised him restitution to the amount of jQjS'~' ^°'' ^^^ wasted revenues
of the see." Eventually 15,000 marks were paid by way of compensation to
the diocese ^* out of a large sum assessed on the royal revenue.

It was not till after his final return to England on the restoration of
peace in 1217,^' that Bishop Hugh was able to carry into final execution the

' Jnn. Mon (Rolls Ser.) ii, 255 ; Matt. Paris, Hist. Minor. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 100.

' Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Ser.), vii, App. E. 202 and note.

' jinn. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 257 ; iv, 394. * Ibid, iii, 29. ' Rev. C. Moor, Hist, of Redbourne, p. 1 2.

* The earliest in England is said to have been established by St. Hugh at Swinford (Leics.) in 1 200.
Cutts, Hist, of Parishes.

' The patent rolls of this period show to what extent the king exercised his right to present to the cathedral
prebends during a vacancy (Pat. 8 John, m. 4 ; 9 John, m. 2, 3, 5, 6 ; 10 John, m. 4, 5). Shortly after the
bishop's death John issued letters patent addressed to all in the diocese exhorting those who had previously
contributed towards the construction of the church of Lincoln to complete their good work by establishing a
collection among themselves and forming a society on the lines of St. Mary's Guild organized by Bishop
Hugh for the benefit of the fabric (ibid. 7 John, m. i). * Ibid. 9 John, m. 2.

9 One of the three bishops who remained steadfast to John's cause in the dispute.

^ Wendover, f /»r« Hist. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 51, 54 ; Matt. Paris, Chron. Magna, (Rolls Ser.), ii, 520-8.

" Ibid. 342-3 ; Wendover, F/ores Hist. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 70-3. " Pat. 15 John, m. 7.

" Though Hugh sided with John at Runnymede, in gratitude it may be for various proofs of the king's
restored favour after his first return in 1213, he became identified with the Barons' cause on John's death.
He was abroad when the decisive battle of ' Lincoln Fair ' put an end to the hopes of the French allies, but
was compelled on his return to pay 1,000 marks aJ opus Domini Papae in order to regain his see and 100 marks
more to obtain favour of the legate. Matt. Paris, Chron. Majora (Rolls Ser.), ii, 590 ; iii, 32.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

scheme which rendered his rule of such incalculable benefit to the diocese :
the ordination of vicarages in connexion with those churches whose tithes
had become alienated to monastic foundations. Preparations for the great
work had been going quietly forward under the direction of his official,
Reginald de Chester, during the enforced absence of the bishop in parts
beyond the sea, and the ' Liber Antiquus de Ordinationibus Vicararium ' of
Hugh de Wells, drawn up about the year 1218, records the establishment of
nearly 300 vicarages in the whole diocese, more than half that number
belonging to this county.^ In order to appreciate fully the nature of
this reform it is necessary to recall the changes that had taken place in the
position of parish churches during the last century. Up to the Norman
Conquest it had been the custom for the advowson of the church to accom-
pany the possession of the manor, but the monastic revival which followed

' When we compare the 174 vicarages belonging to the episcopate of Hugh de Wells with the 200
returned in the taxatio of Pope Nicholas at the close of the thirteenth century, exclusive of the churches
prebendal to the cathedral chapter, we see how largely this great work was due to the energy and perseverance
of the predecessor of Grosteste.

The churches in the following list are grouped according to their appropriation to the different religious
foundations, as recorded in the 'Liber Antiquus ' : — To the Ben. abbey of Crowland : Langtoft. To the Ben.
abbey of Humberston : Humberston, Holton le Clay, Waithe. To the Ben. nunnery of Foss : Willingham-
by-Stow. To the Ben. nunnery of Stainfield : Stainfield, Apley, Martin near Horncastle, Maidenwell,
Waddingworth. To Belvoir, cell of St. Albans : Aubourn, Tallington. To Freiston, cell of St. Mary's,
York : Freiston, Burton Penwardine, Butterwick, Claxby-by-Well. To the Cist, nunnery of Heyninges or
Hevening : Upton. To the Cist, nunnery of Nuncotham : Burgh-on-Bain, moiety of Croxton, moiety
of Keelby, Cuxwold. To the Cist, nunnery of Legbourne : Legbourne, Farlesthorpe, moiety of Hallington,
Somercotes St. Mary, moiety of Saltfleetby. To the Cist, nunnery of Greenfield : Greenfield, Aby. To
the Cist, nunnery of Stixwould : Honington, Hundleby, Lenton, Thorpe. To the Premonstratensian abbey
of Barlings : Scothorn. To the Prem. abbey of Newhouse or Newsham : moiety of Brocklesby, Glentworth,
Habrough, East Halton, Killingholme, Kirmington, Saxilby-cum-Ingleby. To the Prem. abbey of
Tupholme : moiety of Brocklesby, ' Burreth,' Market Stainton, Middle Rasen, Ranby. To the Gilb. priory
of Sempringham : Sempringham, Marton, Newton-upon-Trent, Kirkby-la-Thorpe, Billingborough, Birthorpe.
To the Gilb. priory of Alvingham : Cawthorpe, Cockerington St. Mary with Alvingham, Cockerington
St. Leonard, Keddington, Stainton-le-Vale. To the Gilb. priory of BuUington : BuUington, Burgh le
Marsh, Friskney, moiety of Hackthorn, Langton by Wragby, West Torrington, Winthorpe. To the Gilb.
priory of Catley : Billinghay, Digby. To the Gilb. priory of Haverholme : portion of Anwick, moiety of
Dorrington. To the Gilb. priory of Nunormsby : North Ormsby, Fotherby, Grimoldby, Little Grimsby,
Utterby, South Elkington. To the Gilb. priory of Sixhills : Sixle (Sixhills), Cadeby, Ludford Magna,
Market or South Rasen, Saleby, Tealby, North Willingham, South Wykeham, West Wykeham. To the Gilb.
priory of St. Katharine extra Lincoln : Alford, Bracebridge, Canwick. To the Austin Canons of the abbey
of Grimsby or Wellow : Grimsby St. James, Cabourne, Clee, Tetney. To the Austin Canons of the abbey
of Bourn : Bourn, Barholm, Morton, Stow-in-Ness, Bitchfield. To the Austin Canons of the priory of
Elsham . Elsham, Kirkby-cum-Osgodby. To the Austin Canons of the priory of South Kyme : Croft,
Calceby, Metheringham, Osbournby, Swarby, Thorpe. To the Austin Canons of the priory of Markby :
Bilsby, Huttoft, Markby. To the Austin Canons of the priory of Nocton : Cawkwell. To the Austin
Canons of the abbey of Thornton : Thornton Curtis, Barrow, Grasby, Ulceby, Worlaby. To the Austin
Canons of the priory of Thornholme : Appleby, Cadney, South Ferriby, Messingham, Orby, Raventhorpe,
Risby. To the Austin Canons of the priory of Torksey : Torksey St. Mary, Reston. To the Knights
Templars : Ashby de la Launde, Eagle, Gainsborough All Saints, Goulceby, Rowston, Swinderby, Thorpe-in-
the- Fallows, moiety of Willoughton.

Appropriated to religious bodies outside the county : — To the abbey of Selby (Yorks) : Crowle, Redbourne,
To the nunnery of St. Michael, Stamford (Northants) : Stamford All Saints, Stamford St. Martin, Corby,
Thurlby. To the abbey of Welbeck (Notts.) : Coates-by-Stow. To the priory of Malton (Yorks): Ancaster,
Winterton. To the priory of Bridlington (Yorks) : Baumber, Eden, Wltham. To the priory of Butley (Suffolk) :
Bicker. To the priory of Drax (Yorks) : Swinstead. To the priory of Norton (Cheshire) : Burton Slather!
To the priory of Royston or de Cruce Roesiae (Herts) : Owersby. To the priory of Shelford (Notts.) :
Rauceby, Leasingham. To the priory of Thurgarton (Notts.) : Kirkby East, Scopwick, Timberland. To
the abbey of Waltham (Essex) : Wrangle. To the abbey of ' Thorre ' : Burwell, ' Richabroc'

The following were appropriated to foreign houses :— To the abbey of St. Nich. Angiers, moiety of
Willoughton. To the abbey of Beauport, Brittany : West Ravendale. To the abbey of Blanchland : Cam-
meringham. To the abbey of St. Evroult : Marston. To the abbey of St. Fromond, France : Bonby. To
the alien priory of Minting (cell to Lyre, Norm.) : Minting. To the alien priory of Hough (cell to St. Mary's
Cherburgh): Hough-on-the-Hill. To the alien priory of Spalding (cell to the abbey of Angiers, Norm.) :
Spalding, Alkborough.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

the coming of the Normans introduced a practice whereby lay patrons
bestowed the presentation and aUenated the tithes of churches to monastic
bodies, and as a consequence incumbents, who in Saxon times enjoyed the
position of ' rectors,' sank in the twelfth century to the position of curates,
removable at the pleasure of the monastery, and forced to accept whatever
remuneration the monks might choose to allow. Not only may much of the
clerical poverty in that century be traced back to this cause, but it had
frequently the pernicious effect of withdrawing a church out of the bishop's
control, and of leaving the parishioners at the mercy of rectors who might
or might not remember the paramount importance of the spiritual needs of
the people. Various attempts had been made to remedy this evil,^ which
was not finally abolished till the Council of Westminster in 1200 directed that
every vicar should be instituted by the bishop, to whom he should be responsible
for the care of the people, and that he should be provided with a sufficient
competence out of the issues of the church. The average amount of the vicar's
income was fixed by Hugh de Wells at about a third of the total profits,
made up of the small tithes and the altarage of the church, in addition to a
competent manse. The rector usually took the great tithe, i.e. the tithe of
corn ; and the burdens incidental to an ecclesiastical benefice, such as synodals
and the archdeacon's fees, were designed to be borne by rector and vicar in
proportion to their respective portions.*" The Council of Oxford in 1222
decreed that the stipend of a vicar should be no less than five marks, except
in Wales,^ and thus laid down the principle of providing a sufficient income
apart from the actual value of the benefice.

The religious bodies deeply resented the bishop's action, and the
monkish chroniclers of the day refer to him as ' the persecutor of monks,
the hammer {malleus) of canons and all the religious'; but, while he
carried out his scheme of reform in the teeth of opposition,* instances
occur of his upholding the rights of the monks against outside invasion.
In 1228 he excommunicated the burgesses of Dunstable for with-
drawing their offerings from the priory,'' and in the following year
interfered on behalf of Spalding, cell to the Norman abbey of Anglers,
annulling the appointment of a prior by the earl of Chester and Lincoln,
the patron, and upholding the election of the sub-prior and monks." The
bishops of Lincoln showed themselves at all times wisely alive to the source of
evil arising from foreign cells within the diocese lying outside their jurisdic-
tion, and independent of all but the very lax control of the parent house

1 The Council of Westminster (or London) held under Anselm in 1 102, decreed that monks should not
accept churches without the sanction of the bishop, or take so large a share of the profits as to impoverish the
priests ministering therein (Wilkins, Condi, i, 383). The Lateran Council of 11 79 forbade the religious to
receive tithes from the laity without the consent of the ordinary and empowered bishops to make proper
provision for vicars, who should not be removable at or their stipends dependent on the will of the monastic
rectors. Labb6, ^acr. Concil. xxii, 455.

' The Council of Westminster likewise decreed that the archbishop in visiting should not exceed a train
of forty or fifty horses, the bishop twenty or thirty, the archdeacon should be content with five or seven, and
rural deans should not exceed two. Wilkins, Concil. i, 505.

' Ibid. 587.

* The prior of Bridlington was cited to appear before the bishop to exhibit his title to the church of
Edenham, and to show what exemption he could claim that vicarages should not be ordained in his churches
R. of Hugh de Wells (Cant, and York. Soc), pt. ii, 116); in 1220 the monks of Dunstable were
forced to establish vicarages in connexion with five churches held by them ' in proprios mus.' jinn. Man.
(Rolls Ser.), iii, 59.

' Ibid, iii, no. ' Inst, of Hugh de Wells, anno 21.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

abroad.^ The temperate letter of Bishop Grosteste to the abbot and convent
of Fleury acquainting them with the fact that he had dismissed from their
cell at Minting two monks guilty of grave immorality, and given to secular
amusements, hunting, archery, and the like, sets forth the evil of sending
persons of unproved character to a foreign cell away from strict supervision
and control.'

The articles of inquiry issued by Wells on the occasion of a visitation of
the whole of the diocese are probably the first ever published by a mediaeval
bishop, and throw considerable light on the condition of the parochial clergy
at that time.^

The special difficulty with which Hugh and his successors were con-
fronted was the indifference of all patrons alike as to the character and
fitness of the candidates they presented for ordination. The institutions of
this period record instances of the bishop's refusal to admit persons of notorious
ignorance and unfitness to benefices, and illustrate a practice then very
general, for a chaplain or substitute to be appointed immediately on the
admission of an incumbent who held the living in name only and had been
granted leave of absence for the purpose of study, &c. Hugh de Scalby and
Richard de Farlesthorpe presented respectively to the churches of Cold
Hanworth and Bilsby were wholly rejected on account of their illiteracy ; *
Robert Malebise was admitted on the presentation of his father to the charge of
the church of Mavis Enderby, subject to being examined in letters at the octave
of Easter next, and then instituted if found sufficient, otherwise the patron
must make another presentation.' A chaplain was appointed in 1 2 1 9 to act
for five years as custos of the church of Langton, to which Eustace, a clerk, ' who
is under age,' had been presented,^ while Richard, a sub-deacon, presented by
his father, Ralph Fitz-Simon, to the church of Ketsby in 1223, was sent
immediately on his institution to the schools to study Latin. ^

' Houses of the Cluniac order are an instance of this. Lincolnshire, curiously enough, had no
foundations of this order, certainly the most unpopular in England, but in Northamptonshire complaints
were constantly made of interference on the part of the bishop of Lincoln in their affairs. In
1231 Gregory IX ordered certain judges to investigate the complaint of the prior and convent of
La CharitI of ' grievous injuries ' on the part of the bishop of Lincoln in endeavouring to impose his
authority on the priory of Coventry against that claimed by the prior of La Chariti {Cal. of Papal L. 1-126).
The same complaint w^as lodged against Bishop Grosteste in 1248 in regard to the priory of Nevs^port Pagnel
(ibid. 257), and in 1290 against Bishop Sutton for attempting to visit the same house (ibid. 521). Houses
of the Cluniac order were always tempting to an energetic ordinary for, except in the case of nuns, his
jurisdiction though limited and always disputed was never actually defined.

' Epist. R. Grosseteste (Rolls Ser.), 166, 319.

' The points raised by these inquiries, fifty in number, relate briefly to the ' enormous illiteracy ' of the
clergy, their moral condition, the prevalence of marriage or concubinage among parish priests, the hereditary
succession of priests' sons to their fathers' benefices, poverty among the clergy, whether adequate sustentation
is provided for the vicar of an appropriated church by the rector, whether any church has been pulled down
in obedience to the Council of Oxford which decreed that no church should be used that had not been
consecrated, the abuse of the multiplication of masses, the celebration of anniversaries and tricennaries for
pecuniary profit, the commutation of penances for money, the holding of secular offices by ecclesiastical persons,
want of reverence for sacred places, as shown by games and sports held in churchyards, markets and plays in
the church, the removal of superaltars to grind colours on, the scot-ales and drinking bouts mentioned by
Giraldus as a frequent cause of stumbling to the clergy {Op. [Rolls Ser.], ii, Dist. ii, cap. xix), were also for-
bidden. One curious inquiry may be specially noted, ' Does any priest use vinegar in the celebration of the
Eucharist ? ' An interesting reference is made by the way to the sports and relaxations of the people, their
jousts with large wooden battering rams raised on wheels in imitation of the tournaments of the knights, the
annual Whitsuntide procession to the mother church, when each parish made a point of contending for
precedence with the banner, and brawls, resulting not infrequently in bloodshed, and even death ensued
Wilkins, Concil. i, 627-8. '

* R. of Hugh de Wells (Cant, and York Soc), pt. ii, 81, loi. =■ Ibid ot i lo

«R. of Inst. Wells. 'Ibid. '

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

A letter, written by Grosteste soon after his election, describes his
indignation when a monk presented to the bishop for institution a candidate
dressed in scarlet and ornamented with jewels, ' with the habit and bearing of
a layman, or rather a soldier,' who on examination proved himself wholly
illiterate, and showed himself in Grosteste's own words ' more fitted to be the
slayer of souls than their keeper.' ^ On another occasion the bishop excused
himself for refusing to admit to a benefice a boy still in his Ovid (adhuc ad
ovidium epistolarum palmam porrigens),^ while in the case of Thomas, a son
of Lord Ferrers, presented by his father to the living of Rand though much
too young and not in holy orders, Grosteste wrote to the legate begging him
to use his influence that another presentation might be made, or if the young
man were appointed that a vicar might be provided, provision being made
for Thomas out of the issues of the benefice.'

The choice of the chapter on the death of Wells, February, 1235,'' secured
to the church of Lincoln the honour of association with one of the greatest
names in the annals of the English Church. The rule of Robert Grosteste,
1235 to 1253, happened at a most critical period in the Church's history, and
focuses in a remarkable manner that revulsion of feeling, that growing atti-
tude of revolt against the exactions and oppressions of the papacy which we
find reflected in the pages of Matthew of Paris. Starting his career with the
most exalted idea of the reverence due to the pope as head of the church,
asking to be allowed to do some bodily task as proof of his devotion,' wel-
coming the papal legate, collecting the pope's tallages,' vindicating to the
king his supreme claim and striving to renew in Henry's mind that glow of
early gratitude which had prompted former professions of affection to the Roman
see,'' the loyalty of Grosteste which survived the ' shameful convention ' of
1 240 ^ only broke down when he could ignore proofs of the venality of Rome
no longer. It was characteristic of the man that he did not hesitate once the
scales were torn from his eyes, once he was convinced that gold could indeed
do everything at the Roman court,^ to denounce its abuses, to raise his voice
to proclaim the scandal and degradation of its methods.^" The great servant
of the papacy returned to England in 1250 to spend the remaining years of
his life in determined opposition to mandates from Rome, which culminated
in a flat refusal to admit the pope's nephew and nominee, Frederick de
Lavagna, to a canonry of Lincoln and established his fame for ever as the

' Ej>ist. R. Gmseteste (Rolls Ser.), 440.

' Ibid. 63. 'Ibid. I, 31.

* The bishop in his will dated Stow Park, June, 1 233, bequeathed 100 marks to the fabric of the
cathedral, as well as 100 marb towards his funeral expenses and for the altar near his burial place. To his
successor he bequeathed all the hewn timber on the episcopal estate, with liberty to redeem the same for
the sum of 50 marks. Among the religious houses to whom he left bequests it is noticeable that those of the
Austin Canons figure largely, none of the Gilbertines are mentioned, and of the Cistercians only the abbey of
Louth Park. See the will of Hugh de WeUs, Girald. Camb. Op. (Rolls Ser.), App. G. 223-3 i.

' Epist. R. Grosseteste (Rolls Ser.), xxxv.

* Ibid. cxix. ' Ibid, cxvii.

' The pope in accordance with an arrangement to give English benefices to Romans in return for their
support in his struggle with the emperor wrote to the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishops of Lincoln
and Salisbury in 1 240, desiring them to keep the 300 benefices which should next become vacant open for these
foreigners. Matt. Paris, Chron. Majora (Rolls Ser.), iv, 32.

' The exclamation let fall by Grosteste in 1250, on finding that the gold offered by the religious orders
had won over the pope to their side was 'O pecunia, pecunia, quantum potes praecipue in curia Roman a.'
Ibid. V, 97.

'" In the sermon delivered by him before the Papal court. Brown, Fasciculus, ii, 250.

2 25 4

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

champion of the rights of the national church.^ And as later he set himself
against papal encroachments, so early in his career we find him opposing
royal infringements of the rights of the church, protesting soon after his con-
secration against the appointment of ecclesiastics to secular offices and the
arraignment of clerks before secular courts," begging the legate to interfere
in the appointment of the abbot of Crowland as an itinerant judge,* and
refusing to admit Robert Passelewe, the forest judge, to the church of
St. Peter's, Northampton.* In 1252 he took the lead in resisting the king's
demand for a clerical subsidy, which had been backed by a papal mandate,
urging that now was the time to refuse before a precedent had been estab-
lished, since ' twice makes a custom.'

The ceaseless activity and untiring energy which characterize Grostcste
are abundantly displayed in his efforts for the reform of his huge diocese.
His experience as archdeacon ' must have warned him of the necessity of
adopting newer methods as well as of acquiring additional assistance in the
carrying out of his plans. It was to the new religious orders within the
church, whose advent in England had been so speedily followed by their appear-
ance within the diocese,'' that he turned for help and co-operation, and whose
example he trusted might rouse the clergy to a renewed sense of their respon-
sibilities.' We have his own account of how he set about the business of
what he called his new and unaccustomed proceedings :

I, as soon as I was made bishop, considered myself to be the overseer and pastor of souls,
and therefore I held it necessary, lest the blood of the sheep should be required at my hand
in the strict Judgment, to visit the sheep committed to me with diligence as the Scripture orders
and commands. Wherefore, at the commencement of my episcopate, I began to go round
through the several archdeaconries, and in the archdeaconries through the several rural deaneries,
causing the clergy to be called together on a certain day and place, and the people to be
warned that in the same day and place they should be present with the children to be con-
firmed, and in order to hear the Word of God and to confess. When clergy and people
were assembled I myself was accustomed to preach the Word of God to the clergy, and some
friar, either Preacher or Minorite, to the people ; at the same time four friars were employed
in hearing confessions and enjoining penances ; and when the children had been confirmed,

' Luard in discussing the tradition that the bishop died excommnnicate dismisses the authorities as more
than doubtful. Epist. R. Gnsseteste (Rolls Ser.), Pref. Ixxxi, note i. Matthew describes the animosity of the pope
as so bitter that he gave orders for the body of the bishop to be cast out of the church. Chron. Majora (Rolls
Ser.), V, 429.

* Epist. R. Gnsseteste (Rolls Ser.), Ixxii, 205. ' Ibid. 262.

* Ibid, cxxiv, 348. In his letter to the king Grosteste defines his ideal of the sacerdotal and kingly
powers.

' Matt. Paris, Chron. Majora (Rolls Ser.), v, 325-6.

^ He held the archdeaconry of Wilts 1 2 14 and 1220, the archdeaconry of Northampton with the prebend
ofEmpingham in 1 22 1, and subsequently exchanged this for the archdeaconry of Leicester and rectory of
St. Margaret's in 1225. Eventually, after a severe illness, he resigned all his preferments except his prebend
in Lincoln. Epist. R. Grosseteste (Rolls Ser.), 45.

' The Dominicans or Friars Preachers arriving in England in 1221 established their first house in this
country at Oxford, and other houses at Lincoln, Stamford and Boston (Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1486-7). The
Franciscans or Minorites reached this country three years later and quickly made their way to Oxford where
they settled themselves before the Feast of All Saints, 1224, receiving a cordial welcome from the Dominicans
who had preceded them. From here they spread to Northampton and Lincoln, eventually establishing houses
at Stamford, Grantham, Boston and Grimsby. Grosteste in 1224 was appointed their first rector at Oxford.
De Adventu Minorum (Rolls Ser.), i, 36.

» The bishop wrote immediately on his consecration to the Provincial of the Friars Preachers asking that
Friar John de St. Giles and Geoffrey de Clive might be allowed to stay with him, they were « to sustain his
infirmity, to bear his weakness, to uphold him when wavering, to encourage him when in despair, to correct
that which is evil in himself and his people, to confirm that which is good.' Similarly he wrote to beg the
assistance of the friars minors urging the need of his vast diocese, which he described as ' the widest and most
densely populated in England.' Epist. R. Grosseteste (Rolls Ser.), 60, 134.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

on that and the following day, I and my clerks gave our attention to inquiries, corrections
and reformations, such as belong to the office of inquiry. In my first circuit of this sort,
some came to me to find fault with these proceedings, saying, ' My lord, you are doing a
new and unaccustomed thing.' To whom I answered, 'Every new thing which instructs
and advances a man is a blessed new thing.' ^

The bishop in the course of this visitation, which was resumed at intervals
throughout the whole of his rule, wrote to his archdeacons prohibiting
abuses, such as the sale of goods within consecrated ground, drinking bouts,
the excesses attending vigils and funeral feasts, the performance of plays, games,
or sports in churches or churchyards, the unseemly proceedings frequently
attending parish processions, the celebration of private marriages, the extor-
tion of fees for the sacraments. The dean and chapter of Lincoln were
ordered to put a stop to the celebration of the Feast of Fools on the Feast
of the Circumcision ; and quaintly intermixed with these general directions
is an order to the clergy bidding them warn mothers and nurses against
taking small children into bed with them, a practice then, as now, constantly
attended with loss of infant life.'

There were few abuses current at that time which Grosteste did not set
himself to reform, and the result of his inquiries bears out the complaints of
Adam de Marisco of the degeneracy and corruption of the times (hits diebus
damnatissimis) , and of the difficulty of finding fit clergy.' The bishop in his
efforts to enforce the canon against married clergy was constantly baffled by
the slackness and supineness of his officials, if not by their actual connivance ;
in a letter to his archdeacons, commenting severely on the parish clergy for
their non-observance of canonical hours and their absorption in more than
doubtful pleasures, he refers to the practice then evidently general of keeping
' focaria,' adding that, though unknown to him when he caused special inquiry
to be made, yet that it must have been within the knowledge of his officials
whose duty it was by their deans and beadles {bedellos) to exercise constant
vigilance.* The ' Constitutions ' which Grosteste circulated throughout his
diocese in obedience to the council held in London, 1237, ordered the removal
of all married clergy from their benefices,* and the Annals of Dunstable tell
us that the bishop in the course of his visitation suspended many rectors,
admitted others to purgation, and from others took bonds that they should in
future observe continency or forfeit rank and benefice.' Up to the last the
bishop continued his fight against these irregularities, and in 1251 Matthew
Paris describes him as removing from their benefices those whom he found
incontinent or of bad reputation,^ but laxity in this matter died hard if it died
out at all. In 1239 Richard de Beckingham was presented to a moiety of
the church at East Keal which Roger, a married clerk, had held, saving to
the said Roger the annual sum of three marks,' and in 1377 the revenues of
the church of Thorpe-on-the-Hill were ordered to be sequestered on
account of the marriage of the rector, who appears to have had the
ceremony publicly performed in the church of Sleaford.' A document of the
time of Edward I proves that in the eleventh and twelfth centuries four

' Wharton, Angl. Sacr. ii, 347, trans, by G. G. Perry ; Lift and Times of Grosseteste, 87.

' Epist. R. Gmsetcte (Rolls Ser.), 71. 72, 118. ' Monum. Francisc. (Rolls Sen), i, 144.

• Efist. R. Gmseteste (Rolls Ser.), cvii, 317. ' Ibid.

* Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 147. ' C/>ron. Majora (Rolls Ser.), v, 237.
" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst, of Grosteste. ' Ibid. Memo, of Bokyngham.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

successive rectors of Leake and Leverton were married and being in possession
of the advowson handed on in every case but the last the living to their sons.^
That the clergy merely accepted the general standard in these matters is
evident from the consternation roused by the bishop's investigation into the
morals of all within his diocese both high and low, the matter creating so
grave a scandal that the king's authority was invoked to put a stop to it.^

Over the monasteries in his diocese also Grosteste exercised a very severe
measure of vigilance, forcing on the monks the ordination of vicarages in all
benefices within their possession and opposing the practice of letting livings
to farm.' The dread of his visitation was so intense that guilty members
fled before his approach, nor did he hesitate, as we have observed, to return
profligate brethren of alien cells to their parent houses, requesting superiors
to send only men of approved character to outlying dependencies. If his
treatment of the nunneries appears rather more than drastic, yet we have to
recollect that the account of his submitting nuns to the indignity of personal
examination comes from a monk, and a monk of St. Albans,* while the after
reputation of nuns within the diocese suggests that severity was not
uncalled for.

The long and bitter dispute with the chapter of Lincoln touching the
bishop's right to visit them broke out in 1239 ; its continuance occasioned
much scandal at the time, even in the minds of Grosteste's own friends, and
the method of its termination did not redound to the entire credit of either
side.^ It seems rather a curious anomaly to find Grosteste, who suffered no
exemption from his authority as diocesan, foremost in opposing the arch-
bishop's claim to hold a visitation in his diocese as metropolitan* ; other
instances, however, are not wanting of a similar refusal on the part of
suffragans.' Returning in the autumn of 1245 from the Council of Lyons,
where he sat as one of the representatives of the English hierarchy, the
bishop proceeded early the following year to take advantage of the powers
conferred on him by his victory to initiate a visitation of the chapter wherein
he encountered no further serious opposition. The various other disputes in
which the bishop engaged, though they added to his prestige and illustrate
the position held by him at this time, do not, with one exception,' directly
concern this county.

The events leading up to Grosteste's memorable rupture with
Innocent IV. occurred early in 1250. Finding that many benefices and
ecclesiastical possessions had come into the hands of the religious by fraudulent
means, the bishop cited all monastic holders of benefices to appear before him
first at Stamford, secondly at Leicester, and thirdly at Oxford, bringing with them

' Line. Dioc. Mag.]in. 1902. ' Matt. Paris, Cinn. Majora (Rolls Ser.), iv, 579.

' This was a device whereby an absentee rector contracted with a third party, mostly a religious body,
to perform the spiritual part of the work in connexion with a living for as cheap a rate as he could'
contrive to get. The chronicler of Dunstable complains of the difficulty the monks had to get the bishop to
allow them to keep the churches they held at farm. Jnn. Mon. (Rolls. Ser.), iii, 148.

* Matt. Paris Chron. Majora (Rolls Ser.) v, 227. ' Luard, Epist. R. Gnsseteste (Rolls Ser.), Pref. Ixii

' Matt. Paris, Chron. Majora (Rolls Ser.), v, 225.

' GifFard of Worcester is a case in point. He was energetic in claiming the right to visit all houses
within his diocese, and equally determined in opposing the metropolitan visitation of Peckham. Wore. Epis
Reg. Giffard (Wore. Hist. Soc), p. 540. • f •

» The exception was his quarrel with the monastery of Bardney which embroiled him with the monks
of Christchurch, Canterbury, and resulted in his excommunication by that body. Matt. Paris Chron Maiora
(Rolls Ser.), iv, 245-8. ' ' ■'

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

the charters of their founders, papal privileges, &c., papal letters having been
secured for the purpose of revoking all usurpations the title to which could not
be proved.^ An outcry was naturally raised, and the Templars, Hospitallers
and others appealed immediately to the pope claiming exemption. Grosteste
started at once for Lyons, to find that he had been forestalled, the gold of the
Templars, which, according to Matthew Paris, furnished an argument the
papal curia could least resist, having wrested judgement against him.^ He
lingered on at Lyons, delivered his final word in the famous sermon before
the papal court, and then returned to battle for the remainder of his life
with those whom he had come to regard as the enemies of the church. The
concession of Innocent IV, authorizing him to ordain vicarages in the parish
churches held by the religious, and to increase the stipends of the vicars,
failed to win back his allegiance.* In 125 1 he was temporarily suspended
for refusing to admit an Italian to a rich benefice in his diocese on the score
of his ignorance of the language ; * Matthew Paris states that at this time
the bishop hated papal nominees ' as the poison of serpents,' and said that if
he delivered the cure of souls to them he ' should be even as Satan.' ^ An
inquiry instituted by him into the incomes of alien clerks beneficed in England
reported that these amounted to 70,000 marks, or more than three times
the amount of the royal revenue.* In the last year of his life the bishop
attended Parliament held in London in April, and took part in the
excommunication of all violaters of Magna Charta.^ It seems a fitting close
to the life of so eminent an upholder of national liberty, and the friend of
the patriotic earl of Leicester,* that one of his last acts should be an order
for the excommunication of all the enemies of this liberty, to be repeated
in every church throughout his diocese.' As he lay dying at Buckden
words of burning denunciation and exhortation fell from the bishop's lips and
thrilled his hearers ;" he passed away on 9 October, 1253, leaving behind him
an imperishable record of abiding honour.

To the influence of Grosteste in the century following his death may be
attributed the prominent part taken by this county in putting forward
plans of reform, and in opposing the extortionate demands of king and pope.
The freedom of election enjoyed by the cathedral chapter during the whole
of the thirteenth century is revealed in the fact that from William of Blois,
in 1203, to John Dalderby, in 1300, every bishop of Lincoln at the time of
his election held some appointment or office in the cathedral. On the death
of Grosteste the chapter foiled an attempt on the part of the king to induce
them to accept that clerical swindler of his order, the bishop of Hereford,"
and proceeded to elect their dean, Henry de Lexington, to the vacant post.
In 1255 the beneficed clergy of the archdeaconry of Lincoln made bold to

' Matt. Paris, CAron. Majora (Rolls Ser.), v, 96. « Ibid. 98.

' A previous attempt made by him to induce all beneficed persons to take priests' orders failed through
the intervention of the pope. Ibid, v, 279.

* Ibid. V, 237. Grosteste's objection to these papal nominees was based, however, on higher grounds than
that of their ignorance of the language, and he stated clearly on another occasion that he objected to the pope's
nephews because all they sought was temporal promotion. Monum. Francisc. (Rolls Ser.), i, 64.

' Matt. Paris, Chnn. Majora (Rolls Ser.), v. 257. ' Ibid. 355. ' Ibid. 343.

* The sons of Simon de Montfort were placed under the charge of Grosteste. Monum. Francisc.
(Rolls Ser.), i, 63, 1 10.

' Matt. Paris, Chron. Majora (Rolls Ser.), v, 372, 395, 400.

'" Ibid. 400-7. " Peter d'Alqueblanche.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

protest against being taxed without their consent having been obtained ;'
the grievances presented at the convocation held at Merton in 1258 to
consider the evil condition of the church were based on a report drawn up by
the late bishop, with a summary of the privileges of the clergy compiled by
his instructions.* On the outbreak of hostilities in 1 260 Bishop Gravesend
threw himself on the popular side, suffering suspension and exile in the cause
of freedom and reform after the defeat of Evesham.' Bishop Sutton, in
1296, supported the clergy in their refusal to pay the subsidy demanded by
the king, and with Archbishop Winchelsea was condemned to confiscation of
goods and property.* John Dalderby, still upholding the tradition of active
resistance to oppressive measures, ordered his archdeacons in 1302 to threaten
with excommunication the collectors of the tax imposed by Edward I in
the course of the Parliament held at Lincoln in the previous year, and
pronounced sentence of ecclesiastical censure against such of the clergy as
should comply.' All these instances of a consistent policy on the part of
successive bishops of Lincoln may be traced back to the lasting effect of
Grosteste's struggle.

The rule of Henry Lexington (1254-8) was short and uneventful, save
for the remarkable incident of little St. Hugh in 1258.' Modern criticism
has sufficiently disposed of the charge against the Jews of the murder of a
little Christian boy, and the story is too well known to require repetition.''^
It gave, however, at the time the rein to that fanatical hatred of which the
Jews were so frequently the victims, and from which the saintly Hugh of
Grenoble on one occasion rescued them.* It is to be regretted that the
successors of Hugh and Grosteste, who in the midst of their preoccupation
had found time to devote care and attention to the proper treatment of the
alien community,' showed none of their spirit, and that the voice of the
bishop was on this occasion conspicuous only by its absence.

Richard Gravesend, who succeeded to Lexington in 1258, would
probably in less troublous times have left more mark on the diocese. ' No
one,' says the chronicler, ' could regard him as a nonentity or useless person,'"*
but the barons' wars, which occupied much of his rule, left him with scant
leisure for the care of the diocese." Nevertheless he followed the footsteps of
Grosteste so far as to summon all religious bodies within his diocese to
produce evidence of their title to ecclesiastical property," and early in 1267,
between the date of his suspension for siding with the disaffected barons," and

' Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), i, 360. Representation of the lower clergy now for the first time appearing in
convocation.

' Ibid. 422-5. ' Ibid, iii, 240 ; iv, 181.

• Ibid, iii, 407. His friends, we are told, came forward and arranged that the sheriff of Lincoln should
make a levy on a fifth of his property. Hemingburgh (Engl. Hist. Soc), 1-54, 109.

' Those who complied through fear he soon after absolved. Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Dalderby.

' Matt. Paris, Chron. Majora (Rolls Ser.), v, 516-19, 546, 552 ; Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), i, 340, 348 ;
ii, 346.

7 J. Jacobs, Jewish Ideals, 193-224.

' This was the occasion of the riot at Northampton in connexion with the superstitious worship of a robber
who had met with a well-deserved fate while carrying off plunder from the Tews at Stamford. Fita S Hum
(Rolls Ser.), 167, 348. ^'

' Grosteste's letter to the countess of Winchester on the subject comes with greater force, for it recognizes
clearly the case against the Jews in their dealings with Christians apart from religious prejudice. Epist.
(Rolls Ser.), 33. '^ '

" Matt. Paris, Chron. Majora (Rolls Ser.), v, 719.

" Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 221, 223 ; iv, 123. " Ibid, iv, 133. » Ibid, iii, 240 ; iv, i8i.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

that of his actual exile abroad, was busy exercising jurisdiction over monasteries
within the diocese but outside this county.* It is difficult to say how long
he remained abroad ; complaints at last were made of the banishment of the
bishops,' and to these representations Gravesend added an argument of even
greater force, he gave the pope a large sum of money and obtained his
discharge before the other prelates.' He took up on his return the active
care of the diocese, which in his absence had been ' nobly ' and wisely ruled
by John de Maydenstone, the dean, to whose custody it had been committed,*
but his health some years after broke down, and in 1275 the archbishop of
Canterbury granted him a coadjutor." The bishop appears to have exercised
much vigilance over the churches in his diocese held by the monks. In the
last year of his life he was ordered by Peckham to desist from troubling his
people by sequestrating benefices and extorting money under pretext of
vacancy,* and this may refer to his action in ejecting the religious from
livings which they held at farm on the death of the rectors and putting in
his own clerks, lest the rectorial rights should be seized.'^ The bishop
probably was more gratefully remembered for his benefactions to the
cathedral church of Lincoln,* where he was buried on his death, 13
December, 1 279.

We must note about this time the improvement effected in the
administration of the diocese by the arrangement respecting the custody and
management of the see during a vacancy.' The composition between the
primate and the chapter of Lincoln in 1261 provided that all episcopal
jurisdiction during a vacancy should be committed to an official chosen by
the archbishop out of three or four canons presented to him by the chapter,
and that this official should be responsible to the archbishop for the collection
of the fees, out of which he should receive a certain amount by way of his
expenses. To the dean of Lincoln, however, was secured absolute jurisdiction
over the city and suburbs of Lincoln, as well as over the prebendal churches
belonging to the community and over certain religious houses and hospitals of
the bishop's patronage. He was also empowered to visit two religious
houses within each archdeaconry in the diocese, and it was lawful for him
and the chapter to call on any bishop to ordain to any office in the cathedral
in the absence of the primate, who, however, should perform that office if he
were holding an ordination within the city or diocese."

With the spiritual decline of the monasteries and the practical restric-
tions imposed on religious endowments on a large scale by the Statute
of Mortmain, the pious donor of this period sought in the endowment of
chantries a more convenient outlet for his devotional feelings than he could
find in the erection of monasteries. In a chapel attached to an existing
church he would endow a priest or number of priests to pray for his soul,

1 Jnn. Mon. (Rolls Ser), iv, 208-13. * Ruhanger (Rolls Ser.), 55.

' jinn. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 247 ; iv, 181. ' Ibid, iii, 247. ' Ibid. 248.

• Reg. of Peckham (Rolls Ser.), i, 70. ' Jnn. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 133.

' He acquired for the see the patronage of the churches of Sutton, Aylesby, Greetham and Little
Bytham, increased the allowance of the canons, and established a permanent choir of twelve singing boys, who
Avith their master were assigned a competent living out of the church of Ashby Puerorum and out of certain
other churches. Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Ser.), vii, App. H. 326.

' This exceedingly vexed question had on the death of Grosteste in 1 2 5 3 led to a violent dispute
between the primate and the cathedral chapter, in the course of which the latter were excommunicated,
^att. Paris, Chnn. Majora (Rolls Ser.), vi, 264-5.

'"Wilicins, ConciLi, 756.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

the souls of his family, and all the faithful departed. The thirteenth cen-
tury marks an important addition to the ranks of the beneficed clergy in
the person of these chantry priests, who, as time went on and the erection of
these memorial chapels or chantries became more general, might be found in
every church of any size side by side with the parish priest. In addition
to the chantry priests must be mentioned the parochial chaplains, introduced
by the spread and growth of chapels dependent on the parish church,^
whose ranks in turn were supplemented by the private chaplains officiating in
the oratories of rich laymen ; ^ while apart from these and in frequent com-
petition with them, came the friars whom the patronage of Grosteste seems
to have attracted in almost overwhelming numbers to the diocese, and who
at the beginning of the next century appear to be holding most of the
offices of public penitentiars as well as of confessors to the nunneries.*

Oliver Sutton * inaugurated the first year of his accession by the opening
of the Angel Choir at Lincoln and the translation of the relics of St. Hugh
to the golden shrine that had been prepared for their reception. The
expenses of the entertainment accompanying the magnificent ceremony,
which was honoured by the presence of the king and queen and other
magnates of the realm, were borne by Thomas Beck, who on the same day,
6 October, 1280, was consecrated to the see of St. David's.^ Ten years
later Oliver Sutton was called on to assist at a less joyous ceremony, the
funeral of the queen, who died at Harby, near Lincoln but in Nottingham-
shire,' 28 November, 1290, and whose body after being carried to Lincoln
was thence conveyed by slow stages to Westminster for burial, memorial
crosses at Grantham and Stamford within the county marking the route of
the funeral procession. An entry in the bishop's register of that date asks for
the prayers of the faithful in the diocese for the soul of the late queen. ^
Her memory was long preserved in a chantry founded in the church of
Harby, which existed up to the time of the Reformation.*

Sutton's bulky registers are evidence of the energy and diligence with
which he devoted himself to the diocese. Old abuses continued to crop up.
In 1 29 1, after a recent visitation of the deanery of Holland, the bishop
wrote to the rural dean commenting on the ' bigamous and married clerks,'

' These dependent chapels were the cause of most of the ecclesiastical disputes in the succeeding century
by reason of their alleged usurpation of parochial rights ; occasionally they would be further endowed and were
formally erected into parish churches, but in many instances after the Black Death they became so
impoverished as to be unable to support their former chaplains, and sank into disuse.

' An instance of the private chapel or oratory occurs in 1237-8, during the rule of Bishop Grosteste,
when licence was granted to Robert Bry, knt., by consent of the abbot and convent of Crowland as patrons,
and of the rector of the church of Whaplode, to maintain a chapel within his court there. (Add.
MS. 6950, fol. 70). This is an early instance. Oratories were granted in large numbers a little later, as
may be seen from the episcopal registers.

' In 1301 so many friars were presented to the bishop for the office of confessor that he complained, and
said that in the diocese of Canterbury the archbishop only licensed six, seven, or eight at the most. He
reminded the Friars Preachers, to whom he was speaking, that the Minorites were very numerous in the
diocese, and that the Austin and Carmelite friars were also licensed to hear confessions ; finally the
bishop licensed as many as fifty, 'which' he remarked 'ought to be sufficient.' Line. Epis. Ree Memo of
Dalderby, fol. 19. r 5 •

* The bishop, a member of the well-known Lexington family, was elected on the refusal of Fulk
Lovel, archdeacon of Colchester, to accept office. Jnn. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 284. He was the third
dean of Lincoln raised in succession to the episcopal throne.

' For particulars of the feasting, in which the citizens of Lincoln freely participated, see Girald. Cambr.
Op. (Rolls Ser.), vii, App. F. 220.

« Walsingham, flwA Jngl. (Rolls Ser.), i, 139.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Sutton, fol. 32. » Ibid. Memo, of Smith, fol. 148.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

whom he found ministering side by side with priests at the altar. He
addressed remonstrances to the rural deans both of Holland and Christianity
(Lincoln) on the neglected condition of churchyards within their deaneries.
Pigs, he said, should not be turned into burial grounds, nor cemeteries made
a dumping ground for the refuse of citizens. The practice of holding markets
and fairs within the precincts of the church still lingered on in country places,
in spite of the stringent prohibitions of Wells and Grosteste and the efforts of
Sutton and his successors.^ In 1300 the inhabitants of Grimsby were
threatened with excommunication for holding their market on a Sunday.^
Exhortations for the rebuilding and repair of parish churches, the enclosure
of churchyards, with warnings to the laity not to withhold their offerings,^
swell the registers of this period. Frequent entries of indulgences for those
contributing to the needs of hospitals and the poorer nunneries indicate no
lack of objects for the alms of the charitably disposed. The building of
bridges appears to have been another subject of appeal. The number of those
licensed to beg alms in the diocese increased so enormously in the next
century that in 1334 the bishop was moved to revoke all former licences, ' as
there are so many going about the diocese unlawfully begging.'* The multi-
plication of licences for the reconciliation of churches confirms a general
impression as to the lawlessness and violence of the times. In 1291 the
bishop obtained a special dispensation from the pope that ' whereas churches
and cemeteries in the diocese of Lincoln are often violated by effusion of
blood, &c., and the diocese is so diffused, it is a difficult and serious matter to
go always to reconcile them, they may be reconciled by special commission
to a priest with water blessed by the bishop, without prejudice, however, to
the ordination requiring it to be done by bishops.' °

The close of the thirteenth century is marked by that assessment of
church property known as the ' Taxation of Pope Nicholas IV,' which
served as a basis for all ecclesiastical taxation till the reign of Henry VIII.
According to the compilation of 1 291, the county of Lincoln was divided
into two archdeaconries and twenty-nine deaneries, the archdeaconry of
Lincoln containing twenty-three deaneries, that of Stow only four, an
inequality which was not readjusted till recent years. The total number of
churches returned under the different deaneries amounts to 595 : of these 100
are entered as vicarages, and 100 more as vicarages whose yearly value did
not exceed six marks.* The spiritualities of the two archdeaconries are
given at jTi 1,657 ^7-^*' ^"'^ *^^ ^""^ raised on the taxation of the see
amounted to >r 1,000.'' The bishop's benefactions to his cathedral church,

' Dalderby in 1 302 wrote to forbid the market in the church of Ingoldmells (ibid. Memo, of Dalderby,
fol. 34). Gynwell in 1360 issued a general prohibition against the selling of wares and the holding of
sports and games in churches or churchyards (ibid. Memo, of Gynwell, fol. 132). In Bokyngham's rule the
prior of Holland [Brigge] was denounced for holding a market in a church ; and an order in 1392 forbad the
selling of merchandize within the conventual church of Stainfield. Ibid. Memo, of Bokyngham, fols.
126, 387.

' Ibid. Memo, of Dalderby, fol. 21.

5 The rural dean of Holland was directed about the year 1 29 1, to explain to the parishioners ofMoulton
that they should not remove the candles placed round the bier when a corpse was carried into the church for
burial, but should leave them according to ancient custom for the church and its ministers. Ibid.
Memo, of Sutton, fol. 189.

* Ibid. Memo, of Burghersh, fol. 269. ' Hutton, Ext. from Line. Reg. Add. MS. 6951, fol. 28.

° These figures are exclusive of those churches entered as prebendal to the cathedral and as appropriated
to its community, which would add some thirty-seven more to the total return.

' ?ope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 56, 62, 76, 77.

2 33 5

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

his virtues, freedom from avarice, kindness as a landlord, receive enthusiastic
comment from John Schalby,^ who admits nevertheless that in one point
Sutton failed — as co-collector of the subsidy he allowed the prebendal churches
of the cathedral to be overtaxed,^ a mistake, adds his biographer, of which he
repented ' vehemently ' before his death, which occurred 1 3 November, 1 299.

John Dalderby (1300—20) furnishes another example of a bishop whose
virtues, if they failed to procure him the meed of formal canonization, yet
afforded him the recognition of a local saint. Like his predecessor, to
whom in other respects he bore but slight resemblance, he gave of his best
to the diocese, and beyond opposing the royal demand for a subsidy put
forward by the Parliament held at Lincoln in January, 1301,' held himself
aloof from the political events of his day.*

At this time English nuns had acquired a very unenviable reputation
for themselves at the Roman court on account of the laxity of their rule
and wandering habits." The pope, to put a stop to the scandal, wrote in
1299 to the archbishop of Canterbury and his suffragans, ordering them to
have all religious women within their dioceses shut up and not allowed to
leave their cells. Dalderby at once set about visiting the different nunneries
to explain the new statute and enforce its observance.' The bishop's register
affords us no specific instances of opposition in Lincolnshire to stricter regulations
such as we read of in connexion with other parts of the diocese,'' but Agnes
de Flixthorpe, the apostate nun of St. Michael's, Stamford, whose story
makes such painful reading, belonged to a community just over the Lincoln-
shire border,* and laxity of rule was unhappily not unknown within this
county also. The bishop, in 1301, commissioned the rector of Brothertonto
visit the houses of nuns when he should esteem it necessary, ' as many of them
refuse to obey the statute of Pope Boniface for their enclosure, and go out of
their monasteries into cities and other public places, mixing with the world,
and even consorting with men.' ' The harsh measures resorted to in the case
of obstinate runaways, or even suspects, seem to have been regarded generally
as reasonable and necessary precautions and to have been adopted indifferently
in the case of an erring brother or sister. A monk of Bardney stated in the
course of a visitation in 1 3 1 1 that the abbot ' moved by anger ' had caused
him to be placed in confinement in a dark place, his feet fastened by an
iron chain to a post, ' and so lived all that time in great misery.' The man
appealed and was eventually released, but it is evident that the treatment was
regarded as in no way exceptional.^"

' The biographer of the bishops of Lincoln was himself a canon of Lincoln and acted as registrar to
Sutton for eighteen years. Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Ser.), vii, App. E. 208, 210.

" The bishop's appointment as collector made him very unpopular. The chronicler of Osney wails
over the new ' taxers,' who, he declared, were worse than the old. Ann. Mm. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 333. The
clergy of the archdeaconry of Stow also presented a petition to Parliament on the ground that they were over
assessed. Pari. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 314.

' Edward I was the guest of the bishop at his manor of Nettleham while this Parliament lasted.

'He was not among the seven bishops appointed ' ordainers ' in 1 3 10 {Par/. Writs. [Rec. Com.]
ii, div. i, 43). Proctors represented him at the Parliament held at Carlisle in 1306. Pari. R (Rec ComT
i, 188-9 '

' Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), i, 83. « Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Dalderby, fol. 9.

'Notably in Buckinghamshire. The nuns of Little Marlow absolutely declined to abide by the
provisions of the statute.

» This poor lady, who was probably out of her mind, after repeated attempts to escape was ordered to
be confined in a stone chamber with a chain attached to each leg.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo of Dalderby, fol. i^d. '» Ibid. fol. 215^.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

An important incident in Dalderby's rule was the trial and condemnation
of the Templars, the bishop being one of the commissioners appointed by
the pope in 1308 to try the accused knights in England.^ It is very doubtful
if Dalderby believed the charges brought against the doomed order, at any rate
he avoided when he could taking part in the trials that ensued and took no further
action after holding a private examination at Lincoln.^ The bishop's opinion,
however, did not save the unfortunate knights, who were found guilty of many
of the charges and condemned by the convocation of Canterbury to confinement
in different monasteries with varying degrees of penance. The archbishop's
letter to his suffragan of Lincoln, assigning a Templar to each of the following
houses within the diocese, Peterborough, Ramsey, North Ormsby, Croxton,
St. Albans, Woburn, Crowland, Spalding, Sempringham, Kirkstead, Revesby,
Leicester, Thornton, Barlings, St. Andrew's Northampton, Swineshead, and
Wardon, enters into minute particulars as to diet, and the degree of freedom to
be allowed to each prisoner.' The custodians of the confiscated goods of the
order were ordered to pay for the board of each knight at the rate of 4^/.
daily, but the refusal of St. Andrew's, Northampton, to admit the penitent sent
to them* shows how unpleasing the charge was to the monasteries burdened
already with loans for the Scotch war and the imposition of royal boarders.
Considerable estates were held by the Templars in this county in connexion
with their preceptories or commanderies at Aslackby, Temple Bruer near
Lincoln, Eagle, Willoughton, and South Witham, all of which passed
eventually into the hands of their rivals, the Hospitallers.^

The Premonstratensian houses of this diocese were well represented in the
long but successful resistance made by the English provincials of the order about
this time to the demands of the mother house. The abbot general, Adam de
Crecy, striving to renew the payment of the ancient apport which had recently
fallen into abeyance,* summoned the English abbots in 1310 to attend the
next general meeting at Premontre and bring all arrears of the tax with them.
The superiors of fourteen houses ^ accordingly met and deputed the abbots
of Langdon and Sulby to attend the meeting and explain the position of affairs.
The general chapter, refusing however to listen to the representations of their
proctors, proceeded to pass sentence of condemnation against all houses of the
English order, threatening them with excommunication in the event of the
money not being forthcoming by Easter.* A general chapter of the English
province summoned by the two abbots met at Lincoln on i December, 1 3 1 o,
and fortified with a renewed royal prohibition of foreign imposts decided to
carry on the resistance to Premontre and appeal to Rome. This meeting,
which took place in the church of the Friars of the Sack at Lincoln, fixed
another meeting at Barlings Abbey for the purpose of producing copies of
the necessary documents for the appeal, and here on 20 January, 1310-11

• Wilkins, ConcU. i, 329. ' Ibid.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Dalberby, fol. 194.

' The bishop was peremptory, however, and on a second refusal ordered the excommunication of the
prior and all the chief officers of the priory to be published in all the churches of the deanery. Ibid. fol. 195,

' Dugdale, Mon. v'l, 801-5.

° In obedience to the prohibition of foreign payment passed by the Parliament held at Carlisle in 1 306.
Par/. R. (Rec. Com.) i, 2 1 7.

' Of the fourteen, six were in this diocese, Newhouse, Barlings, Hagnaby and Neubo in this county,
Croxton in Leicestershire and Lavenden in Bucks.

' Collect. Anglo-Premon. (R. Hist. Soc.) i, Nos. 2, 3, 4.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

within a certain room called the abbot's ' new chamber ' three proctors were
elected to negotiate the business at the Roman court, two of whom were
canons of Barlings and Croxton.^ The matter dragged on till 13 16, the
English abbots receiving repeated sentences of excommunication, but peace
was finally restored by an agreement in that year which placed the victory
practically in the hands of the provincials.'

The last years of Dalderby's life were spent in retirement at Stow," the
report of the austerities practised by him adding much to his reputation for
sanctity. The petition for his canonization, presented in 1327 by Edward II
and supported by letters from many of the bishops, met with a refusal from
the pope but did not lessen the devotion paid to him in his own cathedral
city, to the church of which he had made considerable benefactions.*

The abuse of papal provision in this country was now thoroughly estab-
lished. The rich prebends of Lincoln continued throughout Dalderby's rule
to fall a prey to the usurpation of the Roman court,' and in the appointment
of his successor we find that the see itself was not destined to escape. On the
bishop's death in 1320, the choice of the chapter first fell on their dean,
Henry de Mansfield ;' he declined the office and they elected their chancellor
Anthony Bek. In the meantime other plans were afoot, the powerful Lord
Badlesmere, then visiting the papal court at Avignon on a political mission,
urged the pope to bestow the vacant see on his nephew. The appeal rein-
forced by letters from Edward 11^ and backed by bribes was successful,
Henry Burghersh, a young man in his twenty-ninth year and consequently
under the canonical age, was provided and the election of Bek unceremoni-
ously set aside.*

The claims of the new bishop to remembrance are mainly based on the
part he played, and that hardly a creditable one, in the events that closed the
reign of Edward II, and in connexion with the responsible position held by
him under Edward III.' His eventful career as a political bishop possesses many
points of interest but hardly allowed of his spending much time in the diocese,

' Collect. Angh-Premon. (R. Hist. Soc), i, Nos. 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12.

' The settlement arranged that English abbots instead of making the yearly journey to Premontre might be
represented at the general chapter by special visitors. The abbot general might visit English houses yearly if
he pleased, but should only receive the discharge of his personal expenses on these occasions, and only necessary
collections, and such as had been passed by the general chapter and the amount approved by the visitors, should
be made from houses of the English province. Ibid. No. 30.

^ In 1 3 1 5 he appointed Henry Hemingworth, sub-dean of the cathedral, his coadjutor, to do all acts
which did not strictly pertain to the episcopal office, and in the following year excused his non-attendance at
the Parliament held at Lincoln, January, 1 3 16, on the ground of ill-health. Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of
Dalderby.

* Notably to the priest vicars. To the see he added the patronage of two churches, the church of South
Ferriby being one. Another of his acts was the union of the church of All Saints, Lincoln, with that of St.
Mary Magdalen. Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Ser.) vii, App. E. 212-13.

* Dr. Hutton's extracts from the registers of Lincoln include a long list of provisions beginning with the
first year of Dalderby (Harl. MS. 6951, fols. 46-52). The pope at that time claimed the right to nominate
on the death of any holder to perferment at the Roman court. On 23 March, 1306, Reymund de la Goth,
a Roman cardinal and dean of St. Paul's, was provided to the deanery of Lincoln, the pope conceding on his
death in 13 10, that ' the new dean may be elected' (Ibid. fol. 54). This Reymund de la Goth seems to
have held the deaneries of St. Paul's, Lincoln, York, Salisbury, and St. Martin le Grand {Cal of Papal Reg. ii,
38). We find the pope providing to the priory of Huntingdon in 1301 and in 1320 to the archdeaconry of
Bedford (ibid, ii, 37, 205). Bliss, Extracts from Papal Registers, gives icores of other foreigners provided.

» Girald. Cambr. Op. (Rolls Ser.), vii, 215.
' Rymer, Toed, iii, 814, 820.

* Ibid. 833 ; Murirauth, Cont. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 31

' Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), i, 173, 180, 198, 227.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

the administration of which was carried on fairly energetically in his absence.'
Simon de Islip, canon of Lincoln and afterwards archbishop of Canterbury,
acted as his vicar-general, but many of the licences granted by the bishop are
made out in the name of his chaplain John de Longespeye, archdeacon of Stow
in 1334 and described as the vicar-general of the bishop 'in remotis agentis' in
that year.' The frequency of licences to study and to let benefices to farm noted
in his register probably did much to encourage the practice of non-residence
among the clergy now becoming so general. In the course of a visitation of
the archdeaconries of Huntingdon, Leicester, Bedford, Lincoln, and Stow
in I 3 1 6 it was found that nearly all the deaneries of the Lincoln archdeaconry
had been farmed out." An order was made for the deans to be proceeded
against, and both Dalderby and Burghersh issued mandates against non-
residents, but in the case of the latter certainly, the frequent permission
accorded to the clergy to leave their cures for the purposes of study or pil-
grimage must have rendered the effect of the standing orders against non-
residence practically nugatory.

The chapter of Lincoln by their choice of Thomas Bek on the death
of Burghersh in 1 340 * probably desired to make amends for the former slight
to his cousin, Anthony, now bishop of Durham. Their election seemed
likely to be again annulled, but a rumour reaching the bishop-elect that the
pope had reserved the appointment he hurried off to Avignon to negotiate
the affair personally. The matter was kept in suspense for a year and a half,^
but confirmation, doubtless at considerable cost, having been obtained from
Clement VI on his accession to the pontificate,' the bishop was able to be
consecrated in July, 1 342. His episcopate, which only lasted five years, was,
however, of comparative unimportance to the diocese.

The rule of Gynwell (1347 to 1362) was overshadowed by that terrible
visitation of the fourteenth century known as the Black Death, which hung
like an ever-threatening cloud over the remainder of the century and the
effects of which it is difficult fully to estimate. The memoranda of the bishop
do not begin till 1350, and we are indebted to Henry Knighton, canon of
Leicester, for an account of the most terrible year of the plague and of the
means taken by the bishop to relieve the distress that prevailed. ' At that
time,' he says (in 1348), 'a lamentable pest penetrated into those parts nearest
the sea by Southampton, came to Bristol, and there died of it as it were alL
the healthy folk of the town, taken away by sudden death, for few people
kept their beds more than two or three days and some only half a day before
death came to them at the setting of the sun ' . . . ' The bishop of Lincoln,'
on the approach of the disease, ' then sent throughout the whole of his diocese
and gave general power to all and singular his priests both regular and secular
to hear confessions and to absolve all with the full authority of the bishop

' An entry in his register records the fact that the bishop visited the deanery of Holland in 1322, and
that a certain John Toupe. of Algaricirk was afterwards excommunicated for collecting a large body of armed
laymen, and endeavouring to thwart the bishop from exercising his office. Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of
Burghersh, fol. 66.

' Mutton's Extracts, Harl. MS. 6951, fol. 81 d. ' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Dalderby, fol. 311.

* Walsingham, who records the bishop's death at Ghent while on a political mission, refers to his-
cupidity and avarice, and says that after his death his spirit, doomed to walk up and down his park at Tyng-
hurst which he had enclosed to the injury of the poor, appeared to one of his followers and besought him ta
go to the canons of Lincoln and ask them to make restitution for these former wrongs, for which he was now
undergoing retribution. Hiii. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), i, 255.

' Murimuth, Cont. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 120-1. ^ Ibid. 222.

.^7

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

save in case of debt, in which case if a man were able he should give satisfaction
while he lived, or it should be given by his friends from his goods after his
death. Similarly the pope granted full remission of sins to every one in
danger of death who had obtained absolution once and he allowed this faculty
to last until Easter next, and each one was licensed to choose his own confessor.'^
In Lincolnshire the disease, which had ravaged the western and southern
counties during the autumn and spring of 1348 and 1349 did not appear
till the summer of 1349, and then fell with heavy brunt on the county. It
has been ascertained that, against the average number of thirty or forty
yearly institutions in the archdeaconry of Lincoln, the last half of 1349
shows 302 ; the average number in the archdeaconry of Stow being only six,
the last six months of the year give fifty-nine.'' The parts of Holland, it is
said, fared better than Kesteven or Lindsey, of the towns Stamford suffered
most, losing six incumbents as against two in Lincoln with its fifty
churches. Nor were the secular clergy the only sufferers;* the chronicler of
Louth Park Abbey records the death of the abbot and many monks,* the
superiors of Thornholm and Foss were also among the regulars swept away.
The temporal decline of the religious orders is generally dated from this
cataclysm ; the effect of the pestilence, accompanied by mortality among
the cattle and followed by a scarcity of labour owing to the number of
agricultural labourers who died, was increasingly felt by the landowning
classes,^ notably the monks, who were unable to get their lands cultivated,
whose houses and buildings collapsed through want of habitation, and who
were obliged to submit to a large reduction in the rents of their tenants.*

Among the local clergy the loss in their ranks operated much in the
same way as in those of the labourers. ' So great,' says Knighton, ' was the
scarcity of priests that many churches were desolate, being without divine
offices. Hardly could a chaplain be got under £10 or 10 marks to minister
in any church, and where before a chaplain could be had for 4 or 5 marks,
or 2 marks with board, so numerous were priests before the pestilence, now
scarce any would accept a vicarage of £20 or 20 marks. But in a short
time there came crowding into orders a multitude of those whose wives had
died in the plague, of whom many were illiterate, only able to read after a
fashion, and not able to understand what they read.' ^ As Parliament sought
by arbitrary acts to put down the demands of the labourers, the archbishops,

' Knighton, Leic. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 6i.

' Mr. Massingberd in his article on the Black Death and the Lincolnshire clergy, from which these
figures are taken, states that the institutions for the first half of that fatal year are evidence of a small number
of deaths among the clergy {Line. Dioc. Mag. Sept. 1904, p. 137). The number of deaths recorded rises
from fifteen m June to sixty in July, eighty-nine in August, and falls from sixty-one in September to twenty-
nine in November and only thirteen in December. Ibid.

' The institution books at Lincoln show that in the plague year the dean, precentor, treasurer, three
archdeacons, and fourteen prebendaries died, and probably the sub-dean. In the deanery of Corringham
fourteen incumbents died, including three vicars of Redbourne, and two rectors of Southorpe. (Rev. C. Moor
Hist. Notes on the Deanery of Corringham, p. 30.) The Papal Registers give permission to bishops to ordain
married men in the emergency.

* Chron. de Parco Ludo. (Line. Rec. Soc.) pp. 38-9.

" Bp. Gynwell in 1352 petitioned the pope that the appropriation of three or four more benefices might be
granted to him, the reason bemg given that his rents were greatly diminished on account of ' the epidemic
in this realm and especially in this county.' Cal. of Papal Pet. i, 228.

° In the case of nunneries especially it is generally noticeable that great poverty is accompanied by a
laxity of rule, the nuns being forced by circumstances to accept inmates of a lower standard.

' Leic. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 63.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

not to be behindhand, gave orders to keep down the stipends of the clergy.*
The people, whose distress at the bad times was much increased by the heavy
taxation involved by the French wars, cried out against the greed of the
clergy whom they accused of trying to evade all share in national taxation,
but in spite of Archbishop Islip's denunciation of their ' insatiable rapacity *
it should be remembered that the unfortunate clergy not only shared in the
general loss of income by the diminution of their tithes, but were increasingly
ground down under the never-ending demands of the papal curia,* and by
the rampant abuse of provision and reservation still going on. From the
registers of the bishops of Lincoln for the next hundred years we learn
of a number of churches or moieties of churches being united on account
of the fall in their endowments and the depopulation of country places
which followed in the wake of the Great Pestilence.' The period which
ensued was a forcing ground for the form of religious activity which
marked the close of the fourteenth and heralded the opening of the fifteenth
century.

The later years of Gynwell's rule were of little moment to the diocese.
The bishop appears to have enjoyed no small share of the pope's favour, and
was successful in obtaining from him an exemption from the jurisdiction of
the archbishop of Canterbury* with whom his relations were not always of
the pleasantest.' On Gynwell's death in 1362 the pope, in accordance with
the usual practice, provided to the see John Bokyngham, dean of Lichfield,
who at the time of his promotion held the archdeaconry of Northampton
and the rectory of Olney (Bucks).

' Archbishop Islip in 1353 ordained that a priest's salary should not exceed 7 marb, while a stipendiary
should be content with 5 (Wilkins, Concil. iii, 30). In 1362 the salary of a priest with cure of souls^
was fixed at 6 marks, without cure of souls at 5 (ibid, iii, 50). In 1398 Sudbury ordered that a chaplain's
stipend should be limited to 7 marks or 3 marks with board, a priest's should not exceed 8 marks or 4. marks
with board (ibid, iii, 135).

' Walsingham mentions that the archbishop's demand of a subsidy from the provincial clergy in 1 395
backed up by a papal bull met with great opposition, ' especially in Lincolnshire.' Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.),,
ii. 208.

' During the rule of Bokyngham (1363-96) were united the two rectories of Bag Enderby (Line. Epis. Reg.
Memo, of Bokyngham, fol. 299), the rectories ofWyham andCaeby (fol. 322), the church of West Wykeham with
the church of Ludford(fol.446). Bishop Repyngdon authorized the union of the church of St. Albin Spridlington
with the church of St. Hilary, and directed in 141 7 that the former church should be pulled down and the
materials used for the repair of St. Hilary's (ibid. Memo, of Repyngdon, fols. 151, 171, 1781/.). In 1434
Bishop Gray allowed the parishioners of Bardney to pull down their parish church ' which is notoriously old
and manifestly decayed ' and to build another on a fresh site which he directed the abbey of Bardney to give-
(ibid. Memo, of Gray, fol. 166). In the same year the parish churches of All Saints and St. Martin's,
Stamford, were united (ibid. fol. 172). During the rule of Alnwick the moieties of Fulletby church were
united on account of poverty and lack of labourers, and the moieties of Theddlethorpe church devastated by
inundations and pestilence, &c. ; the patron of the churches of Buslingthorpe and Firsby petitioned for their
union on account of the poverty of their revenues, ' and as the world always gets worse and worse it is not
likely tithes will increase' (ibid. Memo, of Alnwick, fols. 23, 53, 70). In 1450 the churches of Fordington
and Ulceby were united and the churches of Hawerby and Beesby, the stones of Beesby church to be used in
repairing the church of Hawerby (ibid. Memo., of Lumley, fols. 25, 26). Under Bishop Chadworth the
moieties of Grayingham church were united owing to paucity of population, the churches of Hameringham
and ' Dunsthorpe,' the revenues of the latter church not amounting to one-eighth of a chaplain's salary, and in
Lincoln the church of St. Peter ad Fontem was united to the monk's cell of St. Mary Magdalene, near Lincoln,,
on account of the falling of the church to the ground and there being no parishioners to build it up (ibid.
Memo, of Chadworth, fols. 7, 78, 81). The bishop ordered an inquiry in 1467 into the poverty of the
vicarages of Dorrington and Alford (ibid. fol. 85 d).

* Cal. of Papal Pet. i, 137, 210, 227; Cal. of Papal L. iii, 489.

' In the course of a dispute between the bishop and the university of Oxford the archbishop, Islip,,
formerly canon of Lincoln, went so far as to lay the town of Banbury where the bishop was residing under
an interdict.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

The episcopate of the new bishop, as we are reminded by an early entry
in his register,^ embraced a period rendered memorable by the rise of that
great religious movement identified with the name of John WyclifF.
Originating as an attack on the secularisation of the church and its departure
from the primitive ideals of apostolic poverty, the movement gathered
strength from the popular demand for reform that rose up at the end of the
centuiy, and finally attacked the very basis itself of the Catholic sacrament
of the altar. The policy of the bishops, and among them of Bokyngham,
appears at first to have been to ignore as far as was possible the new views
so rapidly gaining ground, but with the promotion of Courtney to Canter-
bury in 1 38 1 this policy of inaction had to be dropped, for the primate
addressed circular letters to his sujffiragans ordering them to take active
measures to put down heresies.' In accordance with these instructions
William de Swinderby, a noted and most violent upholder of Lollard opinions,
who was attracting crowds to his preaching in the chapel of St. John,
Leicester, was suspended and cited to appear before the bishop to answer for
his views.* At first the preacher took no notice of the citation beyond
moving from his former spot and setting up his pulpit between two mill-
stones standing in the highway next the chapel. Here he called the people
to him, and in defiance of the prohibition preached many times, saying that
*he both could and would preach in the king's highway in spite of the
bishop's teeth.' * In response, however, to a second citation Swinderby made
his appearance before the bishop's commissioners at Lincoln,' where an
examination of the opinions and beliefs professed by him proved ' that he had
justly merited to become food idv fire.' His life, however, was spared at the
intercession of the duke of Lancaster, who happened to be present at that
time at Lincoln, and who induced the bishop to accept a formal recantation
as a sufficient penalty. To Stephen de Syreham, vicar of Barrow, seques-
trator of the bishop, was committed the duty of seeing the sentence which
condemned the Lollard to make public abjuration of all his errors in eight
churches ° of the diocese carried out.'' With his recantation in 1382
Swinderby's connexion with this diocese ends ; whether he adhered to the
terms of his sentence it is impossible to say,* but his influence in Leicester
from this time died away, and according to Knighton he fled away by night
to Coventry, where within a short time he was held in even greater honour
by the disafi^ected, and proved as great a pest to the bishop and clergy as he
had done at Leicester ; finally he was driven away elsewhere.' His prose-

' Leave to absent himself for a year for the purposes of study was granted to John Wydiff in 1363
(Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Bokyngham, fols. 7, 56). The great reformer held at that time the rectory of
Fillingham in Lincolnshire.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Bokyngham, fol. 237. An earlier entry in the bishop's register ordered the
denunciation of ' John Balle ' to be read in all the churches. This firebrand of the age is described as ' a
certain man of malign and furibund mind, wandering about in divers places leading a lugubrious and dissolute
life, assuming without authority the office of preaching, promulgating heresies and schisms, seducing simple
minds and sowing strife and discord.' Ibid. fol. 93.

' Ibid. fol. 240. * Knighton, Leic. Chnn. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 192.

' The bishop deputed three friars to examine him — a minor, a preacher and an Austin friar.

* Beginning with the cathedral of Lincoln and going on to seven churches in the county of Leicester.

' Knighton, Leic. Chnn. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 193-7.

' In addition to renouncing all former errors the preacher was required to promise that he would
never again preach within the diocese without first obtaining the consent of the diocesan. Ibid. 196

'Ibid. 198.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

cution was the most active and determined step against the Lollards taken by
Bokyngham.

It is curious to note that, in spite of the general prevalence of Lollardy
throughout the diocese, that John WyclifF had been beneficed in this county
and held the rectory of Lutterw^orth in Leicestershire at the time of his death,^
that John of Gaunt the great political supporter of the new^ ideas was
close at hand, and that Oxford was at this time seething with the new
learning, in this county itself we find and continue to find a remarkable
absence of anything like notorious cases of Lollardy ; no names are
conspicuous in Lincolnshire for their support of the movement, and the few
cases of disaffection recorded are of comparatively small interest. In 1383,
following the active suppression of heresy at Oxford and the trial of
Swinderby,John Coryngham, vicar of Doddington, was ordered to abjure and
do penance for his heretical opinions consisting mainly of a denial of the Real
Presence and of the right of apostolic authority.' Nor can we attribute this
rather singular immunity in the case of Lincolnshire to slackness on the part
of Bokyngham and his successors, for in 1388 active measures were taken
in Northampton to stamp out heresy, a county reported in the bishop's
register to be much affected by Lollardy.* During the rule of the next
bishop persecutions remained practically in abeyance, and in parts of the
diocese other than Lincolnshire heresy gained enormous ground during the
respite thus afforded.

The appointment of Henry Beaufort, a young man of not more than
twenty-three years of age, furnishes a flagrant instance of the abuse of
papal provision to benefices and sees in England. The pope did not
even wait for the death of Bokyngham, but under the pretext that the
bishop was too old and too feeble to undertake the charge of his diocese
translated him to the see of Lichfield in 1397 in order to make way for the
promotion of the son of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford, the trend
of public affairs warning him that it would be well to reconcile the anti-
clerical party in England headed by the great duke. The aged bishop, who
had occupied the see for thirty-five years, disdained to accept another
of less importance, and prepared to end his days among the monks of
Christchurch, Canterbury, where death shortly afterwards came to him.*
Of the short rule of Beaufort (1398 to 1404) little need be said, he was one
of those secular bishops against whom a public protest was made at that time
by the presentation of a bill in Parliament praying that bishops should be
compelled to remain within their dioceses to carry out the duties of their office
instead of spending their time at court.' In 1403, after the accession of his
half-brother Henry IV, Beaufort was appointed chancellor, and his promotion
the following year to Winchester severed his connexion with this diocese.

The connexion of Beaufort's successor with the history of the great
religious movement in England, and especially at Oxford, goes as far back as

' A note in the Papal Registers (iv, 193) under date 26 December, 1372, states that WyclifF had lately
been provided by the pope with a canonry of Lincoln with reservation of a prebend.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Bokyngham, fol. 270. ' Ibid. fol. 355.

* Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 228.

° Fori. R. (Rec. Com.), iii, 339, 407. This was the bill for which Thomas Haxey was made respon-
sible and condemned to death as a traitor ; he claimed the benefit of clergy, and was afterwards pardoned.
At the time the bill was presented, January 1396-7, Haxey held among other preferments the prebend of
Scamblesby in Lincoln. Le Neve, Fasti Ecel. Angl. ii, 203.

2 41 6

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

the year 1382, when the name of Philip Repyngdon was associated with
those of Nicholas Herford and John Ashton as leaders of the party whose
support of the Wycliffite doctrines was convulsing the university.^ Having
gone up to Oxford to take his degree, Repyngdon was appointed
by the chancellor of the university, Robert Rugge, another favourer of
Lollard opinion, to preach before the university at St. Frideswide's on Corpus
Christi Day 1382." The interference of Archbishop Courtney, who at that
time had resolved to stamp out these heretical opinions, was for the moment
unsuccessful, and the sermon was preached. But the archbishop, stirred
up by the friars, the champions of the ancient faith, determined that
the matter should not end here. Rugge was summoned before convocation
and being admonished to correct abuses at Oxford was in consequence
obliged to suspend Repyngdon and Herford from preaching.' They
appealed to the duke of Lancaster but were directed to submit themselves ta
the archbishop. In the meantime a provincial council of which the bishop
of Lincoln was a member assembled in May at the Black Friars, London,
and condemned the twenty-four conclusions extracted from the works of
WyclifF and banished the reformer from the university.* Repyngdon,
Herford, and Ashton, refused to subscribe to the conclusions of the council,
were remanded for further examination and finally condemned as heretics.^
Courtney remained inexorable and in November, yielding to the pressure put
upon him, Repyngdon at a synod held at St. Frideswide's, Oxford, made a
full and complete renunciation of his errors. ' Thus,' in the words of John
Foxe, the martyrologist, ' the said Rampyngton was discharged who after-
wards was made bishop of Lincoln and became at length the most bitter and
extreme persecutor of this side of all the other bishops within the realm.' ®
The year following his abjuration Repyngdon became abbot of Leicester, and
in 1397 was made chancellor of the university; on the recommendation,
probably, of Henry IV, to whom he had acted as chaplain and confessor,^ he
was provided to the see of Lincoln on the promotion of Beaufort to Winchester
in 1404.^

In spite of the increase of LoUardy, which continued to spread in defiance
of the means taken to check its growth,' the account of religious persecution
in the fifteenth century establishes the fact that serious disaffection was con-
fined mostly to the south of the diocese, and more particularly to the valley of
the Thames.^" In 141 9 an entry in Repyngdon's register records that two

' The future bishop's first acquaintance with the new views was gained at the time he was an inmate of
the abbey of St. Maiy de Pratis near Leicester.

' Fasciculi Zizan. (Rolls Ser.), 297-9. In the above account the preacher is said to have excited the
people to rebellion and to the spoliation of churches.

'Ibid. 304, 310. Mbid. 272-86. » Ibid. 289, 290.

* Foxe, Acts and Mon. iii, 46. Repeated reference is made to Repyngdon's persecution of his former
co-religionists by William Thorpe in his trial before Arundel in 1407, while the adjuration to follow the
example ' of how great clerks the bishop of Lincoln, Herford and Purvey ' show how prized was the conversion
of the quondam Wycliffite by the orthodox party in the church. Ibid. pp. 257-8, 279.

' Wood, Fasti, p. 35.

^ The temporalities of the see were restored the following March, 1405. Rymer, Foed. viii, 392.

' In January, 141 3, the archdeacons of the Lincoln diocese were ordered, in accordance with provisions
lately framed in convocation, to inquire into cases of heresy or suspicion, and in the following month the dean
and canons were cited to appear before the bishop on suspicion of heresy. Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of
Repyngdon, fols. 83, 85.

'" Buckinghamshire furnishing more cases of obstinate heresy than any other part of the diocese F C H
Sari/. 'Eccl. Hist.' 1,291. / / f .^. .

Alexander (1123-114S)

Hugh of Grenoble (i 186-1200)

Philip Repyngdon (1405-1419)

William ue Lessington or Lexington
Dean of Lincoln (1263-1272)

Lincoln Chapter (end of I2th Century) Lincoln Chapter (14TH Century)

Seals of the Bishops and the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln

To face page 4.2

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

priests were ordered to do penance in the cathedral of Lincoln for aiding and
communicating with Sir John Bonde, a pretended chaplain accused of being a
heretic and Lollard.^ A commission was appointed during the same rule to
examine the books of John Baggeworth, vicar of Wilsford, upon suspicion of
heresy, such books as were found heretical — and the presence of books in
English at that time was regarded as full of menace — to be proclaimed in the
church on a Sunday or feast day and then publicly burnt, and the vicar to be
committed to prison pending judgment, ' lest he should infect the flock.' ^ The
prosecution of William Smith, chaplain of Corby, for heretical error, practically
closes the list of cases in this county.* In another form, however, of ' heretical
error,' Lincolnshire was not lacking, and the numerous instances recorded of
witchcraft and necromancy indicate that clergy and people were deeply sunk in
superstition. In 1378 William de Langton, clerk, confessed to having
resorted to the use of magic art, and was condemned to do public penance in
the market place of Lincoln.* In January, 1406, Henry IV, referring to the
current report of their prevalence in the diocese of Lincoln, ordered the bishop
to examine and cause all magicians, fortune-tellers, and sorcerers, &c., to be
arrested and imprisoned.' Yet another instance in 1442 records that Thomas
Poldyck or Holdyck of Sutton in Holland, having abjured his former crimes
of magic and witchcraft, relapsed and in process of being taken before the
bishop was rescued by certain persons unknown, whose excommunication was
next ordered to be read in the church of Boston." But while beneath the
main stream ran this undercurrent of heretical sympathy, latent if not actively
expressed, we may still note the movement of church life and aspiration.
The devotion of the pious continued to find an outlet in the endowment of
chantry chapels, and in 14 19 Bishop Repyngdon issued a mandate to the
archdeacon of Lincoln and rural dean of Christianity, for the restoration of the
ancient procession from the church of Wigford in the suburbs to the cathedral
or mother church of Lincoln on certain feasts, lamenting the carelessness and
torpor which allowed such sacred customs to fall into disuse.''

Richard Flemyng, appointed to the see on Repyngdon's resignation in
141 9,* was consecrated at Florence, 28 April, 1420.' Like his predecessor,
his early opinions are hardly recognizable in the official acts of his later life ;'^°
attending the council of Siena in 1423 as the English representative, he won
the approval of the pope by professing his ardent intention of stamping out
heresy, and certainly the not-to-be-forgotten act of his life was his execution
of the earlier order of the Council of Constance for the exhumation of John
WyclifFs bones, which he caused to be dug up, burnt, and thrown into the

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Repyngdon, fol. 117.

' Ibid. fols. 137, 142. ' Ibid. fol. 162 J.

* Ibid. Memo, of Bokyngham, fol. 159. ' Rymer, Foeti. viii, 427.

* Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Alnwick, fols. 41, 761/. ' Wilkins, Condi, iii, 396.

' The reasons for Repyngdon's resignation are extremely vague, and depend mainly on inference. In
1408 he was made a cardinal by Gregory XII in return for the bishop's support of his pontificate. The
creation with others was cancelled by the Council of Pisa which deposed Gregory the following year. It is
probable that the difficulties of holding a cardinalate and an English bishopric together led Repyngdon to
resign his see.

' Stubbs, Reg. Sacr. Angl. 86.

'" He distinguished himself at Oxford, where he held the office of proctor of the university, by his
support of Lollard opinions, and was the subject of extremely scornful comment in a mandate of Brundel to
the chancellor of the university, ordering members not to be led into defending these ' said damnable
conclusions.' Wilkins, Concil. iii, 327.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

River Swift.^ Another of the bishop's acts designed with the object of checking
the growth of heresy was the foundation of Lincoln College, Oxford, which
he did not live to see completed.' Flemyng's zeal was probably felt by
Martin V to call for some special mark of favour ; unfortunately, the device
adopted had the effect of nearly terminating the bishop's career.
The archbishopric of York falling vacant on the bishop's return from the
council of 1423, the pope wrote to the dean and chapter refusing to admit
their previous election of Morgan of Worcester, and signifying his ' provision '
of the bishop of Lincoln to the vacant see. The ministers of Henry VI, who
had already signified the royal assent to Morgan's election, were highly
incensed by the pope's action, and threatened Flemyng with the penalties of
the Statute of Praemunire should he dare to accept of the appointment. The
bishop found himself in a very awkward position ; on the one hand was the
government, on the other the pope, both sides refusing to give way and
insisting on his compliance with conflicting orders ; in the end, by a rather
discreditable shuffle, he was allowed to remain at Lincoln by the farce of a
re-translation from York by the pope.*

The religious houses of the diocese were diligently visited both by
Flemyng and his successors Gray and Alnwick. The general nature of the
injunctions issued to religious houses relating to food, dress, divine offices,
prohibitions against keeping hunting dogs, &c., indicate that in many cases
the inmates were fast losing the spiritual side of their profession. In 1436
Alnwick published a mandate for a general visitation owing to a report of a
wrongful application of their revenues,* and the prior of Torksey was suspended
from his rule on account of his bad and neglectful management ^ in the course
of the inquiries subsequently instituted. The quarrels of the dean and chapter
of Lincoln, which had lasted throughout the rules of Flemyng and Gray,
were settled by the ruling of Bishop Alnwick, and confirmed by Parliament
in 1439,° but even after the publication of the bishop's laudum the dean,
whose aim appears to have been to secure complete ascendency and the first
place in the cathedral church even when the bishop was present,^ was not
satisfied, and declined to be bound by the new book of statutes drawn up
with the express object of avoiding all future causes of dissension. A
prolonged contest, in which Dean Mackworth was suspended and finally
excommunicated, ensued, in the midst of which the bishop died.'

The rule of William Gray, who followed Flemyng in 1 43 i ,* was too
short to be productive of much result. It is interesting to note that he was
translated from London to Lincoln, the largeness of the revenue at that time
accruing to the bishopric of Lincoln doubtless compensating for any loss of
dignity incurred by resigning the see of the capital. In Bekynton's Cor-
respondence there is a letter of Eugenius IV to Gray reproaching him for
having filled up the archdeaconry of Northampton, an appointment claimed
by the pope on the ground that it had previously been held by a cardinal ;
the bishop, however, decHned to give way, and stuck to his appointment of

' Fuller, Church Hist. (ed. Brewer), ii, 424.

' Godwin, De Praesulibus (1743), i, 297. a Ibid.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Alnwick, fol. 32. ° Ibid fol to

« Ibid. fols. 8-20 ; Pari. R. (Rec. Com.), iii. 10.

' T. Gascoigne, Loci e libro veritatum (Rogers), 153.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Alnwick, fols. 50, ^dd. 70. ' Rymer, Toed, x, 495.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

his relative, another William Gray, afterwards bishop of Ely.^ The action of
the pope in 1 440 shows the state of degradation to which the papacy and the
church had sunk at this period. According to Thomas Gascoigne —

In that year Eugenius IV published mighty indulgences throughout Christendom and the
collector of the pope in England who received the money for the letters of indulgence
granted was Master Peter de Monte, a proud Lombard, who on leaving England with
enormous sums collected by the sale of the Papal indulgences swore by the Body of Christ
in the presence of Master Vincent Clement that Pope Eugenius should never have the
money that had been collected unless he should first send him bulls appointing him archbishop
of Milan ... In England some bought letters of indulgence and of the power to absolve
in all cases for two-pence, and some for a pot of ale and some for a foul act of sin ; and
some had baskets full of letters of indulgence to be sold throughout the country to those
who would buy and the names of those who bought were caused to be inscribed on the
letters granted and some said ' Now is Rome come to our door.' And some cared not
about doing evil, thinking they could easily obtain pardon and grace by the pope's concession,
and Alfonso king of Arragon said to the pope ' Now is the Church of Rome become a
real wanton for she sells herself to whosoever asks for money.' ^

Bishop Alnwick, translated to Lincoln in succession to Gray in 1436, presents
a very favourable example of a fifteenth-century bishop. He owed his
preferments to court favour, and while occupying the see of Norwich, to
which he had been ' provided ' in 1426, was appointed confessor to Henry VI;
his influence with the young king was probably greatly responsible for that
important work of Henry VI, the foundation of the king's college at Eton
within the diocese of Lincoln in 1440.' In the midst of the chorus of
complaints against the bishops for their supineness and attention to merely
secular matters,* it is pleasant to find instances in the bishop's register of his
care for the spiritual needs of his flock. In May, 1444, he ordered the
abbot of Wellow, near Grimsby, to withdraw a canon of that house from
the cure of the parish church of Clee, and to replace him by a suitable
secular priest, ' there being great danger to souls in the wandering of religious
men from their cloisters.' ° Another entry records that Sir William Tyrwhitt,
patron of the church of Buslingthorpe, was ordered to make another pre-
sentation as John Bakhous last presented by him ' proves on examination to
be so intolerable.' ' The episcopal registers of this period contain frequent
entries recording the alteration of the dedication day of parish churches. An
order was issued in 15 19 for the dedication festival of all churches occurring
in harvest time to be celebrated on 3 October.^

The connexion of Marmaduke Lumley, successively bishop of Carlisle
and Lincoln, with this diocese was little more than formal. Letters preserved
in the ' Bekynton Correspondence ' give an account of Henry VI's endeavour
to get Lumley, then bishop of Carlisle, translated to the see of London in
1448. The attempt was unsuccessful, but the pope promised to promote the
king's nominee on the next possible occasion,* which occurred on the death

' Corresp. of Bekynton (Rolls Ser.), ii, 251.

' Loci e libro veritatum (Rogers), 124. " Corresp. of Bekynton (Rolls Ser.), ii, 270-93.

* In 1447 Bishop Pecocke of Chichester preached his famous sermon at St. Paul's Cross, defending the
practice of bishops in not preaching and in engaging themselves away from their dioceses, the result of which
was to draw on himself the attacks of both parties in the Church, the orthodox and those agitating for reform.
Repressor of over much blaming of the Clergy (Rolls Ser.), ii, 615.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Alnwick, fol, 44 d.

^ Ibid. fol. 44. ' Ibid. Memo, of Atwater, fol. 67.

' The pope very properly pointed out that he must abide by the king's first recommendation of Thomas
Kemp. Corresp. of Bekynton (Rolls Ser.) i, 156-9.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

of Alnwick in December, 1449. The new bishop had scant opportunity to
enjoy his new appointment ; he died at London, in the year of his trans-
lation and was not even buried in the cathedral to which he was still a
stranger.^

John Chadworth, consecrated in 1452,' occupied a position midway
between the political bishops who preceded and followed him. His rule
embraced the troublous period of the Wars of the Roses, but, whether actuated
by motives of prudence or that he had too much on his hands already in
exterminating heresy, he withdrew as far as possible from taking part in
politics, and there is little to indicate in which direction his sympathies lay.
He was elected by the chapter on the recommendation of Henry VI, and
the king wrote to the pope to secure his confirmation. As a matter of fact
the pope had already provided to the see in the person of that William Gray
previously mentioned as archdeacon of Northampton, but he acquiesced in
the present arrangement, and the chapter of Lincoln on this occasion regained
that right of free election of which they had been deprived for a period of
150 years. As Chadworth was deputed in the absence of the chancellor,
George, archbishop of York, to declare the cause of the opening of Parliament
3 June, 1467,' he must have been successful in winning the confidence
of the Yorkist party. In the relentless persecution of Lollards and heretics
which marks this rule, and which was so fiercely carried out in other counties
belonging to this diocese, notably in Buckinghamshire, Lincolnshire again fails
to present any case of note ; whatever leaven of sympathy with heterodox
opinion may have existed, and probably did exist, it did not rise above the
surface of ordinary life and practice.* A mandate addressed to the bishop in
1 547, the same year which saw the trial and condemnation of Pecocke for
heresy,' ordered all heretical books within the diocese to be burnt, special
mention being made of the English translation of the Scriptures, and of the
works of the bishop of Chichester.*

The important offices of state held by the two ecclesiastics who in turn
occupied the see, left them but scant leisure to look personally after the
diocese. Thomas Rotherham (1472—80) was made keeper of the Privy Seal
in 1467,^ bishop of Rochester the year following, and translated to Lincoln
in 1472 on the death of Chadworth. In 1474 he was raised to the chancel-
lorship, and in 1480, on the king's recommendation, translated by Sixtus IV
to the primacy of York.' John Russell, who succeeded Rotherham as keeper of
the Privy Seal in 1 474,* was translated from Rochester to Lincoln on the trans-
ference of Rotherham to York ; he served under Richard III and Henry VH,^"
but appears to have fallen under suspicion shortly before the defeat of
Richard III, as he was deprived of the seal in July 1485." The bishop was
employed by Henry VII in various embassies,'^ and his diocese saw little of

' Godwin, De Praesulibus (1743), i, 298. ' Rymer, Foed. xi, 309.

' Pari. R. (Rec. Com.), v, 571.

* Chadworth's register (fol. 47) records one small exception. John Potter of Asgarby in 1458 purged
himself of offence for absenting himself from divine service and for refusing to take holy water.
' The bishop of Lincoln was one of the prelates appointed to try Pecocke.

^ Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Chadworth, fol. 34. ' Pat. 7 Edw. IV.

» Pat. 10 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. 3. ' Rymer, Foed. xi, 491.

'" He also assisted at the funeral of Edward IV in 1483, and ' sensyd the corps' as it was carried for burial
from Westminster to Windsor. Letters, etc. of Ric. Ill and Hen. VII (Rolls Ser.), i, 5, 7, 9.

" Rymer, Foed. xii, i6o. " Letters, etc. of Ric. Ill and Hen. VII (Rolls Ser.), i, 509-16.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

him. In 1481 he spent a week at Crowland Abbey while engaged in settling
the appropriation of the church of Brinkhurst or Eton to the abbey of
Peterborough.^ His death occurred 30 December, 1494.

William Smith, translated to Lincoln in January, 1496, is generally
remembered as the founder of Brasenose College, Oxford.* Previous to his
translation from Lichfield he held a position on the Council of Wales, and in
1 50 1 became president of Wales, an office which lasted till his death, and
involved, at least during the lifetime of Prince Arthur, constant attendance
at Ludlow.' The bishop managed, however, with keen secular occupations
to combine a certain amount of active diocesan administration, and sundry
matters in the diocese requiring reform received attention at his hands. The
visitation of the cathedral in 1506 and consequent injunctions brought to
light a very melancholy state of affairs. The papal licences exhibited by the
dean, enabling him to hold a deanery at the age of sixteen and to be ordained
priest before the age of twenty-three, show how rampant had become the abuses
of papal privilege, while with regard to the fabric of the cathedral, com-
plaints were made that the servants of the dean and resident canons were in
the pleasing habit of making the roof and windows a target for their arrows,
and it was in so ruinous a condition that the bishop authorized an appeal for
public contributions.* Like his predecessor Bishop Smith felt the necessity
of stamping out heresy and error, which was much on the increase in the
southern district of his diocese. A rather contradictory impression is con-
veyed as to his methods of ' persuasion,' one account charging him with the
cruel treatment of one Thomas Chase of Amersham, who after confinement
in the bishop's prison of Little Ease was ' cruelly strangled and pressed to
death,' while another account allows

this William Smith, although he was somewhat eager and sharp against the poor simple
flock of Christ's servants, under whom some were burned, many abjured, a great number
molested . . . yet divers he sent quietly home without punishment or penance, bidding
them go home and live as good Christian men should do. And many who were enjoined
penance before, he did release.^

The bishop besides engaging in various public schemes for good, foremost
among which was the foundation of Brasenose College, showed remarkable
kindness to the members of his family ; his readiness to promote his nephews
and other kinsmen drew from his biographer Churton the remark that
Lincoln cathedral was 'peopled with persons of the name of William
Smith.' «

The short occupancy of the see of Lincoln by the famous Wolsey, on
the death of Smith early in 1 5 1 4, was a mere incident in a career that at
that time seemed destined to carry all before it. The deanery of Lincoln,
which the great pluralist had held since February, 1508-9, was equally a

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Russell, fol. 24 d.

' In an earlier capacity as keeper of the hanaper in the chancery Smith is mentioned as responsible for
sums for the custody of two daughters of Edward IV. Clerical preferment followed this lucrative position, and
in 1487 he was presented as king's chaplain to the living of Great Grimsby. Pat. 2 Hen. VII, pt. ii, m. 8.

' The February following his translation the bishop appointed James Whytstons to act as vicar-
general during his absence from the diocese with the prince. Hutton, Ext. from Line. Reg. Add.
MS. 6953, fol. 31.

* Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Smith. ' Foxe, Acts and Mm. iv, 1 24, 2 1 9.

' Churton, Lives of Smith and Sutton. Three nephews of that name were archdeacons of Lincoln,
Northampton, and Stow. Le Neve, Fasti Eccl. Angl. ii.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

drop in the ocean of his other preferments.^ He was provided to the see by
Leo VI,* and consecrated 26 March, 15 14, but resigned in the autumn for
the archbishopric of York, which the death of Cardinal Bainbridge in July
of that year had vacated.

If, however, the connexion of this famous man with Lincoln was little
more than formal, his influence was largely responsible for the appointment
of two of his successors : William Atwater and John Longlands, con-
temporaries of Wolsey at Magdalen, Oxford, owed their rapid promotion in
the church to the friendship formed with him at the university. Atwater,
who succeeded on the translation of Wolsey, could vie indeed with the
cardinal in the number of his preferments.' He had previously held the
chancellorship of Lincoln, but resigned it two years before his appointment to
the bishopric.

The chief event of Atwater's rule was the visitation of the monasteries
in his diocese, which began in April, 151 8, and was not finished till the end
of July. The condition of affairs disclosed was not on the whole very satis-
factory. Besides frequent instances of bad management, failure to keep
accounts, neglect of divine service, the reception of secular persons within the
cloister, a few cases of even a worse nature are noted. The injunctions
issued in the next rule by Bishop Longlands to many of the religious houses
show no amelioration in their state. Writing to the dean of Lincoln for
the visitation of the cathedral, he urges him ' to take order among your
prebendaries for the building and maintenance of their churches and correc-
tions there to be done,' adding ' that if ye will not I must and will supply the
duty.' ' I assure you now there is more misliving committed within the
jurisdiction of my prebends than in much part of my diocese besides.'
Referring to the decrease in the number of residentiaries in the cathedral the
bishop insists that the four dignitaries of ' my church ' ought to have
residence there, and in place of the treasurer ' who hath of long season been
absent from the church ' appoints Mr. Richard Parker.* The injunctions
issued in 1531 to the prioress and nuns of Nun Cotham are a lamentable
revelation of the depth of degradation to which a community could fall.

Of the character of John Longlands who succeeded to Atwater, it is
difficult to speak with precision. He occupied a position midway between
the old and the new ; zealous in the persecution of heresy and of all those
whose views were being permeated by the works of Luther and
other German reformers,^ he seems to have had no scruple in lending
himself to the drastic changes initiated by Henry VHI, including the
royal supremacy and the destruction and spoliation of the monasteries.
Earlier still he lent himself to the schemes of Wolsey for the furtherance of

1 At the time of his promotion to Lincoln, Wolsey held among other preferments the deanery of York
the deanery of Hereford, and the precentorship of St. Paul's.

^ L. and P. Hen. VIII, i, 4722-3.

' He is said to have held as many as twelve preferments.

'' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Longlands.

' See Longlands' letters to Wolsey expressive of a desire to take strong measures against the'i'r spread at
Oxford (i. and P. Hen. VIII, iv, 993). In the absence of any register containing an account of the
persecutions in his diocese during his rule, we must accept Foxe's description of him as ' bloody and cruel ' in
hie persecutions {Jets and Mon.'vr, 219). In the first year of his rule the king issued a royal mandate ordering
all mayors and other oificials to assist the bishop of Lincoln in executing justice upon heretics • of whom there
are no small number in his diocese' {L. and P. Hen. VIII, iii, pt. ii, 1592). The bishop was frequently
employed in trying cases that occurred in the London diocese.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

his college, and his attempts to get money out of the abbot of Peterborough
and the prior of Spalding ^ can only be described as barefaced blackmail.

As Henry VIII's confessor and spiritual director, an office which
Lon glands held for upwards of twenty years, the bishop has often been
charged with putting scruples into the king's head with regard to the legality
of his marriage with Katharine. Such was the general opinion,^ and though
he denied the charge his action while Henry VIII was agitating for the
divorce lends colour to the general supposition. He was employed by the
king to win from Oxford an opinion favourable to the royal wishes,^ and he
accompanied Cranmer on the journey down to Dunstable for the purpose of
holding a court and pronouncing sentence of separation.*

But if no remonstrance on the subject of the confiscation of ecclesiastical
property came from the bishop, opposition sprang from another and perhaps
the least expected quarter of all, ' the rude commons of one shire and that the
most brute and beastly in England.' To whatever other grounds may be
attributed the feeling of discontent and uneasiness then general, the immediate
cause of the rising in 1536, second only in importance to the pilgrimage of
grace, arose from the wholesale acts of spoliation which began in that year
and continued up to 1539. In no other part of the country did the dissolu-
tion of the monasteries come with a greater shock in the ruthless sweeping
away of the old established order. Thirty-six religious houses in Lincolnshire
came under the earlier Act for the dissolution of houses of less than >r2oo
yearly value,^ and by August of 1536 matters were proceeding apace.
John Freeman wrote to Cromwell on 7 August from Vaudrey that to
carry out his commission and pull down to the ground all the walls and steeples
would cost the king ^^1,000 in this shire where ' there be more of great houses
than in England besides with thick walls and most part of them vaulted,'
he therefore proposed to take down the bells and lead, ' which will bring
6,000 or 7,000 marks,' pull down the roofs, battlements and stairs, and
leave the walls standing.* The people watched the dismantling and work of
spoliation doubtless with alarm, and the voices of the homeless and dispossessed
religious were not wanting to fan their fears, to sow suspicion among them, to
urge that their parish churches were threatened, and that the church plate would
be the next object of plunder.'^ The smouldering flame of discontent and
revolt burst out on th? advent to Caister of the commissioners for the collec-
tion of the king's subsidy in the autumn of that year, and immediately the
country-side was up, the whole of the east of England watching in secret and
silent sympathy.* It is unnecessary here to repeat the details of this wild
rising, or to recount the manner in which it was quelled ; enough to note that
on the part of the insurgents professions of loyalty to the king merge into
expressions of hatred and distrust of his confessor their bishop, whom they

' The superiors were threatened with forced resignation unless they would pay certain sums for Cardinal's
College. L. and P. Hen. VIU, iv, pt. ii, 2378, 2391, 2457, 2564, 2736, 4708, 4796.

' Chapuys writing to Charles V speaks of the king's confessor as ' the principal promoter ' in the affair
(ibid. V, 1046— 1 1 27), and the queen was evidently of the same opinion.

° Ibid, vi, 918. The active part he took in procuring the sentence rendered him as unpopular at Oxford
as he appears to have been in other parts of the country where the people took up the side of Katharine.

* Ibid, vi, 661. ' Ibid, x, 1238. « Ibid, xi, 242.

' In a letter about this time Chapuys remarks : ' It is a lamentable thing to see a legion of monks and nuns
chased from their monasteries wandering miserably hither and thither seeking means to live.' Ibid, xi, 42.

* Ibid, xi, 567.

2 49 7

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

accuse roundly of 'being the beginning of all this trouble.'^ The insurrection
momentarily checked the work of plunder," but only for a time. John
Freeman, after ' dispatching ' the abbey of Croxton in Leicestershire,' was
back again in Lincolnshire in September, 15 38, and on 3 October he was able
to report with great satisfaction the ' dispatch ' of nine Gilbertine houses.* The
king was 'shrewdly' charged with pensions, remarked the commissioner, but
might redeem many with benefices ' of which he has a good sort ' as they
fell due.^ 'There are eleven abbeys in Lincolnshire, great and small, still
standing,' says the report on 20 October ; the modest writer 'would like the
farm of Spalding if it be not granted,' as he had been disappointed of
Bardney." A further warrant under the privy seal empowered the com-
missioners to take the surrender of Thornton, Spalding, Heyninges, Crowland,
Torksey, Kyme, Grimsby, Orford, Nuncotham, and Stixwould.''

The last years of Longlands' rule witnessed the partition of the diocese
in partial execution of the schemes of Henry VIII for the formation of
fresh sees out of the proceeds of the destroyed monasteries.* The erection of
the bishoprics of Peterborough ® and Osney or Oxford,^" which removed the
counties of Northampton, Rutland, and Oxford out of the bishop's jurisdic-
tion, severed the northern and southern portions of the huge diocese, and
practically necessitated the removal of the episcopal residence to Buckden,
where it remained for years. The bishop did not live to see the confiscations
that followed the accession of Edward VI. He died in May, 1547, only a
few months after his royal master, and was succeeded by Henry Rands or
Holbeche, a native of this county and former inmate of Crowland Abbey,
who had been successively prior of St. Mary's, Worcester, and dean of the
newly constituted cathedral there. He was made suffragan bishop of Bristol
in 1538, transferred to Rochester in 1544, and thence translated to Lincoln
on the death of Longlands."

The fears expressed by the 'rude commons' as to the fate of their parish
churches were fully realized in the following reign. The depredations at
Lincoln, under an order of June, 1 540, for the removal ' of certain feigned
relics by which simple people are deceived and brought into superstition and

' L. and P. Hen. VIII, xi, 585-705. Dr. Legh, who was in the county at the time, appears to have
been fortunate in escaping the vengeance of the insurgents which fell on Dr. Raynes, the bishop's chancellor.
Ibid, xiii, 585.

' The return made to the writ certifying the number of religious houses actually dissolved in February,.
1538, gives only twenty-three houses out of thirty-six of the earlier entry. Ibid, xii, pt. ii, 1195.

' Ibid, xiii, pt. ii, 366.

* Sempringham, St. Katharine's outside Lincoln, Haverholme, Catley, Bullington, Sixhills, Alvingham,
Ormsby, and Newstead. Ibid. 528. ' Ibid.

^ Ibid. 649. On a former occasion the commissioner had made * so bold ' as to demand the farm of
Bardney in lieu of Ormsby which he had 'missed' (ibid. 528). In November of that same year he was
granted the demesne lands of Hagnaby, one of the monasteries suppressed under the earlier Act, for which
also he had made request. In July the duke of Suffolk was granted the bells and lead of Kirkstead and
Barlings. Ibid, xiii, pt. i, 1349.

' The priory of Stixwould had been allowed to remain, charged, however, in such a manner as to leave
the poor inmates with little means of existence. The prioress and her sisters addressed a petition to 'Good
Mr. Heneage ' in 1537 praying him to intercede with the king on their behalf for the remission of the payment
of X54 yearly pension, 'or else we shall never be able to live' ; besides this pension there was a charge on the
firstfruits amounting to ^^l 50, and a fine of 900 marks for the continuance of the house. Strype, Eccl. Mem. i
pt. i, 395 ; L. and P. Hen. VllI, xi, App. 4 ; xii, pt. I, 41. ' *

' Strype, Eccl. Mem. i, pt. i, 539.

° Erected in 1541 by letters patent 33 Hen. VIII, pt. iii, m. 23.

'" Erected at Osney (ibid. 34 Hen. VIII, pt. vi, m. 9) in 1542 and removed to Oxford in 1 545. Ibid
38 Hen. VIII, pt. vm. " Rymer, Toed xv, 153.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

idolatry,' deprived the cathedral of the gold and silver shrines of Bishops
Hugh and John Dalderby respectively,^ and were followed by a further raid at
the beginning of the reign of Edward VI.'' The Act of i and 2 Edward VI,
following the earlier measure of Henry VIII for the suppression of the
chantries, confiscated to the crown the property of all colleges, free chapels, and
chantries, of which the return of the commissioners gives not less than 150
situated in this county.* The measure, besides robbing parishes of many small
gifts and endowments, deprived the church in many instances of an assistant
chaplain, and let loose in the diocese a large body of men who, admitted to
benefices in order ' to save the king a little money,' * the payment of their
pensions, were naturally inclined to oppose any plan of reform initiated by a
regime by which they had been dispossessed. The reign of Edward VI saw
further the removal of pictures and images from parish churches, the taking
down of roods, the casting down of altars, the setting up of tables, the white-
washing of the walls of the edifice, and the confiscation of vestments. The
certificate of the commissioners of Edward VI, dated 10 April, 1549, states that

wee haue taken parfyt and trewe Invytores of all chalycis Jewelles playtes and belles wythin
evyre churche and chappell in the countye of lyncoln, excepte the wappentak of kirkton in
holland . . . The nombre of wyche chalyces arre vj'lxxxviijth Crosses viij pyxes xxvij
paxes V Crewettes ij Crysmatores viij Sensers vj kandylstyckes ij Baysens j bolle and a dyshe
of Sylver. Create Belles m'vij'liij Sanctus belles iiij'lxxv after the computacyon of v"* to
the hundreth.'

Under Mary there was a partial restoration of confiscated church goods.
One of the objects of Bishop White's visitation, carried out under a metro-
politan order in 1556, was to inquire into the condition of church goods
and furniture. The institution of inquiries elicited at the same time the sad
condition into which the fabric of the churches had sunk ; the rectories of
fifty-one churches appropriated to the cardinal-archbishop of Canterbury were
entered as ruinous, twenty-four belonging to the bishop of Lincoln stood in
urgent need of repair, and twenty-four belonging to various other persons were
in no better condition." ' There was a matter of a hundred chancels and rectors'
houses besides vicarages and their chancels in Lincolnshire now in ruinous
cases.' The series of documents still preserved at Lincoln, entitled Inventortum
Monumentorum Super stitionis^ furnishes us with a lively picture of the ruthless and
wholesale destruction early in the reign of Elizabeth of those articles of church
furniture which the last reign had been at such trouble and expense to restore
and replace.* The documents purport to be a return made in 1566 of such
ornaments, &c., as were then regarded as unnecessary or worse, idolatrous, and
the laconic entry ' burnt,' ' sold,' ' defaced,' expresses the fate of most of the

' The return made by the commissioners states that 2,621 oz. of gold, 4,285 02. of silver, and a great
number of pearls and precious stones were carried off on that occasion. L. and P, Hen. VIII, xv, 772. See in
Dugdale, Mon. account of Cath. of Lincoln, vi, 1296, Nos. 69, 70.

' For list of depredations on this second occasion see paper of Canon Wordsworth, Line. Dioe. Mag. June,
1889.

' Cert, of Coll. and Chant. (P.R.O.). * Strype, Ecc/. Mem. ii, pt. ii, 143.

° P.R.O. Exch. Q.R. Sh. 3, pel. 3. A single bell was considered enough for a parish church. At the
end of the reign of Edward VI nearly 3 2,000 lb. of bell metal for the king's use had been taken from
Lincolnshire churches and stored at Grimsby.

* Strype, Ecc/. Mem. iii, pt. ii. No. Ii.

' Edited and published by Edw. Peacock under the title EngRsh Church Furniture.

' To pick at random the church of Alford which comes first on the list : — ' All the mass book — defaced
by the wardens;' 'The Rood Marie and John and all other pictures — brent' 'Item the sensors, crwetes
and suchlike trash — sold.' Edw. Peacock, Engl. Ch. Furniture, 29.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Marian restorations. The see of Lincoln itself, under the system of encroach-
ment which marked the reigns of Edward VI and Elizabeth, fell from the
position of one of the richest to one of the poorest in England.^ Bishop
Bullingham was allowed to retain his archdeaconry of Lincoln to compensate
him for the spoliation of the see on the accession of Elizabeth, and was
content in 1571 to be transferred to the less influential but less impoverished
diocese of Worcester. On his promotion in 1595 Bishop Chaderton pro-
tested that with the dilapidations at Lincoln amounting to over ^1,000 'for
which he could get nothing ' he was unable to maintain his household,
keep some hospitality, or furnish and keep one house in repair. He also
was allowed to retain the archdeaconry of Lincoln in commendam for some
years.''

The two Edwardian bishops of Lincoln, Holbeche and Taylor, the
latter consecrated by Cranmer 26 June, 1552, on the death of Holbeche
the previous year,* were actively employed in the events of that reign.
Holbeche preached at St. Paul's on the occasion of the celebration of the
battle of Pinkie in September, 1547, the occasion being also memorable for
the fact that the litany or procession for the first time was said ' kneeling with
their copes in the choir,' according to the fashion prescribed by the well-
known ' Injunctions ' published the previous July. Both Holbeche and
Taylor were among the commissioners appointed to draw up the Book of
Common Prayer in 1 548, and sat on the commission directed by Gardiner in
1550 to examine and correct Anabaptists, and such as did not duly administer
the Sacraments.* Holbeche, ' a true favourer ' of the Reformation, whose will
was proved by his wife Joan,^ must have been one of the first of the prelates
to take advantage of the Act allowing priests to marry and retain their
benefices. Taylor had in his early career suffered persecution for his advo-
cacy of the reformed faith ; under Edward VI he was able freely to express
his views, but on the accession of Mary fell again into trouble on the score
of his opinions. He attended the first Parliament under the queen in
October, 1553, but on the celebration of mass withdrew, or, according to
Strype, ' was thrust out.' * The same authority speaks of his being deprived
the following March on the ground that he was married, but the order of
15 March, 1554, gives the fact of irregular appointment by letters patent of
the late king instead of by right of election as the cause of his deprivation.''

The changes in the county necessitated by the new order of things
succeeded quickly to the consecration of John White to Lincoln on i April.
The queen's Great Statute of Repeals abolishing the Edwardian Act of 1 549,
and a royal proclamation prohibiting all married clergy from ministering or
saying mass, was followed in March by the publication of the ' Injunctions '
for the removal of all who had availed themselves of the permissive Act of

' Such spoliations of sees were sanctioned by the Act 38 Hen. VIII, cap. 16, passed in 1545-6.
Holbeche, 'though not by his fault' according to Strype {Eccl. Mem. ii, pt. ii, 167-8), allowed thirty-four
' rich' manors belonging to the bishopric to be conveyed to the crown (Rymer, Foed. xv, 166). Under Mary
the seizures under Edward VI were returned to the bishops, but according to Collier {EccL Hist, vi, 260-lV
Elizabeth so stripped the bishoprics that only one manor was left to that of Lincoln.

' Cal. S.P. Dom. Eliz. 1595-7, p. 60.

^ Rymer, Foed. xv, 312. John Taylor had held the deanery of Lincoln since the year 1544.

* Strype, Eccl. Mem. ii, pt. i, 385 ; ii, zoo.

' He left a son named Thomas ; ibid. pt. ii, 167-8. * Ibid.

' Rymer, Foed. xv, 370.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

the last reign. From the institutions in the Alnwick Tower, Lincoln, we get
a fair idea of how far the personnel of the Lincolnshire clergy was affected
by the sweeping nature of the order, but even the sixty deprivations actually
recorded between the May of 1554 and the April of the following year^ can-
not be regarded as fixing the number conclusively, as they comprise only
those incumbents given as actually turned out and take no account of the
many who resigned, doubtless in anticipation, and who would add consider-
ably to the number.

Bishop White, whose zeal in the rooting out of heresy much commended
him to the queen, was in September, 1556, translated to the see of Winches-
ter. Earlier in the year he visited his diocese ' roundly ' by authority of
Archdeacon Pole,' the various matters brought up before him on that occasion
furnishing an interesting picture of the condition of the people at that time.
Under the first article of inquiry Thomas Armstrong of Corby, and his wife
were convicted of heresy, and ordered to recant and do penance in the
cathedral of Lincoln and parish church of Grantham ; Anthony Meres, esq.,
cited for not receiving the sacrament at Easter, was reported to have fled over
seas ' and remains excommunicate.' Common causes of presentment were the
eating of meat on fast days, and offences against morality. Two men at
Boston convicted on the first charge were condemned to the penance of
carrying a quarter of lamb about in the market-place of Boston. A man and
woman of Winteringham being presented for adultery, the bishop set the
woman this penance, ' That the said Emma shall ride through the city and
market of Lincoln in a cart and be ronge out with basons,' the sheriff was
ordered to see to the execution of the sentence. A man of Cabourn, another
of Gainsborough, and Andrew Lacie of Horkstow had married nuns and were
divorced by the bishop. Ormond Hill of Thornton, presented as a married
priest, was also divorced and enjoined penance.* Bearing in mind the con-
fusion and general relaxation of order and discipline naturally resulting from
the violent and successive changes that had taken place, and the suspension
of episcopal authority pending the visitation of vicars-general appointed by
the crown, it is hardly surprising that the verdict on the clergy of that period
is returned briefly as ' very bad from the bishops to the curates.' * Of the
condition of Lincolnshire clergy in particular, reliable witness is provided
later which shows that they differed in no degree from the clergy of other
dioceses.

The next occupant of the see, Thomas Watson, consecrated 1 6 August,
1 557,' appears like his predecessor to have won fame and renown by his-
zealous advocacy of Catholic views,^ while his powers as a preacher caused him

' They occur as follows : — Seven institutions to benefices by reason of the deprivation of the last incum-
bent in May, twenty-two in June, seven in July, two in August, two again in September, seven in October,
seven in November, three during January, February, and April of the following year, and three more in 1554,
the month of which is not given. Three more deprivations in the last year of Mary's reign bring up the
number to sixty-three. These institutions have been calendered in Line. Notes and Slueries, vols, v, vi.

' Strype, Ecd. Mem. iii, pt. i, 482.

' The injunction of Mary provided that such priests as consented to separate from their wives should after
fit penance be re-admitted to officiate so it be not in the same place. Frere, The Marian Reaction, 6l. The
original report of White's visitation is given in Strype, Ecd, Mem. iii, pt. 2 ; pp. 389-413.

* Ibid, ii, pt. 2, pp. 141— 2.

' The two Marian bishops of Lincoln were both formally elected to the see, papal bulls being procured
for their promotion.

° The diocese of Lincoln escaped the persecutions for heresy, so marked a feature of White's rule at
Winchester. No bonfires were lighted in this county in the cause of religious belief

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

to be summoned frequently to preach on special occasions. The accession of
Elizabeth, which set the pendulum of religious opinion swinging violently in
another direction, brought about a sudden change in the position of all
Marian bishops, among whom White and Watson stood pre-eminent. Watson
was absent from the Parliament of Elizabeth, which assembled in January, and
the following April passed the two Acts which formed the basis of the
Elizabethan church settlement,^ but by that time both he and White had
announced their adherence to the order prescribed by the last reign. The
wisdom of their conduct at the conference on religion held in Westminster
Abbey on the third of that month has been called in question, but the account
repeated by Strype that the ' two good bishops ' carried temerity so far as to
threaten Queen Elizabeth and her council with excommunication seems based
on a misleading report of the proceedings.'' The two bishops were, however,
sent to the Tower, Watson was released the following June, but on his refusal to
take the oath of supremacy was deprived of his bishopric and again committed.*
The oath was once more administered to him in May, i 560, on the passing of
the Assurance of Supremacy Act, but he again declined to subscribe. He was
with five other prelates released from the Tower in September of that
year on account of the plague which had broken out, and for a time billeted
on Bishop Grindal of London. But the fate of the most tragic of the
sufferers under Elizabeth was long drawn out, and he was transferred from
one charge to another, and at last confined in Wisbeach Castle in Norfolk,
where he died in 1583.*

The means taken by Elizabeth to establish the new order of things on
the clergy consisted of a royal visitation, the visitors appointed being instructed
to act as spiritual judges, to take cognizance of all moral offences as well as
to enforce the settlement of religion ^ as set out in the royal injunctions of
Edward VI in 1 549 and the Prayer Book. To the dean and chapter of each
diocese was directed a mandate inhibiting them, as custodians of the sees
vacated by the sweeping deprivations in the episcopate, from exercising any
jurisdiction during this visitation. The diocese of Lincoln for the purpose of
investigation was grouped with the dioceses of Oxford, Peterborough, Coven-
try, and Lichfield, the visitors appointed for this county being William Lord
Willoughby, Sir Robert Tyrwhitt the younger. Sir E. Dymock, and Sir
Francis Askew." Unfortunately a loss seems to have occurred in the list of
subscriptions for Lincoln, which comprises only some 332 names.^ The
clergy actually deprived, headed by the bishop, include the archdeacons of
Lincoln, Stow, Buckingham, Bedford, and Huntingdon, and six prebendaries
of Lincoln,^ the warden of Mere Hospital, the incumbents of Friesthorpe,

' That of the Queen's Supremacy and for Uniformity of common prayer and administration of the sacra-
ments. Gee, The Elizabethan Clergy, 3 1 .

S. P. Venetian E/iz. 1558-60, pp. 58-60. Burnet, Hist, of the Rejormation, i, 572 ; Gee, The Eliza-
bethan Clergy, 31, 32. ' Ibid. 144, 226.

* See account of Watson's vicissitudes in Gee, Elizabethan Clergy, 1 96. He was removed from Grindal
and placed under Cox of Ely, and again confined in the Tower 1566. After being transferred to the
Marshalsea he was liberated for a time, but being found in correspondence with Romanists was placed in
<:harge of Home of Winchester, transferred to the bishop of Rochester in 1579, and thence removed to
Wisbeach.

' Gee, op. cit. 73. * Ibid. 98.

' Ibid. 98, 124-9. Another return for the year 1563 gives 343 subscriptions out of 1,160 parishes in
the Lincoln dioceses. Ibid. 98 from Harl. MS. 595, fol. 39.

° Gee {Elizabethan Clergy, p. 279) gives five ; to these may be added the prebendary of Langford Magna.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

deprived successively in December, 1558, and the following March, the
vicars of S. Grantham, Moulton, Stubton, Claxby, and Claypole, with the
incumbent of Comberworth, in 1561, the vicar of N. Thoresby in 1562,
the vicars of Digby, Scredington, and Broxholme in the following year, the
incumbent of Fulletby in 1566, and the vicar of Fillingham in 1570.^

Nicholas BuUingham, consecrated in January, 1559-60, the first of the
four Elizabethan bishops of Lincoln, was no stranger to the diocese to which
he had been appointed.^ In 1547 he appeared at convocation as proctor of
the Lincolnshire clergy, at the close of the same year he was given the
prebend of Welton Westhall in the cathedral, which he afterwards exchanged
for that of Empingham, and in 1 549 he succeeded Heneage as archdeacon of
Lincoln. As a married man BuUingham was deprived of all preferments on
the accession of Mary ; he retired to his native city of Worcester, but even-
tually escaped and made his way abroad.' The death of the queen in 1558
was the signal for his return, and in December of the same year Sir Francis
Ascough petitioned Cecil that his former preferments might be restored to
him.* The knowledge of canon law, to the study of which he had more
particularly devoted himself during his exile, was the means of recommending
him to Parker, who made him his chaplain, and at whose consecration he
assisted in the December previous to his own appointment to Lincoln. ° The
sound learning of a theologian, combined with a ' sweet reasonableness ' of
temper which specially distinguished BuUingham, were frequently called into
play during the eleven years in which he administered the diocese. He took
part in the convocation of 1562 which formulated the Thirty-nine Articles,*
and was instrumental in drawing up the famous ' Book of Advertisements,'
presented by Parker to Cecil on 3 March, 1565, and published the following
year.^ Of his personal work in Lincolnshire little is recorded beyond the
circular letter he addressed to his clergy in February, 1568, ordering collec-
tions to be made for the relief of those persons who had fled out of France
and Flanders to avoid religious persecution.^

BuUingham escaped many of the difficulties which beset the path of his
successors, who were required under a monarch by whom the church was
regarded as little more than a state department to exercise a double check on
the ' contentious Protestant ' and ' stubborn Papist.' The task for the first
ten years of Elizabeth's rule was comparatively easy ; the Act of Uniformity
does not seem to have been rigidly enforced, and the main sufferers from the
changes at the beginning of the reign were the upper ranks of the clergy.
Under BuUingham's successors, however, conditions altered and stiffened. The
bull of Pius V in 1 570, excommunicating Elizabeth and absolving her subjects
from their allegiance, placed nonconformity in a very different light, and stern
measures of repression began to be adopted. The bishop's place on his trans-
lation to Worcester in I 57 1 was taken by Thomas Cooper, a distinguished
scholar who had been precluded from taking orders until the accession of

' Taken from the Institutions in Alnwick Tower calendared in Assoc. Arch. Soc. Rep. and Pap. xxiv, xxv,
and Line. Notes and Queries, v, vi.

' Strype, Parker, i, 121-7 ; Rymer, Toed, xv, 561. ' Strype, Parier, i, 127.

* Ca/. S.P. Dom. Eliz. 1547-80, p. 118.

' Strype, ^»». of Reform, ii, pt. ii, 555. Previous to his exile he had held the postof chaplain to Cranmer..

* Wilkins, Concil. iv, 233.

, ' Cardwell, Doc. Ann. of the Ref. Ch. of Engl, i, 287-97.

* Cal. S.P. Dom. Eliz. 1547-80, p. 307.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Elizabeth made the profession of Protestant views possible. His literary gifts
and power as a preacher attracted the queen, who announced her resolve to
promote him. In 156 1 he was made dean of Gloucester, and thence trans-
ferred to Lincoln on BuUingham's departure. Under the new bishop active
steps were taken with the object of hunting out and putting down recusancy.
The list furnished by Bishop Cooper in October, i ^'jj^ of the names of such
persons as refused to come to church was at that time so meagre that it was
evidently felt to call for a word of explanation : —

' If my certificate,' writes the bishop, ' do not note unto your honors so many a circuite
as my dyocese contaynethe I humbly desire your honors favorably to interpret the same and
not to impute it either to negligence in searchinge or to timorousness in dealing with them.
... In Lincolnshire there is Robert Dymmock, Esq., and Justice of the Peace, who a
long time forbore coming to the church and hearing of divine service, but of late he hath
yelded to come to the church and so hath don after a sorte, but with the colour of his sick-
ness it is so slacklie and seldom times as it cannot be any greate token of his amendment.'
' My diocese is large,' adds Cooper, apologising for not being ' able directly to excuse any '
('and yet have I used all the lawful! meaneslcan devise to know '), *it cannot be but there
are some lurkers unknown to me.'*

The members of the council in a letter to the ' Lord Busshopp ' of Lincoln in
1580 ' yelde thanckes ' for his pains, understanding ' how discretlie he hath
travaled in discovering the offences of the principal! Recusantes and reducing
others to conformitie.' * The danger in this county, as apprehended by the
authorities, lay not so much in the number of papists as in the fact that they
were recruited from the ranks of some of the most powerful and influential
families in the county. To follow various members of the Tyrwhitt family,
whose names re-appear from first to last in connexion with Romanist
sympathy, is to trace the history of recusancy in the county.*

As far as the puritan or protestant movement was concerned, Cooper,
like Archbishop Grindal, appears to have recognized what a beneficial effect
to the church might have resulted from its enthusiasm and zeal, provided only
that it could be guided into properly organized channels and regulated by
episcopal authority. The archbishop, in a letter of remonstrance to- the
queen in 1576 on the subject of her peremptory order for the number of
preachers to be cut down, and the ' exercises ' or ' prophesyings ' which
originated at Northampton to be abolished, instances the bishop of Lincoln as '
one of the prelates who approved their use in a strictly modified form.' The

1 By order of the Council.

' Cal. S.P. Dom. Eliz. 1547-80, p. 560. In 1580 John Parker of Hagworthingham declared 'how
he was drawn away from the service of God and became a Papist.' Ibid. 690.

' jicts ofP.C. xii (New Ser.), 105.

'In 1580 the bishop was notified by the Privy Council that the public appearance of 'the daughter of
Sir Robert Tyrwhitt lately married unto Lord Sheffield ' to answer the charges against her had been ' forborne '
at the • ernest suite ' of her husband, but that he should take pains to confer with her and also discover ' by
what means sundry gentlemen of good accompt within his charge are become fallen away from their dutyes in
religion ' {/ids of P.C. xii [New Ser.], 91-z). In the early part of the following year came an order to search
the house of William Tyrwhitt 'called Wigmor,' who with his brother Robert had been committed to the
Tower ; they were released after they had been imprisoned ' a good space,' and had made their ' humble
submission' (ibid. xii. [New Ser.], 318 ; xiii, 79). The bishop took occasion soon after to inform the council
that the presence of the two brothers was doing much harm in the county < by reason of the great resort that
is made unto them,' so that ' sundry persons who heretofore were inclined to conformity are now become
Jiardened.' There was reason to suspect that the child of John Thymolby, another well-known recusant, ' had
been christened in Poperie,' adds the bishop (ibid, xiii, 238). Lord Vaux, Mr. Tyrwhitt, and others were
examined in February, 1582, for assisting at a celebration of mass in the Fleet Prison {Ca/. S.P. Dom. Eliz.
1581-90, p. 46). In 1 59 1 Wickham was ordered to examine 'a young girle' who had accused the gentle-
woman Mistress Magdalen Thymolby of uttering 'badd and unreverend wordes of her Majestic' (ibid,
jxxii, 317). ' Strype, Life of Grindal, 260, 327, 329, 331.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

stand made by Grindal in this matter resulted in his suspension. Cooper was
one of the clergy assembled in convocation who signed a petition to Elizabeth
in 1580, praying for the restoration of the archbishop, and he was deputed to
convey it to the queen.^ On the issue of the three articles following
Whitgift's promotion to Canterbury in 1583, twenty-one ministers in
Lincolnshire were suspended for refusing to subscribe ; they addressed a letter
to the council to protest against their sentence, stating their willingness to take
the supremacy oath and to admit the Thirty-nine Articles of 1562, but that they
were unable to accept the Book of Common Prayer.' The prominent part
taken by Cooper in the controversy raised by the publication of the Marprelate
tracts belongs to the period of his activity at Winchester, whither he was trans-
ferred in 1 584. His successor, William Wickham, dean of Lincoln, consecrated
to the see in December, 1584, exposed himself to the attacks of the puritan
press on the occasion of the funeral sermon for Mary queen of Scots, preached
by him at Peterborough on 2 August, 1587. The preacher's mild hope as to
the ultimate salvation of the late queen was deeply resented by the extreme
members of that inflexible sect as holding out remote chances for an impeni-
tent papist.'

The return made by Sir Edward Dymmock and Robert Carr in April,
1586, certifying their proceedings with recusants in this county to be dis-
charged of the penalties of the statute is insignificant as to numbers, but
interesting as bringing up names already well known in connexion with
Catholic sympathy. ' William Tyrwhitt,' the report states, ' is in Kent,
Robert Tyrwhitt is a younger brother and hath but ^40 of yearly revenues
left him for the discharge of such money as by the penalty of the law he hath
heretofore forfeited to Her Majesty. This information we have from William
Fitzwilliams who hath him in custody.' John Thymolby is entered as offering
^20 yearly to be discharged of penalties for recusancy.* Despite the increas-
ing severity of the measures passed against them, it seems evident that their
numbers were on the increase in the interval between 1586 and the year
which saw the first roll of recusants under Elizabeth." In 1592 are recorded
the forfeitures of William, Lord Vaux of Harrowden, of John Thymolby of
Irnham, John Morley of Newton, Thomas AUott of Stainfield, William
Tyrwhitt, esq., fined ^^40 for voluntarily absenting himself two months from
divine service, Elizabeth Tyrwhitt, late of Kettleby, ^^240 for non-attendance
at the parish church of Bigby for a year, Richard Tyrwhitt, gentleman, fined for
non-attendance at church ^120 and 100 marks for ' voluntarily hearing mass.' *
Other names recorded are Thomas Shipley of Scawby, yeoman, Elizabeth his
wife ; William Harpham, labourer, and Margaret his wife ; Katherine
Smythe, spinster ; Richard Danby, gentleman, and Alice his wife ; all fined
j^300 and all of Scawby, a lively centre of Catholic sentiment. The roll of
1596—7 gives the names of Charles Yarborough of Yarborough, George Yar-
borough, Anna Yarborough, Matthew Googe and Elizabeth his wife, Thomas

' Cardwell, Doc. Ann. of the Ref. Ch. of Engl, i, 386.

' Brook, Lives of the Puritans, ii, 87. ' Nichols, Prog, of Queen Eliz. 1823, ii, 512-13.

* Cal. S.P. Dom. Eliz. 1586-90, p. 324.

' In 1592 there was a complaint that recusants in Lincolnshire were being too leniently dealt with, and
suffered to remain at large. A peremptory order was sent from the Privy Council for their removal to gaol.
Jets ofP.C. xxiii (New Ser.), 289.

* Recusancy R. Exch. L.T.R. The six names of Lord Vaux, John Morley, Thomas Allott, John Thymolby,
Andrew Littlebury, and Elizabeth Tyrwhitt recur regularly in the series of recusancy rolls for Elizabeth.

2 57 8

A hllbiUKY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Googe,and records various other groups in the same district. In October, 1 599,
Thomas, Lord Burghley, reported from Yorkshire the flight of ' divers of the
obstinatest recusants into Lincolnshire,' where he hopes they may ' hit upon
some seminaries v^rhom they have taken with them.' ^ It is evident that on
the outbreak of trouble in Yorkshire those of Catholic sympathies took
refuge over the Humber in north Lincolnshire, where popish adherents mostly
centred. ' Part of Lincolnshire,' says Burghley three months later, ' is more
dangerous than the worst part of Yorkshire ; some order should be issued, for
it is out of my commission to deal in it.' '

WiUiam Chaderton, the last of the Elizabethan bishops, was transferred
to Lincoln from Chester in 1595 on the departure of Wickham for Win-
chester ; he lived to see the accession of James I and the downfall of Catholic
hopes by the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605.

In spite of efforts made by successive archbishops, and notably Bancroft,
to improve the state of parish churches and raise the standard of divine
worship, the impression created in the mind of the student as to the condi-
tion of the church at the close of the sixteenth century receives sad confirma-
tion in the report of an archidiaconal visitation of 1605 and the list of pre-
sentments for the following year.' Ample proof is afforded of the restlessness
of the time, the disorder and neglect attaching to the office of the ministry,
and the spirit of indifference, the alternative to the fanatic activity of the
puritan, slowly invading all classes. The effect of the Reformation had not,
it must be confessed, tended to raise the standard of the country clergy. The
liberty accorded them to marry had added to rather than detracted from
their difficulties, the meagre income provided for the support of a priest in
pre-Reformation times being wholly inadequate for the support of a married
clergyman.* Evidence is not wanting of the lowered and even degraded
position occupied by incumbents, the scant measure of respect they won
from their parishioners,^ the unclerical pursuits with which they varied their
more regular avocations. The presentments above mentioned include ' a
rector ' for ' following commonly markets and fairs ' at Grantham and Slea-
ford, a cattle-dealer it would seem, Thomas Dale of Pickworth, is reported
to have given over his benefice at Lenton and ' is become a husband-
man.' Robert Vaughan, curate of Skellingthorpe, ' serveth ye cure but not
knowen by what authority ; he is gardener to one Mr. Adames, unhable to
reade divine service and liveth very basely to ye scandall of his function.'

' Cal. S.P. Dom. Eliz. 1 598-1601, p. 333. In 1596 an order was sent to search the house of *one
Mistris Worthington,' whom report stated ' doth keep divers prelates in her house in disguised apparell,'
and ' hath as wee are informed ' eight sons in the seminaries in Spain and in other places. Acts of P.C. xxvi
(New Ser.), 73. ' Ca/. S.P. Dom. Eliz. 1598-1601, p. 379.

' These have been published in the Line. Dioc. Mag. for August, September, and October, 1 89 1.

* A return made under Elizabeth probably in 1565, of livings vacant, mostly through poverty, gives
sixty in the archdeaconry of Lincoln and thirteen in the archdeaconry of Stow. S.P. Dom. Eliz. 160 1-3,
Addend, xii, 108.

' The small village of Edlington may be instanced as giving an example of the unfriendly relations between
a pastor and his flock which the religious divisions of the time tended to promote. The vicar to begin with
is censured for omitting the sign of the cross in christening a child. Of his parishioners William Smith,
junior, is reported for ' irreverently with scorn flering and laughing in the church,' especially when the
minister confutes ' the erroneous doctrines of ye church of Rome ; ' being admonished the culprit retorted
' that no man should forbid him to laugh in the church ; ' he and Thomas Forman are also guilty of sleeping
in the church and the latter for not standing up at ' ye readinge of ye creede.' Thomas Read and Thomas
T. have grievously ' miscalled ' the vicar, one calling him ' proud prelate,' ' paltry priest,' the other saying
that he did go about to 'cunny cotch' . . . 'had an evil tongue.' Line. Dioc. Mag. Aug., Sept., Oct., 1891.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

James Thornton, rector of Barrowby and Woolsthorpe, received censure for
appointing a curate which ' ys a common buyer and seller.' Robert Tooke
was excommunicated for serving the cure of Asgarby being a layman;
Edmund Varley, curate of Folkingham, for serving without a licence, ' in-
famous for his lewd life and conversation and given to drunkenness.' Among
those cited for non-residence were Jerom Phillips, vicar of Gainsborough, the
vicar of Ranby, the rector of Tothill ; the rectors of Driby, Toynton, Gt.
Coates, and many others had not provided curates for the benefices where
they were non-resident. Roger Metcalfe, rector of Mavis Enderby, managed
to combine most of the offences with which an unworthy cleric could then
be charged, ' a great usurer, undecent in apparel, communion but twice a
year, chancell in decay, omission of divine service, doth read no sermons, a
prophaner of the Sabbath.'

But sadder even than lists that profess to deal only with the worst
examples among the clergy, are entries that show the neglected condition
into which churches were allowed to fall and the plunder they afforded
for the unscrupulous. The list of churches reported to be dilapidated and in
ruins is too long for quotation, ' the raine doth drop into ye church,' ' it
raineth into ye church in many places,' follows in melancholy reiteration ;
broken windows ' daubed ' up with mud, porches thatched with straw or
reeds instead of the old lead roofing that in the case of the conventual churches
had attracted the eyes of Henry VIII and his ministers. The lead on the parish
churches had now became a general object of plunder, rectors, vicars, and not
a few churchwardens, being charged with its removal. One of the wardens,
together with the widow of the other warden of the church of Langton,
is censured for selling away the chalice of the parish church. William Sher-
man, last warden of Belton, admitted that he had sold away ' ye organs ' that
were in the church to Sir John Feme, knt., one of the council of York, who
carried them away to his house. It is sad to recollect that these men were
in all probability the descendants of those ' rude commons ' who seventy years
ago had risen up in wild and hopeless rebellion to defend the integrity of
their parish churches.

The three bishops who held the see in succession to Chaderton were
not men who had much influence on the church in Lincolnshire ; their stay
in the diocese was very brief and their interest in it apparently not very
great. William Barlow,^ who was translated from Rochester in 1608, con-
tinued to live at Westminster where he retained his prebend and only moved
to his palace at Buckden shortly before his death in 161 3. His successor,
Richard Neile, although a man of much practical ability, and ' as strict a
disciplinarian as Laud himself,' ^ was too anxious for promotion to stay long
in a bishopric which was ' not so great as it has been,' ' and the visit of
James I to Lincoln * gave the bishop an opportunity for flattering attentions
which were presently rewarded by promotion to Durham (16 17). He was
followed by Dr. George Montaigne [or Mountain], a man described by a
contemporary ' as ' inactive and addicted to voluptuousness, and one that

' Athenae Oxon'ienses (ed. Bliss), iv, 385.
' Gardiner, Hist, of Engl, vii, 9.

" Harrington in his Vietu of the Church (1653), 81, speab of Lincoln 'as not so great a Bishopric as it
has been as I suspect from the oft removes from it.'

* Nichol's Progresses of James I, iii, J64. ' Heylin, Life of Laud, 166.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

loved his ease too well to disturb himself in the concernments of the church.*
But he too got speedy promotion and passed on to London in 1621.

Meantime the tide of religious feeling in the county seems to have been
flow^ing steadily in the direction of puritanism. In a letter to James I
Dr. John Burges, rector of Sutton Coldfield,^ gave the number of ministers
in Lincolnshire who were unable to conform to the regulations laid down in •
the canons of 1603, as thirty-three; but there were many more remaining
in the church who thought the liturgy ' too like a masse booke.' * Of this ^
spirit the town of Boston offers a familiar instance, for from the point of view
of conformity it merited Bishop Barlow's reproach as being ' a factious people
imbued with a Puritan spirit.'" Their minister. Dr. Cotton, has left a very
full account of the practices of a puritan divine who just managed to conform ~
in the early years of the century ; he writes to his bishop * that —

the ceremonies of ring in marriage, and standing at the creed are generally observed by
myself, and other ceremonies of surplices, cross at baptism, kneeling at communion, are
frequently used by my fellow ministers in our church. The people on Sabbath and
sundry other festival days do very diligently and thoroughly frequent the public prayers of
the church (and though) sundry do not kneel at communion, that is more from press of
numbers.

He goes on to refute the idea that people from other parishes frequented
his church in order that they might escape kneeling at communion, and
assured the bishop that ' all the neighbouring parishes are thoroughly con-
formable.' The account of the Sunday afternoon service at Boston given by
Bishop Neile's visitor in 1614^ confirms Dr. Cotton's account of the zeal
of his congregation. The service began with the appointed prayers, psalms,
and lessons, then the ' preacher of the Towne bestowed two hours in a
sermon,' this was followed by more psalms, then the children were catechized,
after that there was a psalm with two hours' ' explication ' — the whole lasting
over five hours. But the visitor remarked that ' there were as many sleepers
as wakers.'

The ' liberty ' ° which Dr. Cotton had enjoyed for nearly twenty years
(he was appointed in 161 2) came to an end when Laud brought in his
stricter discipline, and Dr. Cotton resigned after being fined ^(^50 in the
Court of High Commission for inconformity :'' he eventually joined the
emigrants who carried the name of Boston across the Atlantic. Lincolnshire
was just ' on the edge ' of the pilgrim district * and was for a time connected
with the movement through the Rev. John Smith, who formed a Separatist
congregation at Gainsborough in 1606.' Smith had resigned his living in
Lincoln^ the year after the publication of the canons of 1603, but he had
previously been imprisoned in London for inconformity. About 1608 he
went with his congregation to Amsterdam and most of them eventually joined
the Pilgrim Fathers." Nor were puritan sympathies confined to Boston, for

' Quoted in Neale's Hist, of the Puritans, ii, 44.

' Jn abridgment of that booke which the ministers of Lincoln Diocese defwered to his Majesty upon the first of
December last (1605).

' Letter from the bishop quoted in Thompson's Hist, of Boston, 414.

• Add. MS. 6394. « In a letter to Strype. Add. MS. 5853, fol. 245.

, ° ' Of all men I envy Dr. Cotton,' wrote a less fortunate puritan contemporary, * for he doth nothing in
way of conformity and yet hath his liberty.' Quoted in Thompson's Hist, of Boston, 417.

' Cal. S.P. Dom. cclxi, Feb. 1633-4. ' Arber's Pilgrim Fathers, 54 ; ibid. 51.

° Hist. MS. Com. Rep. xiv, app. viii. '" Moor, Hist, of Gainsborough, 130.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

in the visitation of 1614^ it was noted that there was ' not any forwardness
among any of the ministers to have their children confirmed,' and that it was
quite impossible to prohibit all the ' unauthorised lecturers ' or many places
would go quite unserved. The Articles of Visitation of this period reflect
the anxiety with which the authorities watched the increase in these ' unau-
thorised lecturers.' Originally encouraged as a means of helping the parish
priest who was incapable of preaching, the office of lecturer offered great
opportunities to those who scrupled to conform to the liturgy. They were
supposed to read prayers before the sermon twice a year at the least, and to
conform to the orders of the Church of England ' and to have a licence from
the bishop, but the reiterated inquiry on these points shows that they were
known to be often evaded. It is significant therefore that lecturers were
much in demand in Lincolnshire. Grantham is reported' as being visited
by fourteen of these occasional preachers, Louth by twelve and ' would like
two more,' Grimsby by eight, Horncastle by twenty, while Sleaford ' sued for
but was denied a lecturer in my late lord's day.' *

The registers of the city of Lincoln ' contain constant references to the
appointment of lecturers by the corporation and of the stipend allowed them,
and in 1627 Edward Rayner, a well-known puritan divine, was admitted
Sunday afternoon lecturer at a stipend of £,zo. In 1621 the care of the
diocese passed to Dr. John Williams, who retained the deanery of West-
minster and his prebendal stall at Lincoln in commendam. His duties as Lord
Keeper, and after his resignation of that office his long embroilment with the
king, which led to his trial in the Court of Star Chamber and ended in his
complete disgrace, prevented his giving much personal attention to his
diocese.* His Articles of Visitation ^ are, however, very carefully drawn up,
with a view to ascertaining the condition of the churches and the extent to
which the minister conformed to the liturgy. We gather from them that
a properly equipped church would be provided with a large Bible,' Book of
Common Prayer, sufficient books of homilies, Erasmus his Paraphrase,'
Bishop Jewel's works, and the ' booke of God and the King ' (a dialogue
of the Oath of Allegiance put out by James I, 16 15—16). Other necessaries
were a convenient pulpit with pulpit-cloth, decent seats for minister and
clerk, a chest for the registers, a poor man's box, a decent font with a cover,
a decent communion table with two covers — ' one of silke or fine stuffe the
other of linen ' — a ' faire ' surplice, a communion silver cup, and a ' stoop ' for
the wine. A book of the canons of 1603 was also required, as the minister
was supposed to read them once a year.

Very few churches had this full equipment, but there are evidences here
and there that the influence of Laud was not without its effect. In 1627

' Bishop Neale's first visitation reported. Add. MS. 5853, fol. 245.

' Bishop Williams' Articles of Visitation, 1625.

' Add. MS. 5853, fol. 245. See Street, A^o/« on Grantham, for an account of ' the worthy society of
Tuesday lecturers,' established 1620. * Ibid. ' Hist. MS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii.

' Cal. S.P. Dom. Jas. I, cxxii, 75. Williams got it special dispensation from personal attention to either
diocese or deanery as long as he held the seal.

' Dr. Williams' visitations of 1625 and of 1635 ^re given in full in the Appendix to the second
Report of the Ritual Commissioners, 1858.

'The churchwardens' accounts at Gainsborough for the year 1614 contain this item, 'To John
Thompson for a Bybell j^iii.'

' At Sleaford, where there are remains of a chained library, may still be seen a black letter copy of the
Paraphrase of Erasmus. Trollope's Hist, of Sleaford, 152.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Peter Tytler, vicar of Grantham, provided for the better ordering of his
church by moving the communion table to the east end of the chancel and
railing it in. The puritan members of his congregation objected and appeal
was made to the bishop,^ who gave a somewhat ambiguous decision — ' it was
not an altar but a fair joyned table provided by the churchwardens,' and as
to its standing altarwise, ' I think something may be said for that.' ' I
conceive it the most decent situation when not used.' Into the war of
pamphlets provoked by this pronouncement it is not necessary to go, but it
explains the charge afterwards brought against Bishop Williams of ' favouring
Puritans and Nonconformists.''' As far as Grantham was concerned the
decision made Httle difference, for Mr. Tytler seems to have left the table
at the east end where Mr. Dix his successor found it in 1633.* This was
of course its position in the cathedral church, but in 1634 when Laud
included Lincoln in his general archiepiscopal visitation,* the church was in
a very neglected condition.^ The table was ' not very decent and the rail
worse, the organ was old and naught, and the fabric secretely ruinous.' The
copes and vestments were embezzled and none remained ; there were no
seats in the body of the church ; and there were said to be many prebendaries
who had never seen the inside of the church, and who appointed incom-
petent men to preach for them. The surroundings of the church were even
more discreditable. Ale houses, hounds and swine, occupied the churchyard
' very offensively,' and a special ' monition under seal ' was sent to insist on
the removal of the same. From other places in the county came the same
report of indifference or ' inconformity.' Mr. Linold, of Healing, refused to
use the surplice or the cross at baptism, and at Louth the church was out of
repair, the churchyard indifferently kept, and both clergy and laity much
given to drunkenness. Many churches were reported ' in decay,' * or without
chancels^ and a chapel at Stow ' had been profaned time out of mind and at
fair time was used as a victualling house.' The bishop tried afterwards to
prove that Sir Nathaniel Brent (the visitor) had declared the diocese of
Lincoln well governed and free from ' inconformity,' ^ but as far as the county
was concerned this could not be maintained. In 1637 Laud supplemented
this visitation by inquiries ' sent out to the clergy as to their incomes, and
their answers confirm the assertion of Dr. Farmery," the chancellor of the
diocese, that the clergy were poor in a poor county. The vicar of Hogs-
thorpe reported his living worth ^^lo and a house ; Alford was worth ^19,
partly made up of fees (marriage 12^., churching id., no chrisom, burials
id. and 2d.).

' Cal. S. P. Dom. Chas. I, Ixxvii, 56. • S. P. Dom. Chas. I, Ixxxv, 1627.

' Street, Notes on Grantham.

• Cal. S. P. Dom. Chas. I, cclx (89) and cclxiii (3 5), (42). Bishop Williams resisted Laud's proposed visita-
tion most strenuously, and even tried to get legal sanction for his claim for exemption, but Noy decided
against him. ' S. P. Dom. Chas. I, cclxxi (12).

° An order for repairing Boston Church gives exact details of what was considered ' decent.' The
seats were to be rebuilded so as to leave ' a faire spacious alley in the middle,' pavement to be relaid, gallery
at east end to be moved to north end ; glass windows and roof to be thoroughly repaired — inside to be
' whited ' and adorned with texts, especially such as inculcated obedience to king's majesty. Ten Com-
mandments and king's arms to be very fairly painted and put at east end, and ' room over the porch to be
repaired and made fit for a library, in case any well disposed person should leave books for same. Wood-
ward's Register, Stowe MS. 1058, fol. 192.

' Hale was reported as having had no chancel for thirty years, though the impropriation was worth
j^200 p.a.

* Ca/. S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cclxxxvi (47). » Ibid, ccclxxix (21). " Ibid, cxxxv. (37).

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

St. Mary's, at Stamford, was only worth ^12, and Dr. Farmery
reported^ that it was difBcult to find a parson for it, the last incumbent
having slipped away informally to a good benefice in Ireland. The Lincoln
Corporation ' leased the tithes of Hemswell for ^30 per annum, and only
paid their stipendiary vicar j^ii.' The natural consequence of the eccle-
siastical revenues being so largely in the hands of lay impropriators was that
the ' necessary competence ' of the vicar was cut down to a minimum.
Among the exceptions to this may be noted Pinchbeck worth jTioo and
Belton-o-Hemingby worth ^240.*

Although Bishop Williams showed himself so unexacting in his de-
mands for conformity, cases that came to the ears of Laud were sharply dealt
with in the High Commission Court. The case ' of John Vicars, for instance,
parson of St. Mary's, Stamford, occurs again and again in the records of that
court. Accused of heretical opinions, of omitting ceremonies, and even of
frequenting conventicles. Vicars was suspended, and was only reinstated
after most humble submission and a full recantation of his errors in his parish
church ; while Richard Northan,* curate of Haither [or Hay dor], for
omitting the cross at baptism, delivering the communion to parishioners
seated, and for refusing to allow the King's Declaration as to Sports to be
accepted in his parish, was fined ^1,000, committed to the gatehouse during
pleasure of the court, and condemned in costs of the suit. Attempts were also
made to put down^ the lecturers and substitute catechizing by the parish
priest, but with very little result, and by 1640 the opposition to Laud's policy
had become so widespread in Lincolnshire that Dr. Robert Sanderson, rector
of Boothby Paynell, assured Laud,* with whom he was personally in sympathy,
that there was very little hope that even the ' moderate and conforming kind
of clergy ' would accept the canons recently passed or take the new oath.'

Since 1637 Bishop Williams had been suspended" and imprisoned in the
Tower in connexion with a charge of libel, which had been one of the
consequences of his case in the Star Chamber, from which he emerged with
damaged reputation. He was restored to his diocese in 1640, but the
following year was promoted to York. Like the other bishops of this period,
he was little seen in his episcopal city, yet he undertook the restoration " of
the palace at Lincoln, which he brought ' to as much strength and comeliness
as when first inhabited.'

His successor, Thomas WinnifFe, was consecrated 5 February, 164 1-2;
he was a man of well-known puritan sympathies ^'^ and was never charged with
' delinquency,' ^^ but on the confiscation of the bishop's lands in 1 646 he
retired to his living at Lambourne, where he died in 1654.

During the short period of his episcopacy, Lincolnshire, though not the
scene of any important engagement, was the highway for the troops of both

' CaL S. P. Dam. Chas. I, cccxcv (48). ' Hist. MS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii.

' An inquiry made in 1616, Willis MS. fol. 39 (quoted in Trollope's Sleaford and the Wapentake of
TloxvieW) showed that out of twenty-four small livings in the Sleaford district the best was only ^£40
per annum and the worst ,^5.

* Cal. S. P. Dom. Jas. I, cxxii, 114. ' S. P. Dom. Chas. I, cciii, 30.

* Cal. S.P. Dom. ccccx (9), 1638-9. ' Stowe MS. 1058. Woodward's Register, fol. 197.

* Lambeth MS. 577, 259. ' The ' etcetera ' oath.
" Ca/. S. P. Dom. Chas. I, ccclxiv (44).

" Rep. of Arch. Soc. held at Lincoln, 1 848.

" Walker, Sujerings of the Clergy, ii, 23. " Cal. S. P. Dom. 1654, p. 56.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

parties, and their respective adherents^ in the church were alternately dis-
possessed or reinstated according to the varying fortunes of the war.

The rector of Welbourne, obliged ' to flee for his life,' ventured to return
for his livelihood' and was put out by the earl of Manchester for neglecting
his cure. The vicar of Holbeach' had the misfortune to be twice taken
prisoner of war, and was in consequence dispossessed for ' adhering to the
forces raised against the Parliament.' One of the reasons given for ejecting
Dr. Hurst of Barrowby * was that he resided too near the king's garrison at
Newark, though he was not known to have supported the forces in any way.
He attacked the parliamentary leaders, however, with spiritual weapons,^ and
they may, not unnaturally, have been irritated by the sermon in which he
compared them to the four horns of Daniel. In Dr. Walter Hudson of
UfHngton Lincolnshire offers an example of the fighting parson, for, not con-
tent with being chaplain to the royal forces. Dr. Hudson did good service as
scout-master-general, and in this capacity conducted the king in disguise to
Newcastle. Dr. Hudson three times broke prison and was finally killed in a most
heroic fight while commanding a body of horse as colonel. Lincolnshire being
one of the seven associated counties came under the hand of the earl of Man-
chester and the ejectments began in the year 1 644.* It is difficult to get the
exact numbers of all the clergy who suffered under the Commonwealth, but
the number of those deprived of their livings was certainly over 120.^ Many
of these are stigmatised as ' scandalous ministers,' but some of the offences that
come under this head are ' refusing the company of godly ministers,'
' neglecting the lecture at Boston,' ' sending to an alehouse on Sunday and
frequenting tobacco shops.' But the most usual cause of deprivation was, of
course, open or suspected hostility to the new order, as in the case of Thomas
Gibson,* vicar of Horncastle, who was accused of paying obedience to the
rules and orders of his church, defending episcopacy, and refusing the Covenant.
But some at least of the Lincolnshire clergy managed to retain their livings
without abjuring their church, and a notable instance of this may be seen in
the experiences of Dr. Robert Sanderson ' of Boothby Pagnell. He suffered
much ill-usage at the hands of the army, and was carried a prisoner to
Lincoln, but being exchanged against ' a zealous and furious Covenanter ' he
managed to get the sequestration taken off his living and to continue in his
parish until the Restoration. We have his own account ^° of how he kept up
the traditions of the church ritual. For some time he used the Prayer Book
in spite of the ordinance for abolishing its use, not even omitting the prayers
for the royal family and the bishops.

But one day the soldiers broke into the church, seized the book, and tore
it to pieces. Sanderson then used part of the service ' more or less ' as the

' A letter dated 27 March, 1643, from Sir Geo. Brooks to Sir Wm. Kllligrew, gives the names of the
following clergy indicted at Grantham for having joined Parliament against the king : Thomas Wallis of
Swaton, Andrevc Thornton of South Kyme, Thomas Scochey of Great Hale, Robert Ram of Spalding, Robert
Alford of Sleaford, Samuel Lee of Burton Pedwardine. Quoted in Thompson's Hisi. 0/ Boston, 774.

' Walker, Sufferings, ii, 309. a ^otes on Holbeach, 169.

* W. E. Foster, Plundered Ministers of Lincolnshire. ' Walker, Sufferings, ii, 270.

« Walker (op. cit. i, 10) thinks all virere ejected wrho would not take the Covenant, and has traced
sixteen ejectments to the year 1644.

' Mr. W. E. Foster has edited the Plundered Ministers of Lincolnshire, being the minutes of the
Plundered Ministers' Committee as far as it refers to Lincolnshire. Add. MS. 15669.

» Walker, op. cit. ii, 252. 9 Ibid. 105 and Izaak Walton's Lives.

'" Lathbury, Bock of Common Prayer, 288-90.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

congregation allowed, until a complaint was lodged against him for disobeying
the ordinance. Obliged to give up the use of the book, Sanderson still repeated
the service by heart, slightly altering the form and the order, remodelling the
litany for instance into short collects. How many of the conforming clergy
followed his example it is impossible to say. Sanderson himself thought his
neighbours too ready to give up the Prayer Book before they were required,
but he advised them to take the ' engagement ' when that oath was substituted
for the Covenant in 1650, and some appear to have returned to their livings
at this time.

The sufferings of the ejected clergy were probably much the same all
over the country, though the very small incomes to which the intruders suc-
ceeded may have made it specially difficult for the deprived ministers of
Lincolnshire to obtain the ' fifths ' which were supposed to be set aside for their
maintenance.^ The following is a very typical case given by Walker."
'Mr. Stratford (rector of Bassingham), after his ejection, applied himself
to the usurper for his fifths, but could never obtain one farthing, and he
died in great poverty dependent on the charity of friends.' Judging by the
appeals made to the local committee for Lincolnshire,' Mr. Stratford's case
was a common one. Dr. Hurst * of Barrowby, Dr. Johnson of Bracebridge,^
Dr. Weames of Gedney,^ Mr. Corbet of Healing,^ Mr. Gibson* of Horncastle,
are among those whose cases were considered. Mr. Prestland" of Market
Deeping got his fifths, but was afterwards ordered to leave the parish, as he
would intrude himself into the church and preach. Sometimes the vicar in
possession was difficult to dislodge, as at Morton, where Humphrey Boston
remained in spite of sequestration : the justices of the peace were called in aid
by the committee, and finally the serjeant-at-arms of the House of Commons
was ordered to bring up Mr. Boston to answer for contempt."

In spite of its puritan tendencies there is little evidence that Lincoln-
shire adopted the Presbyterian system to any great extent, though there was
a ' classis ' at Folkingham," and the parishes of Pickworth, Billingborough,
and AUington, sent their ministers as representatives.^" Dr. Anthony Tuckney
of Boston attended the Westminster Assembly in 1643, ^^^ Banks Anderson,
chaplain to the mayor of Boston, and Edward Rayner of Lincoln, were sum-
moned as elders to the Protector's Synod in 1658.^'

Probably no part of the country offisred a more favourable field than did
Lincolnshire for the ' augmentation of livings,' which was so actively under-
taken by Parliament, and for which the fines of delinquents and the confiscation
of the cathedral endowments provided the means. Edward Dymoke of Kyme

' Fifths could be refused where the ejected minister already had ^^30 per annum of his own ; this was
pleaded in the case of Mr. Pennistone of Stickney. Foster, Plundered Ministers.

' Walker, op. cit. ii, 1 1 2.

' The following appear as serving at some time on this committee : Montagu Cholmeley, Edward
Ellis, William Saville (or Savin), Wm. Bury (Barry or Burne), John Disney, Wm. Thompson, Sir Th.
TroUope, Kt., Mills, Peter Fallwood, John Archer, Humphrey Walcott, Richard Filkin, Wm. Lister, Richard
Bryant, Hon. Francis Clinton Fines, Nathaniel Bacon. Plundered Ministers of Lincolnshire, Introduction,
rxi.

' Add. MS. 1 5671, fol. 173. ' Ibid. 15670.

« S.P. Int. Reg. i, fol. 350. ' Add. MS. 15670, fol. 358. « Ibid. 210.

' Ibid. 15671, fol. 82. '» Ibid. 139.

" Shaw, Hist, of Eng. Church during Civil Wars and Commonwealth, ii, 31.

" CiXd^raj, Memoirs of Nonconformists, n, 140 f; Continuation, 601-1;,.

" Peck, Desiderata Curiosa, ii, 25.

2 65 9

rs. mo ± Wis. I ur LINCOLN SHIRE

had his fine reduced by ^2,000 on condition of settling ^100 each on the
rectories of North and South Kyme, and on Billinghay.^

Edward Whichcott was allowed ^(^500 for settling ^^50 per annum for
ever on the minister of Harpswell, and Sir John Monson of South Carlton,
hadj^35i remitted for settling ^^50 per annum for two lives as Parliament
should appoint/ and when the vicar of Metheringham pleaded ' the smallness of
his living and the greatness of his poverty ' the committee was told to
inquire what revenues belonging to deans and chapters there were in the
county which might serve to raise the living to a competency.' The minutes
of the committee of augmentation give more than fifty instances in which
small livings in Lincolnshire were increased in this way.*

As far as the clergy were concerned the relief thus afforded was very
temporary, for naturally these enforced endowments were all resumed at the
Restoration, but general attention had been called to an evil long recognized
by the church authorities ' and the possibility of augmenting livings in more
legal fashion was not again lost sight of.*

That the Restoration was welcomed by puritan as well as by orthodox
clergy is shown by the address of congratulation offered ' by the ministers of the
word of God in the county of Lincoln ' which Dr. Sanderson presented
accompanied by fourteen other ministers, among whom were Mr. Henry
Vaughan and Mr. Lee, both of whom gave up their livings in 1662 rather
than conform.''

Dr. Sanderson * was at once asked to take up, at the advanced age of
seventy-three, the work of reorganizing the shattered diocese. He acted as
moderator ' in the Savoy Conference which settled the utmost limits of con-
cession which the restored church would make to the puritan party, and to
the ministers in his diocese who refused the oath in 1662, Sanderson acted
with as much consideration as the law allowed.

Thirty-six incumbents in Lincolnshire felt obliged to resign their livings,^"
and among them appear some well-known names, such as Edward Rayner "
who since 1627 had been preacher at St. Peter's at the Arches, Lincoln, and
Richard Northan, who had suffered so severely already in the High Commission
Court.

Among those who managed to conform on the other hand were to be
found a Calvinistic puritan like Obadiah Howe of Boston, who could boast
of having entertained the parliamentary leaders after the battle of Winceby,
and John Pymlow, son of a 'godly divine' of that name intruded into Hol-
beach in 1643, who not only succeeded to his father's living, but managed
to get good promotion in the church for both of his sons.^^ At Claypole,
Mr. Redman, another of the ' intruded ministers,' at first refused the oath but
afterwards conformed,^' and at Barrowbyjohn El wood did the same.^* George
Beck who left AUington, and Christopher Read of Bassingham, had also
displaced legal incumbents during the Commonwealth. In many cases the

' Shaw, op. cit. ii, 486. ' Ibid. 484.

' Add. MS. 15670, fol. 179. * See extracts in Foster's Plundered Ministers, passim.
' See Laud's Letter to Charles I on this point.
* Kennett's Case of Impropriations, 405, 296.

' Calamy, Continuation, ii, 596, 605. * Stubbs' Reffstrum, 98.

' Izaak Walton's Life ofBp. Sanderson. '° Calamy, Memorial, Palmer's Abridgement, ii, 139-63.

" Hist. MS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii. " Book of Institutions, R.O. 31 Oct. 1 66 1.

" Calamy, Continuation, ii, 605. " Ibid. p. 606.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

old incumbents quietly resumed their places, or where they found any difficulty
petitioned for reinstatement.

Dr. South of Uffington returned in this way, having been deprived during
the war in favour of Henry Field,^ and John Cope, on the grounds that he
had been sequestered from Corringham, begged for the prebend of Stow.'

One feature of the restored church was specially noticeable in Lincoln-
shire— the comparatively large body of organised dissent outside its borders.
The Presbyterians and Independents received an accession to their numbers
through the ejectments of 1662. Thomas Spademan, obliged to give up
Althorpe in the Isle of Axholme, became minister to a Presbyterian congre-
gation in Boston, while in Lincoln, three dispossessed incumbents, Rayner,
Scortworth, and Abdy, continued to minister to those who objected to the
restored liturgy. Among these was Mr. Disney, who for a time allowed
Mr. Drake, ejected from Pickworth, to hold a conventicle in his house.*

The Baptists were also a considerable body, and during the century that
followed the civil wars appear to have been the strongest sect in Lincoln-
shire.* As early as 1644, a small congregation of Baptists was formed in the
South Marshes, which in 1653 was joined by John Grantham,'' a man of great
zeal though little education, who could boast that he had planted fourteen
churches in Lincolnshire.

The Restoration brought them no relief from the persecution they had
suffered under the Commonwealth, and John Grantham, who presented no less
than three memorials to Charles II on behalf of his fellow worshippers, claimed
' that not less than one hundred persons have been imprisoned among the
Lincolnshire congregations, and at least one thousand had been indicted at
assizes for amounts varying from zd. a week to j^2o a month.* The number
of licences demanded for preachers during the short-lived toleration of 1672
gives some idea of the strength of dissent in Lincolnshire.^ Licences were
asked for houses at Fulbeck, Frieston, Swinderby, Ashby-de-la-Launde, and
Leasingham, all for Presbyterian ministers. James Abdy asked to have
Mr. Powell's house at Lincoln licensed for him, and Richard Wale at
Pinchbeck desired his own house might be used for an Anabaptist con-
venticle, and the bishop wrote that five houses at Lincoln had been licensed
for ' Anabaptists.' ^ Altogether twenty-six houses were licensed for Baptists
and nineteen for Presbyterians.

In 1652 George Fox first visited Lincolnshire,® and at Gainsborough
' found a Friend had been already declaring the truth in the market-place,' so
his teaching had preceded him, and he had a very earnest, if not very large,
following in the county. In 1654 a certain ' Sheriff of Lincolnshire ' was
converted, and there followed ' a large convincement in those parts,'" and
in 1 666 all the Friends in the county met at the house of Robert Craven (the
convinced sheriff).

The peculiar tenets of the Quakers exposed them to more severe per-
secution than any other sect, and about the year 1661 the Session Rolls had

' S. p. Dom. Chas. II, xli, 84. ' Ibid, viii (9).

' Dr. Walter Wilson's MS. Account of Various Congregations in Dr. Williams' Library.
* Ibid. pt. iii, 163. ' Crosby, Hist, of the Baptists (1738-40), vols, ii, iii, iv.

' ' Narrative and Complaint,' signed by thirty-five General Baptists in Lincolnshire, and Christianimus
Primitivus, bk. ii, pt. 2, 6.

' S. P. Dom. Chas. II, Ent. Book, 38a, 127. » Ibid. No. 75.

' Yoxsh Journal, \, loi. " Ibid. 1654.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

such records as the following — John Whitehead and John Cleaseby, indicted
for refusing the oath of allegiance, fined £^ each, 14 December, 1661 ;
twelve Quakers taken at a meeting refused to swear and are committed to
prison.^

On the whole the severities of the Clarendon Code seem to have had as
little effect in Lincolnshire in checking the growth of dissent during the
twenty-five years which followed the Restoration as it had in other parts.

On the death of Dr. Sanderson, in 1663, the bishopric was given to
Dr. Benjamin Laney,' whose sufferings during the rebellion and his attendance
on Charles II in exile entitled him to promotion. He had occupied the see
of Peterborough for three years before being promoted to Lincoln, and he
passed on to Ely in 1667. His administration of the diocese was marked by
its moderation, and by his conciliatory attitude to the nonconforming clergy.
' Not I but the law' had been his comment on the St. Bartholomew evictions,
and he is said to have ' looked through his fingers ' as much as possible.'

His successor William Fuller (1667 to 1685), on the other hand, reverted
to the Laudian ideal of uniformity and he urged the civil authorities to greater
zeal in carrying out the laws, writing at length to the aldermen of Grantham
to commend them for the way in which they had broken up a conventicle
and suggesting Sir Robert Carr as a man who would help to put down
dissent.* He was much disturbed when licences were offered to dissenters
and asked for a return of the preachers in his diocese, adding ' all these
licensed persons grow violent and increase strangely. The orthodox poor
clergy are out of heart; shall nothing be done to support them against the
Presbyterians, who grow and multiply faster than the others ? ' ^ On visiting
his diocese in 1 671, he was able to report that he was everywhere well
received, and found old and young anxious for confirmation, and that he could
send a list of parishes where there was not one separatist.

He was quite aware, however, that all within the church were not
loyal to her teaching, and he inserted the new article of inquiry into his visita-
tion of 1668. Are there any that impeach the royal supremacy or think it
lawful to make rules for the church without the king's consent ? * The part
of the inquiry which relates to the fabric of the churches gives some idea of
the ruinous condition in which many were left after the years of neglect, and
sometimes of abuse, from which in 1668 they had hardly begun to recover.
In many churches the communion plate had disappeared, the bells and the
lead from the roof had been melted down, and the actual timber and stone work
had been carried off. At Sleaford the painted glass was all broken, the
seating torn up, the organ destroyed, and the brass eagle lectern broken up
for the sake of the metal.'' At Lincoln over two hundred gravestones had
been stripped of their brass,' and the churches of St. Peter in Eastgate, St.
Michael on the Mount, St. Swithin, and St. Botulph, which were standing in
1 640,' were reported as ruined a few years later.^" St. Peter at the Arches,

' J Collection of the Sufferings of the People called Quakers, Joseph Besse, 1753, i, 345.
' Kennet's Register, 376. ' Calamy, Memorials, 98.

* Add. MS. 34769, fol. 70. * S. P. Dom. Chas. II, cccxv, 75.
^ Appendix of second Refort of Ritual Commissioners, 1858, p. 497.

' Trollope's Hist, of Sleaford, 152.

* Browne Willis, Survey of the Cathedrals, vol. ili, 31, cd. 1742.

' Add. MS. 34140, fol. 30. "> Browne Willis, op. cit. pp. 4, 5.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

the church of the corporation, was so badly out of repair in 1656-7 that it
became necessary to do something that the ' heads of the Mayor, Aldermen
and Common Council be kept dry,' but they took care to say that this was
"not to be drawn into a precedent, nor disengage the parishioners from repairing
the church.' ^ Bishop Fuller took great interest in the restoration of the
cathedral, to which he contributed generously, and he is buried there, under
a raised monument behind the high altar.'

The episcopacy of Thomas Barlow" (1675-92) is chiefly remarkable for
the complete indifference with which he regarded the needs of his diocese,
and his connexion with his cathedral city was limited to a present of >Cio°5
which he sent that Lincoln might not think him unkind." He excused himself
from visiting the city by pleading age and infirmities and also that ' there was
no house there.' The palace so carefully restored by Bishop Williams had
been practically destroyed during the Civil War,' but although the corporation
offered a house in the close which had been occupied by Bishop Fuller,
Barlow preferred to pass his time in ' learned leisure ' at Buckden. He
never even visited his diocese to perform the rite of confirmation, which
during his time seems to have been totally neglected, except for the ' persons
of good quality,' who received confirmation in the chapel of his palace."

On one occasion, however, the ' profound learning in the Canon and Civil
Law' with which Barlow was credited,^ was employed on a case concerning a
Lincolnshire church which came before the Court of Arches in 1684. The
parishioners of Moulton desired to set their church in order, and in addition
to ' whitening and painting ' they asked ^ that they might remove the
communion table to the east end and rail it in instead of allowing it to be
moved down the church at celebration ; this was now the usual, though not
by any means the universal, custom ;' but they wished to go further and set up
pictures of the apostles and other emblems in the chancel. The surrogate
granted a faculty, but the bishop intervened at the instance of Mr. Tallent,
the vicar, who urged that ' efRgies in any church or chapel are very
dangerous.' The parishioners, however, ' pleading an honest and pious intent
to beautify the church,' appealed, and Sir Richard Lloyd, then dean of
the Arches, taking their view, they were allowed to keep the pictures.^"

When the Revolution brought the problem of transferring allegiance
from James II to William III, there were seventeen clergymen in the
diocese of Lincoln who refused the new oaths and had to leave their livings
when the period of grace expired in 1690.^^ There was, however, another
and much larger body of nonjurors in the county among the ' popish

' Hist. MS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 103.

' Browne Willis, Survey of the Cathedrals, iii, 70.

' Athenae Oxonienses, iv, 335.

* Letter of Dr. Thomas Barlow, Genuine Remains, 256.

' Line. Notes and Queries, i, 35, and Rep. Arch. Soc. held at Lincoln, 1848.

° 'Epistle dedicatory to Dr. Barlow's Directions for the Choice of Books,' William Offley, 1699.

' Athenae Oxonienses, iv, 385 ( ed. Bliss).

' Woodward's Register. Stowe MS. 1058, B.M. fol. ^oGb.

' Ten years later St. Michael's at Stamford made the same request. Ibid.

'° Breviate of the Case for Setting up of Images in Moulton Church, by Dr. Barlow, bishop of Lincoln.
"Extracts from the Bishop's Registers, 1688-1705 are given in the Dioc. Mag. for Dec. 1903;
and this list, which differs from Overton (nonjurors), includes the incumbents of the following places
in the county : West Rasen, Waddington, Aswardby, Kettlethorpe, Searby, Pinchbeck, Mumby, Butterwick,
Freiston, Nettleton, Saltfleetby St. Clement, S. Somercotes. Robert Carr, prebendary of Lincoln, was also
among the nonjurors.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

recusants,' as they were still called, and an Act^ which was passed after the
Rebellion of 171 5 obliging them to register their names and estates gives
some idea of their numbers. Seventy-two names ^ of papists having lands in
Lincolnshire are recorded, and the scrutiny appears to have been a careful one,
for in addition to well-known names like Thomas Heneage of Cadeby,
Dorothy Thimelby of Irnham, William Thorold of Panton, and others who
held manors in the county, appear also the names of quite humble people like
Thomas Spurr and Thomas Jenkins, joint tenants in fee of a cottage at
£1 I OS. and Thomas White, joiner, with a freehold at Morton worth £ i ys.
These papists seem to have excited alarm quite out of proportion to their
numbers. Bishop Edmund Gibson spoke of them in 17 16, as being 'as
diligent as ever in corrupting and seducing the members of our community.' *
And on 18 Feb. 17 12-3 John Disney* writes to Henry Newman telling
him that a popish priest had been taken ' in the parts of Lindsey,' while
baptizing a child ' supposed to be Protestant.' The minister of the parish
had seized him in the act and carried him before a justice of the peace, but
by some ' shuffling ' between the justice and a Roman Catholic gentleman
present, the case was put off till next day and meantime the priest escaped.
The writer regrets the inter-marriages of Protestants and Catholics and wishes
it could be stopped by Act of Parliament.

Bishop Tenison succeeded Barlow in 1692, and is spoken of as a prelate
who attempted to restore a large and neglected diocese to some discipline
and order, and as being recommended to his majesty's favour by his piety
and moderation towards dissenters,^ which qualities procured his promotion
to Canterbury in 1694. It is from the visitations of his successors, James
Gardiner (1695— 1704) and William Wake (1705—15), that we get the
best account of the condition of the church in Lincolnshire at the close of
the seventeenth century. Bishop Gardiner was welcomed by the Lincoln-
shire clergy as ' one of themselves, neither ignorant of their persons nor their
needs.' ° He had held the living of Epworth, the prebend of Stow, and since
1 67 1 had been sub-dean of the cathedral, so his knowledge of the county
was extensive. Judging by his reports the abuses complained of in Laud's
day still prevailed to a great extent. In some churches the Common Prayer
was seldom read, or not the whole or not in due order, and the fasts and feasts
of the church unaccountably neglected. The chancels were in some cases
wholly disused ' and in more nastie condition than any cottager would keep his
house,' and communicants still expected to be served in their seats ' in spite of
the great inconvenience of consecrating in the alley of a church and delivering
the bread and wine over the heads and treading on the feet of those that kneel.' ^

Among the moral defects against which the clergy were warned in-
temperance* has a prominent place, and alehouses and taverns evidently still

' Add MS. 15629, headed ' Popish Recusants Convict and Papists who have registered their Estates,'
&c., later endorsed ' On a project that Papists should pay two-thirds of their income to the support of the
government.'

' Estcott and Payne, EngM Catholic Nonjurors (preface). ' Bishop Gibson's Primary Charge, 1717.

' Stowe MS. 48, fol. 99. ' Memoirs of Life and Times of Tenison, 19.

* Preface to A Discourse of Licences to preach, Jas. Metford, rector of Bassingham, 1698.
' Bishop Gardiner's charge in his primary visitation.

* Richard Lee, vicar of Crowland 1654-71, was one of the drunken ministers George Fox encountered
(quoted in Fenland Notes and Queries, \, 313), and who, with the assistance of the clerk, half murdered him
with tongs and shovel.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

offered temptations. But the ' covetousness of men of great preferments '
which led them 'to cheapen curates,' and contract with them for £,2.0 to ^^30
a year, was still more severely censured and stigmatised as ' a scandalous
practice which makes scandalous curates.'

The burden of so great a diocese made Gardiner regret the absence of
rural deans, ' an office unhappily disused in this diocese,' but he was active in
his own supervision and, in pleasing contrast to Bishop Barlow, performed
the sacred office of confirmation for days together in Lincoln Cathedral.^

From Bishop Wake's returns ^ it appears that the smaller parishes had to
be content with service on alternate Sundays, and although in the larger ones
there were generally two Sunday services and sometimes prayers on
Wednesdays and Fridays, yet the celebration of the communion was very
infrequent ; three to four times a year being an average return, six times or
monthly being very rare.

Some attempt had been made since the Restoration to remove one of
the causes of this parochial neglect, which was recognized to be the great
poverty of the lesser clergy. The cathedral chapter, for instance, had made
grants of £i2() 13J. 4^'. to ten small livings, and the corporation of
Lincoln had augmented the living of Belton by ^10 per annum,
and had moreover appointed ' the ablest, ancientest and discreetest
parishioners to consider the question of uniting some of the smaller
livings in the city.'' They recommended later that livings under ^^14 per
annum should be united and that superfluous churches should be pulled down,
so that benefices not above the value of 30J. might be got rid of, such not
being ' competent to honest living.' From the prebend of Corringham a
grant was made of ^^40 per annum to the curate of Stow and of £16 to
the vicar of Corringham, and the sub-dean granted j^2 2 to Clifton.*

But in spite of these and like efforts,' the stipend of a curate or vicar in
Lincolnshire was often ' too small to provide learned or competent parish
priests, and the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty found that there were
still 450 livings in the country under ^50 per annum.*

Yet that many of these poor parsons lived very creditable and hard-working
lives, distinguished not only by piety but by intellectual activity, there is
trustworthy evidence. Samuel Wesley, the elder, successively incumbent of
Ormsby^ and of Epworth, is perhaps an exceptional character, but he asserts
that out of fifty parishes known to him personally, not ten of which had
as much as threescore pounds yearly, he did not know above three or four
clergymen who disgraced their character.' Yet if Epworth is a typical
parish the task of these clergy must often have been a thankless one ; out of

' Offley, Preface to Barhvi's Directions, &c.

' Bishop Wake's returns were kept so methodically that it is possible to see the condition of almost every
parish in the county ; an account of them is given in Line. Dioc. Hist. 327.

' Hist. MS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 105.

* Ken net, Case of Impropriations, 337.

' Dr. Richard Busby also remembered the ' poor and necessitous ministers of Lincoln,' and left them a
large share of his benefaction of ^2°° P^'' annum for augmentation of livings, and Bishop Sanderson left
j^ioo to build a 'mansion house' for the vicars of Grantham. Ibid. 296.

° Return made by the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty, 1736.

' Ormsby was worth £,(,0 per annum and the living of Epworth, in the gift of the crown, was at this
time nominally worth ^^200 per annum, but Wesley was deeply in debt when he took it, twice had his house
burnt down and had nineteen children, and had to struggle with debts all his life. Grimsby Methodism,
G.Lester, 142. ' Athenian Oracle, 382.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

a population of about two thousand the average number of communicants at
the monthly celebration was not more than twenty, and Wesley reports^ that
' his people were so extremely ignorant that not one in twenty can say the
Lord's Prayer and not one in thirty the Belief.' He could boast, however,
that there were no Papists or Presbyterians in the parish, only some
Anabaptists and Quakers.

Wesley was not only very active in his parochial duties,'' but he found
time to publish various works on religious subjects and often visited London
to preach or attend meetings.

The practice of obliging incumbents to take out special licences to
preach, which had been in force since the canons of 1603, was given up
about this time,* and it probably marks the disappearance of the special
lecturers who had been such a thorn in the side of the church during the
seventeenth century.

Edmund Gibson, who was appointed to the see in 1 71 6, on the translation
of Bishop Wake to Canterbury, urged on his clergy the necessity of giving
' additional care to their sermons ' now that preaching was left entirely to
incumbents, and he also urged them to study a little more theology that they
might keep pace with the dissenters, ' whose teachers are more learned than
in former days.' *

In 1723 Gibson was promoted to London and was succeeded by Richard
Reynolds, who had already been for one year at Bangor in succession to the
famous Hoadley. From the careful visitation ^ of his diocese, made with the
help of his son George, who was his archdeacon, we get a curious glimpse
of the church life in Lincoln in the middle of the eighteenth century. Four
parishes in the city had no churches at all," of the other eight only one, St.
Peter's at the Arches, had service on Sunday mornings, the services at the
others varying from three and four times a year to every Sunday afternoon.
The two bishops who followed Reynolds, John Thomas (1744—61) and John
Green (1761—79), did not contribute much of interest to the ecclesiastical
history of the county, though it is recorded of Bishop Green that he was
very zealous in regard to the rite of confirmation and in 1771 confirmed
over five thousand persons in Lincolnshire alone.''

Thomas Thurlow (1779—87) owed his advancement in the church to the
advocacy of his brother, the laxness of whose morals he appears to have con-
doned.* He continued to hold the deanery of St. Paul's m commendam'*
and saw little of his diocese.

' Wesley's Report of his parish to the Religious Society in London.

^ He required his curate to catechize every Sunday as a matter of course {Athenian Oracle) and started a
' Religious Society ' in 1702.

^ Bishop Wake, in his charge 1 706, announces his intention of only demanding licences from curates and
deacons in future.

' Bishop Gibson's charge at his primary visitation.

' Returns at Lincoln dated 1743 and supposed to refer to Reynold's visitation. See Bioc. Hist, of
Line. 331, 1728.

' Browne Willis, Cathedral Churches of Lincoln, says that the ruined churches of St. Svi'ithin, St. Michael's
Mount, St. Peter's Eastgate, and St. John Baptist, Newport, were still counted parochial.

' Gent. Mag., 1779, 234 ; and Dioc. Hist. 335.

^ In spite of Lord Thurlow's living openly with a mistress his house was not only frequented by
his brother the bishop, but by ecclesiastics of all degrees. Lives of the Chancellors, v, 656.

' Probably he agreed with Bishop Newton, who said that the diocese of Lincoln was ' so very large and
laborious, so very extensive and expensive that it really requires a good commendam to support it with any
dignity.' Quoted by Overton, p. 285 oi Church in the lith cent. ed. 1887.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

But before this time Lincolnshire had been drawn into the circle of
evangelical revival through the connexion of the Wesleys vi^ith the county.
Before he began his missionary w^ork, John Wesley had been for a short time
curate to his father,^ but when he returned to Epworth in 1 742^ it was to
find himself shut out from the church by Mr. Romney the curate, whose
attitude was unfortunately typical of that of the church in general to this
'reaction against formalism in doctrine and in government.''

Mr. Romney took the opportunity of preaching a sermon on the
dangers of ' enthusiasm ' in rehgion, but after attending the service Wesley
preached from his father's tombstone ' to such a congregation as I believe
Epworth never saw before.'

Seven years later (1749) Lincolnshire became one of the first 'circuits'
formed in the country/ and in spite of mob violence' and much hostiUty from
the clergy the revival made rapid progress. A society was started at
Grimsby in 1743 by John Nelson, which was visited nineteen times by
Wesley, who also preached at Winterton, Barrow, North Elkington, Scotter,
Alkborough, South Brigg, and Cleethorpe.* No society was, however,
started in the city of Lincoln until 1788, though Wesley had preached in
the court-house in 1780^ and on the castle hill the following year. The first
Methodist meeting-house was near Gowt's Bridge,* but in 1789 a chapel was
built between the high bridge and the swing bridge to hold five or six
hundred persons, and by 1796 the society was considered 'well established.'
Wesley gives a very striking account of his tour through Lincolnshire, when
as an old man of eighty-five he visited the ' Societies.' ° Crowds came to hear
him in Louth, and the ' gentry at Twiford requested him to preach in the
Market place,' while at Lincoln he addressed a ' large congregation of rich
and poor in Mr. Fisher's yard.' He records also how he strove to persuade
his followers at Epworth that it was their duty to attend the ministrations of
Mr. Gibson in the parish church, but they were fast drifting into complete
separation, and Wesley knew that on this point even his authority was
unavailing." Up to the year 1800 the followers of Wesley were still
distinguished from the Nonconformists and regarded as doubtful church
members, but a conference^^ held in the Lincoln diocese in 1799 shows that
the clergy were much alarmed at the rapid increase in the number of
Methodists.

The number of real dissenters" was thought to be small and not
increasing, but Methodists" entered parishes ' where till then the greatest
harmony prevailed, and entice those that have most itching ears.'

• Tyerraan, Lifi and Times of Wcsky, \, 56. ' Wesley's Journal, 5 June, 1742.
' Abbey and Overton's Engl. CA. in the 1 8M cent.

* A. Watmough, Hist, of Methodism in Neighbourhood and City of Lincoln, 7.

' Robert Mitchel, one of the first preachers, was arrested at Wrangle near Boston, thrown into a pond
and nearly drowned, then painted white from head to foot, and after further ducking turned out of the parish
with only an old coat to cover him. Ibid. 1 1 .

" G. Lester, Grimsby Methodism, and Wesley's Journal, passim.

' Wesley's Journal, iv, 18. * Grimsby Methodism, 25. ' Wesley's Journal, iv. 1788 (July).

'° ' If I cannot carry this point while I live how will it be after my death ? ' Wesley's Journal, 6 July, 1788.

" Report from the clergy of a district in the diocese of Lincoln, published 1800.

" According to a MS. statement as to number of dissenters in 1777 (now in Dr. Williams' library) there
were only twenty-two properly organized congregations in Lincolnshire, of which two were Independent, four
Presbyterian, and the rest Baptist.

" A. Watmough in the Hist, of Methodism in Neighbourhood and City of Lincoln states that there were thirty
societies with a total of 1,050 members in 1824., p. 113.

2 73 10

A HlblUKY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

As a remedy against these ' fanatic and seditious preachers ' the parish
clergy were admonished to show more zeal in performing their duties, to
avoid unbecoming levity in dress, and to set examples in worldly moderation.^
This meeting in itself is evidence that the church was waking up from its
lethargy and other signs of life were not wanting. In 1795 a meeting, held
at the house of Mr. Pugh, vicar of Rauceby, to discuss how a legacy of
^4,000 might be laid out to the best advantage in spreading the knowledge
of the Gospel, proved to be the foundation of the society which in 1 8 1 2 was
called the ' Church Missionary Society.''

In the conference of 1799 in which the clergy considered the weak
points in church organization, they did not touch on what was perhaps the
greatest evil of the time — the non-residence of many of the parochial clergy.
A few examples will illustrate the prevalence of this evil in Lincolnshire : —
At Whaplode' in 1802 the vicar, the Rev. Philip Fisher, held also a living in
Huntingdonshire, a stall in Salisbury Cathedral, and was master of Charter-
house ; he never even visited his Lincolnshire cure, but left it entirely to the
curate, to whom, however, he paid what was a generous stipend in those days,
^Tioo per annum. Holbeach, Moulton, Weston, and Gedney were also in
the hands of non-resident vicars,* and Dr. Johnson of Spalding, who was an
active magistrate, also lived away from his parish. In 1827 the Rev. Maurice
Johnson * wrote to ask for a renewal of his licence of non-residence, explaining
that he held the impropriation of Moulton, was the patron and the vicar,
having been instituted on his own petition, and ' having uninterruptedly held
the same to this day,' yet for forty-six years he had resided at Spalding.
There is also a tradition ' at this time of ' forty rectors holding high festival at
Louth ^ while their flocks starved on the wolds.'

There was considerable activity in Lincolnshire in the eighteenth century
in the repair and rebuilding of churches, a notable instance being St. Peter at
the Arches, which occupied the attention of the corporation during the best
part of the century. In 171 9 it was agreed* that '^^ 1,000 at interest should
be taken up by the city ' for the rebuilding of St. Peter's at the Arches, and
in 1723 jC^oo more was voted for its completion ; and later a further sum
was voted for an altar-piece and eight bells ; in 1758 new communion plate
was bought, in 1786 a grant was made for the choir, and in 1793 a salary
of j^i2 I2J-. was voted for the organist. At Gainsborough' the church seems
to have got beyond repair before the middle of the century, and in 1735-6
the town got a private Act of Parliament passed to empower it to assess the
inhabitants for the rebuilding of the church — ^(^2,500 to be raised by this
means. But either they did not get so much or it did not prove sufficient,
for in 1740 they got a further Act to allow them to levy a tax on all coal
delivered in the town to enable them to complete the work.

A more usual method of raising funds for this purpose was to obtain a
brief which allowed collections to be made all over the country. In i j'j'j the

' Report from the Clergy of a District, &c. ' Overton, The Evangelical Revival, 139.

' W. E. Foster, Account of St. Marfs Church, Whaplode, 58.

* Tenland Notes and Queries, i, 5 1 . ° Ibid. 5 2. Where copy of letter is given.

* Moor, Deanery of Corringhom, 32.

' Louth seems to have been a favourite centre for non-resident clergy, and Bishop Kaye undertook to
'disturb this nest of rooks.' Overton and Wordsworth, Life of Christopher Wordsworth, 227.

' Hist. MS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 116. ' Gainsborough, Adam Stark, 181 7.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

parish church of Reston ^ in Lindsey, being in a state of ' complete decay,* a
brief for repairs was granted ; and in 1822 Wainfleet procured a brief permit-
ting it to collect for the erection of a new church, the old one being unsafe ;
a second petition stated that only ^133 had been collected towards the ^2,565,
which was the least required, and further leave was granted for a house-to-
house collection.

The taste shown at this time in the interior decoration of churches was
not very happy if Rowston Church be a fair example; here in 1741 the
chancel screen within the chancel arch was entirely smothered by a huge
wooden erection * on which were painted a f a9ade representing some classical
building, the royal arms, the tables of commandments, and the arms of the
donor, Mrs. Millicent Neate.

In 1787, on Thurlow's promotion to Winchester, Dr, Pretyman Tomline,*
the friend and biographer of Pitt, was appointed to succeed him. He was
credited by his contemporaries with the possession of ' a peculiarly judicious
mind.' * but he was more occupied with public events ' than with the details
of his diocese, though he composed his ' Elements of Christian Theology '
expressly for his ordination candidates, who seem to have impressed him
chiefly by their ignorance.

Dr. Tomline was translated to Winchester in 1820, and was succeeded
by George Pelham, who occupied the see for seven years, but left no special
traces of his activity in Lincolnshire. But with the appointment of Dr. John
Kaye," when Bishop Pelham was translated to Exeter in 1827, the modern
administration of the diocese may be said to have begun. He revived the
office of rural dean, and ten years after his appointment had the satisfaction of
seeing his diocese reduced at last to a more workable size. By the Act i Vict.
Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Leicestershire, Huntingdonshire, and Hert-
fordshire were taken away, while Nottinghamshire was temporarily added.
When he first took up his work he found ' non-residence the rule among his
clergy, residence the exception,' ^ and he announced in his first charge * that he
intended to take gradual steps to put an end to this state of things. So successful
were his efforts in this direction that the reproach that rested on Lincoln of being
the county ' beyond any other that furnishes instances of pluralities, of non-
residence, and of insufficient performance of the services,' ° was in a fair way
to be removed. In the beginning of 1852,^" out of the five hundred and
ninety-five benefices of the county of Lincoln, three hundred and forty-
three were occupied by resident incumbents, while forty-three more
were residing within two or three miles, one hundred and thirty-three
were exempt from residence as having other preferment, eighty-seven non-
resident by licence, forty-eight on account of there being no house, and thirty-
seven on account of ill-health ; while of the eighty-seven who had licence to

' Brief for repair of Parish Church of Reston. B. xviii, 3 (British Museum).

' Ven. Edward Trollope, Sleaford, 292. ' Diet. Nat. Biog.

' Letter to the bishop of Lincoln on his Charge to his Clergy, 181 5, in which he had attaciced the Bible
Society.

' His charge for 1 794, for instance, deals chiefly with the causes of the French Revolution ; those of
1 803-1 1 were afterwards published as part of his refutation of Calvinism ; and that of 1812 was directed
chiefly against Catholic Emancipation.

" Diet. Nat. Biog. ' Bishop Kaye's Charge to his Clergy, 1852.

* Charge of 1828 reprinted in Nine of Bishop Kaye's Charges, edited by W. F. J. Kaye.

' Charge of 1849. Ibid. '" Note to Charge of 1852. Ibid.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

reside away, twenty-four performed the duty in person. There were still one
hundred benefices under ^loo per annum, and these appear to have been
almost the only ones held in plurality. That these changes bore hardly on
some of the clergy we have an instance in the case of John Wray,^ vicar of
Bardney (1829), who served three churches, one as vicar and two as curate.
In 1826 he had been deprived of one curacy by the archbishop, and he con-
sidered it a great hardship when Bishop Kaye ordered him to give up the
other on the plea that Bardney parish contained a thousand people, and that
there ought to be two services on Sunday. Wray pleaded that as vicar his
income was something under £yo per annum, and that he had thirteen
children, and he sent a list of places to the bishop giving instances of parishes'
with more than one thousand inhabitants where there was only one service
on Sunday. But the bishop only thanked him for calling his attention to
these churches which were insufficiently served, and refused to reconsider his
decision in the case of Bardney.

In 1852 the project for a new diocese,' of which Nottingham was to
form a part, was already under consideration, but was not actually carried into
effect until thirty years later, though the closer connexion of the bishopric
with Lincoln by the erection of a new palace* at Riseholme took place in
Bishop Kaye's time. Although an advocate of more ceremonious ritual, and
a student of the early fathers, Kaye was evangelical rather than high church
in his views. He opposed the revival of convocation,^ upheld the Gorham
judgement on the baptismal ' question, and regarded the ' Oxford Movement '
with suspicion. His work was carried on by Dr. Jackson^ (1853—68), who
united the counties of Lincoln and Nottingham for church purposes by ex-
tending the ruri-decanal system. The diocese was, however, still too large for
the close supervision which was now the rule, and Bishop Wordsworth '
(1 867— 85) procured the appointment of a suffragan bishop for Nottinghamshire,

In 1 87 1 the experiment of reviving the Diocesan Synod was made, and
though only one of these exceptional meetings was held it gave rise to the
Diocesan Conference of clergy and laity which has since met annually.'

Bishop Wordsworth, realising the extent to which Lincolnshire was still
the ' stronghold of Wesleyanism,' issued a pastoral letter to the Wesleyan
Methodists inviting them to return to the church of their founder, but
nothing but violent controversy was the result of this attempt to extend the
borders of the church. Poor benefices were still the characteristic of Lincoln-
shire, and Wordsworth helped to organize the * Association " for augmenting
the incomes of the poorer benefices of the county of Lincoln.' He found that
there were still a large number of small parishes served by visiting clergy
from the neighbouring town, and he did not rest until almost every little
village had its parsonage.

Dr. Wordsworth, although not a Tractarian, was still a very important
factor in the Anglican revival," and through him the church in Lincolnshire

' Correspondence between the Lord Bishop of Lincoln and the Rev. John Wray, 1829.

' Ibid. Parishes named being Caister, Coningsby (where curate held a second church), Grimsby,
St. Martin's, Lincoln, Horncastle, St. Swithin, Louth.

' Bishop's Charge, 1852. * Notes and Queries (Seventh Ser.), xii, 345.

' Nine of Bishop Kaye's Charges. ^ Ibid. ' Diet. Nat. Biog.

' Overton and Wordsworth, Life of Christopher Wordsworth. ^ Ibid.

'" Association for augmenting the incomes of poorer benefices of the county of Lincoln.
" Overton, The Anglican Revival, 138.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

was drawn into the movement. He revived the triennial visitation of his
diocese, and extended his influence over the clergy through the ' Scholae
Cancellarii,' ^ which was instituted at Lincoln. Dr. Wordsworth resigned the
see in 1885, but he lived long enough to see the subdivision of the diocese,
which he had long desired, and the creation of the new diocese of Southwell,
which included the counties of Nottingham and Derby, and left that of
Lincoln practically conterminous with the county.

The work of Bishop Wordsworth was carried on by his successor
Dr. King,' who brought with him from Oxford, where he had held the
offices of Regius Professor of Pastoral Theology and canon of Christ Church,
an even more pronounced sympathy with the revival of ancient usages in the
church.

The question of the legality of certain ceremonies observed by Dr. King
was challenged in the famous ' Lincoln Judgment,' ' when the bishop was
summoned in 1889 to answer various charges before Dr. Benson, then arch-
bishop of Canterbury. Dr. King loyally accepted the archbishop's ruling on
the eight points submitted to him, and since that time certain doubtful ritual
observances have been considered legal, and the jurisdiction of the archbishop
over his suffragans has been accepted by the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council.

The following facts reported for the year 1904* indicate some of the
activities of the church in Lincolnshire to-day. In that year thirty-four
churches were restored or built at a total cost of ^^23,905, while a sum of
^^1,605 was also spent on endowment of benefices and ^420 on parsonage
houses. Confirmations were held at seventy-one different centres, the total
number of candidates amounting to over four thousand. In the previous
year j^ 1,5 8 5 was distributed from the Diocesan Benefices Augmentation
Fund towards the increase of the smaller livings, and the ' decent competence'
which has been the ideal of the church since the days of the Commonwealth
is now in a fair way to be realized in the county of Lincoln.

' A Training College for the Clergy of the Diocese.
' J. Hanchard, Sketch of the Life of Bishop King.
' ' Lincoln Judgment,' Encycl. Britt. 9th ed.
* Of. rear Book of the Ch. of Engl. 1906.

THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES OF
LINCOLNSHIRE

INTRODUCTION

THERE are clear records of the existence of monasteries in Lincoln-
shire, many of them famous in their day, from the first years of
the conversion of the North of England to Christianity. The
greater number of these earlier foundations, known or unknown,
perished in the period of Danish invasion. Bardney and Crowland rose again
from their ruins, ^ but Ikanho, Barrow, and Partney were never rebuilt.

Besides these ancient monasteries Dugdale names four others as having
a traditional existence. ' Leland says ' where the Deane of Lyncolne's howse
is in the Minstar Close of Lyncolne and thereabout was a Monasterye of
Nunes afore the time that Remigius began the new Mynstar of Lyncolne :
and of this Howse yet remayne certayne tokens of it.'*

A monastery at Kyrketon is said to be mentioned in Pipe Roll, 5 John,
m. 9^, but no such membrane now exists.

Rooksby is said to have been mentioned in Cott. MS. Tib. E 5, which
was burnt in the Cotton fire ; it is certainly not mentioned in Pat.
19 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 20, which is the other reference given.

St. Bartholomew's Priory, if not the same as the hospital of
St. Bartholomew without Lincoln, cannot at present be traced.

Whatever may be said of these particular cases, it may very well be that
several other monasteries did exist in Lincolnshire, as elsewhere, before the
Danish invasion, though their names and number have not been preserved.*

With the revival of monasticism at the Conquest, however, the county
was again filled with religious houses, every one of the great orders except the
Cluniacs being represented here. There were ten monasteries for Benedictine
monks, three of them — Bardney, Crowland, and Spalding — being of consider-
able size and importance, with one small priory at Stainfield for Benedictine
nuns.

William of Newburgh states that during the reign of Stephen more
religious houses were built than in all the previous hundred years." The twelfth

' The name of St. Leonard's, Sumford, might have been added ; but the records of its existence before
the Conquest are too uncertain to be relied upon.

' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1621. ' Leland, I tin. viii, 4.

' St. Higbald was abbot of a monastery in Lindsey, according to Bedc ; and the same author speaks of a
nunnery not far from Bardney, over which the abbess Ethelhild ruled in his own day. Bede, Eccles. Hist, iii,
c. II, p. 148.

* Chnit. of the reign of Stephen, &c. (Rolls Ser.), i, 53. Mr. Howlett in his preface to the above work (iii,
xiii, xiv), adds that estimating the rough total of the houses founded in England at 968, 247 were built before
the reign of Stephen, 1 1 5 during the nineteen years of his reign, 1 1 3 during the 5 5 years of Henry's reign,
and 223 in later times. While reducing the analysis and counties he shows that during the period now under
review Lincoln just escapes heading the list with nineteen religious foundations.

z
o

f-l

2
<

Benveen pp. ■j'i^ 79

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

century witnessed the capture of this county by the Cistercian order ;^ the rule of
Bishop Alexander saw the rise of five Cistercian abbeys : Kirkstead and Louth
Park in 1139; Revesby founded in 1142 by William de Romara, earl of
Lincoln ; Vallis Dei, or Vaudey, in 1 147 ; and Swineshead in 1 148 ; while
Cistercian nuns found a home at Stixwould, in the early years of the same cen-
tury. Houses of Austin Canons were founded at Grimsby or Wellow in
the reign of Henry I ; at Thornton in n 39 ; and at Nocton and Thornholm
during the reign of Stephen. This order had in all in Lincolnshire eight
houses for men and a priory of nuns at Grimsby. The Arrouasian reform of
the order was represented at Bourne.

The first English house of Premonstratensian Canons was founded at
Newhouse about 1143, Barlings Abbey following in 11 54; ultimately they
had in this county five abbeys for men and a priory of nuns at Orford.

The Gilbertine order, the only order of English origin, was founded at
Sempringham by St. Gilbert of Sempringham in 1139, under the favour and
patronage of Bishop Alexander. Of the twenty-six houses of this order exis-
tent in England, eleven were situated in Lincolnshire, and eight of these were
founded in the reign of Stephen. Sempringham, the original house, was
followed by Haverholme and BuUington, Alvingham, Sixhills, Cattley, and
Nun Ormsby. St. Catherine's Priory without Lincoln was an early founda-
tion of Bishop Robert de Chesney ; Tunstall was founded before 1 1 64, and
Newstead and Holland Brigg followed later.

The Carthusians had a priory in the isle of Axholme. Templars and
Hospitallers both had preceptories, and all the orders of friars were found in
the county. The number of hospitals existing in the thirteenth century was
probably very large, though the names of only twenty-two can as yet be
recovered. Three collegiate churches were founded in the fourteenth or fif-
teenth century.

It has been said that the solitary life was specially congenial to the in-
habitants of the North of England. We are not surprised therefore to find
frequent mention, in the episcopal registers and elsewhere, of hermits and
recluses in Lincolnshire. St. Guthlac and St. Pega had numerous followers of
humbler rank as long as the religious life was honoured in England. We
hear of hermits at Thimbleby Moor,^ Asfordby,' Saltfleethaven,* Freiston,'
and Burreth' during the thirteenth century ; of John, the son of Geoffrey of
Knaresborough, who was a recluse by the church of Carlton in Moorland in
1 346; ^ of Emma of Stapleford, a recluse by the chapel of St. Peter at Grantham
in 1 3 39 ;* of Parnel de Wotton, a recluse by Thornton Abbey Church in 1 367,'
of Beatrice Frank, a nun of Stainfield, who became an anchoress in a cell by
Winterton church in 1435,'" and of Emmota Tonge, similarly enclosed by the
church of St. Paul, Stamford," in the same year. These are but a few
instances out of many that a more diligent search might discover.

' This is explained by the fact that as the rich and fertile plains of England were already occupied, there
remained only for the Cistercians, at least in the infancy of their order, the rocky highlands of Yorkshire . . .
or the gleaning of grapes in the dismal flats and unclaimed swamps of Lincolnshire. Brewer ; Pref. to Girald.
Cambren. Op. (Rolls Ser.), iv, xxii.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Burghersh, 232 a'.

' Ibid. Memo. Bokyngham, 30</. * Ibid. 37. ' Ibid. 372.

' Ibid. 423. ' Ibid. Memo. Beck, 91.

' Ibid. Memo. Burghersh, 379. ' Ibid. Memo. Bokyngham, 53 </.

'" Ibid. Memo. Repingdon, 186 </. " Ibid, i^-j d.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

There are two points of special interest in connexion with the
religious houses of Lincolnshire. One is the relation of the religious them-
selves to the rising of 1536, which will be seen from the following pages.
The other is the evidence of the episcopal registers as to the internal condition
of the monasteries. The episcopal visitations are specially full and clear for
this county, and a careful study of them leads to two general conclusions.
First, it is evident that the religious life in the diocese had reached its
low-water mark, in the early part of the fifteenth century : but it is equally
clear that the last eighty years or so before the suppression saw a steady im-
provement, and a gradual restoration of order and discipline. With only a
few exceptions,^ the reports of Bishop Atwater in 1 5 1 9 are very much more
satisfactory than those of Bishop Alnwick from 1437 to 1444. The
lately published records of the White Canons, kept by a visitor of their own
order, point to the same conclusion.

LINCOLN CATHEDRAL

It was probably about the year 1078 that
William I moved the see of Dorchester to
Lincoln,' and granted to Bishop Remigius suffi-
cient land to build ' the mother church of all the
bishopric of Lincoln.'' The cathedral was com-
pleted within the lifetime of the first bishop, who
died, however, four days before its consecration
in 1092.^ The charter which was granted to
Remigius by William II in 1090 makes no pro-
vision for the constitution of the capitular body,'
but Henry of Huntingdon, writing almost at this
date, mentions a dean, treasurer, precentor and
two other important members of the chapter, one
of whom was presumably the chancellor, and
seven archdeacons.' John de Schalby writing
from extant documents in the fourteenth century
states further that there were twenty-one pre-
bends attached to the original foundation/ The
early historians of Lincoln believed that the
Rouen tradition was followed in the constitution
of their church,* but it seems probable that the
great secular foundations of England were largely
influenced by the cathedral of Bayeux, with

' These are of the more value because they show
that the difference does not arise from the fact of
Bishop Atwater being of an easier disposition than his
predecessor.

' The question of the date is discussed in Le Neve,
Fasti Eccks. Angl. (ed. Hardy), ii, 7, note 59.

' D. and C. Line. Press A, Shelf I, box i,
No. 61.

* John de Schalby's ' Lives of the Bishops of Lin-
coln,' in Giraldus Cambrensis, Opera (Rolls Ser.), vii,
194.

' Bradshaw and Wordsworth, Lincoln Cathedral
Statutes, ii (i), 1.

« Hen. Huntingdon, Hist. (Rolls Sen), 301.

' John de Schalby, op. cit. vii, 1 94.

' Ibid.

which they had in early days a close connexion
both personal and constitutional.'

So true it is that the cathedral body was
originally the council of the bishop, that for
more than a century it is difficult to differentiate
between episcopal and capitular history. The
immediate successors of Remigius were munifi-
cent benefactors. Robert Bloett doubled the
number of prebends, endowing the church with
rich gifts of lands and vestments, and Alexander
' the magnificent ' continued this policy, though
the Lincoln historian complains that he dissipated
the wealth of his church by building castles and
monasteries.^" A few valuable acquisitions are
also attributed to Robert de Chesney, but John
de Schalby accuses him of nepotism and of alien-
ating a prebend to the order of Sempringham.'^
His want of foresight as a ruler is proved by his
decree freeing the church and prebends of Lincoln
from all episcopal jurisdiction,^' a step which
involved one of the greatest of his successors in
what was perhaps the most serious difficulty of
his episcopate.

Of the years between 1167 and 1 183 there
is little to record. It was a period of confusion
throughout the diocese and it is probable that

' Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. i, 32—5 and
102. But see Missale ad usum mon. Westm. (Hen.
Bradshaw Soc), iii, p. 1420, where it is argued that
on the Uses at least Bayeux had no influence.

'° John de Schalby, op. cit. vii, 198.

" Ibid. Probably Canwick. See Bradshaw and
Wordsworth, op. cit. ii (i), Ixxiii.

" Wilkins, Concilia, i, 5 3 8. This decree is attributed
by John de Schalby to Robert Bloett, but the names
of the witnesses — Martin the treasurer and Ralph the
sub-dean — prove that it belongs to Robert de Chesney.
See Le Neve, op. cit. and Giraldus Cambrensis, Opera
(Rolls Ser.), vii, 196, note I.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

the cathedral shared the general disorder.^ With
the consecration of Bishop Hugh of Grenoble,
however, came a revival of spiritual zeal and
constitutional growth. He was zealous for the
spiritual efficiency of his canons and absolutely
refused either to allow them to be employed as
ambassadors, or to bestow prebends upon royal
nominees, courtiers, foreign students, or clerks of
any other cathedral church who were unlikely
to observe the required residence ;' he also issued
a charter empowering the dean and chapter to
force all canons whose prebendal work obliged
them to non-residence to provide vicars to
represent them in the services of the church.'

Induced probably by disorders consequent on
the confusion from which his cathedral had just
emerged, he gave licence to the dean and chapter
to excommunicate anyone who unjustly withheld
the dues of the communa* or inflicted any injury
on the tenants or possessions of the church,' and
further forbade the archdeacons to remove such
excommunication without orders from the bishop
or chapter. He was a vigorous opponent of any-
thing which tended to isolate the cathedral body
from the rest of the diocese, and the letter in
which he exhorted the dean and chapter to
encourage the parochial clergy to bring their
people and their oblations to the annual Pente-
costal procession at Lincoln, though undoubtedly
prompted by financial needs, is full of indignation
at the apathy of the capitular body with regard
to the general indifference of the diocese to the
claims of the cathedral upon their affections.'

Apart from the question of the quarrel with
Grosteste the thirteenth century seems to have
been a time of quiet progress. At this period the
customs of the church, both constitutional and
ritualistic, were committed to writing,' and the
endowments of the cathedral were largely in-
creased by Bishop Gravesend,* who also made
provision for the choristers, hitherto supported by
the alms of the canons. Oliver Sutton increased

' Giraldus Cambrensis, Opera (RoFs Ser.), vii,
198-9.

* Ibid. 126-32 and 260. There is a characteristic
story of his telling an eminent theologian of Paris that
he would willingly have given him a canonry had he
been likely to reside, or had his morals been equal to
his learning.

' Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. i, 308.

* This was the common fund which was shared
among the resident canons over and above the revenues
from their prebendal estates, which all the canons
received.

' Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. i, 308-9.

° Printed in Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. i,
307. The withdrawal of these Pentecostal oblations
was always one of the financial difficulties of the
cathedral. See Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby,
fol. ij d. and D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts,
1451-74, fol. 991/. &c.

' Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. i, 40-57.

* John de Schalby, op. cit. vii, 232.

the daily commons of the canons from id. to
1 2d.,^ and at his instigation the dean and chapter
did much to provide for the decency and order
of the cathedral and community life. A chapel
was built for the parishioners of St. Mary Mag-
dalen, on the site of whose original church the
cathedral stood, and who had accordingly hitherto
used the west end of the nave as their parish
church, to the great disturbance of the regular
services.-'" In 1285 licence was obtained from
the king to enclose the cathedral precinct by a
wall 12 ft. high, with gates to be closed at dusk
and opened before sunrise, for the better safety
of the canons from night attacks in passing from
their houses to service.^^ It was also determined
that in future the ' poor clerks ' who served the
altars should live together in one house; ^ and after
the completion of the new wall the bishop enjoined
the dean and chapter to build a house for the
vicars choral, 'seeing that for the most part
solitude is the occasion of all evils amongst
them.'"

Thus by the close of the thirteenth century
the cathedral had reached in all essentials the
constitution which it was to retain throughout
the middle ages. The chapter consisted of the
dean, chancellor, treasurer and precentor, the
sub-dean, the eight archdeacons, and the simple
canons. ■''' Every member occupied an endowed
prebendal stall to which he was appointed by the
bishop and installed by the dean. Chapter
meetings were as a rule attended by canons in
residence only, but upon great occasions every
member of the chapter might with the consent of
the residentiaries be summoned. At such full
meetings as these the dean was, nominally at
least, elected.^'

Outside the capitular body, but next in impor-
tance to the canons, came the vicars choral ; these
were the deputies in choir of such canons as were
non-resident or only kept the minor residence of

' John de Schalby, op. cit. vii, 209.

'° Ibid. The chapel was built in ' in atrio dictae
ecclesiae cathedralis, competenti spatio ab ea.' Infant
baptism was still to be celebrated at the cathedral
font. See also Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit.
i, 348.

" Pat. 13 Edw. I, m. 22.

" Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. i, 349.

" Ibid. 348. This was for the seniors only,
the juniors were admitted to the same close in
1327. D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1321-39,
fol. 9.

" The Black Book {Line. Cath. Stat, i, 296) in-
cludes the sub-dean among those 'habentes dignitatem,'
but (p. 279) does not mention him among the
'quattuor persone principales.' The importance of
his position must, of course, have increased rapidly
with the increasing frequency of non-residence on the
part of the dean.

" D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts II, 1305, fol. 2 J,
&c. ; and Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit, i, 274
and 279.

' II

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

seventeen weeks and four days in the year.^ The
exact date of their institution cannot be deter-
mined, but the dignitaries appear to have had
vicars early in the twelfth century,* and St.
Hugh's decree probably merely systematised an
existing custom. They were divided into two
'forms' — seniors in priests' orders, and juniors
being deacons, sub-deacons, or acolytes.' Before
admission they were presented to the dean and
chapter by their prebendaries, subjected to ex-
amination in reading and singing, and if com-
petent admitted to two years' probation, during
which they had to learn by heart the antiphonal
hymnal and psalter. They lived a collegiate
life under two elected provosts, and received fixed
salaries over and above their share in the commons
of their society ; they were also protected by
statute from arbitrary dismissal on the return of
their prebendary to residence.* Their number
of course varied with the number of non-resident
canons; in 1349 there were eight, in 1437 there
seem to have been as many as thirty-six,^ and in
1 440 they were sufficiently important to be con-
stituted a legal corporation.*

Junior to the vicars were the poor clerks who
served the altars. Their appointments occur in
the first extant chapter acts of the fourteenth
century. About that time they were five in
number, and from an entry of the year 1492
they appear to have ranged in age from nineteen
to twenty-four, and throughout the fifteenth
century they were frequently exhorted to be
more diligent in their attendance at the schools.
Last of the organized groups of the cathedral
body were the choristers. These under Graves-
end's ordinance numbered twelve, and lived
together in one house with a master at their head,
and under the general control of the precentor.
The boys were to be admitted by the dean and
chapter, who were also to appoint the master
and a canon to oversee his administration.'^

The chapter acts also contain mention of
chantry priests and brethren and sisters. The
former seem to have been of about the same
standing as the vicars, but that they were not
themselves necessarily vicars is proved by the
fact that about the year 1349 five priests are
mentioned apart from the eight vicars. The
brethren were generally people of some rank or
wealth who took an oath of fealty to the

' ' Statuta Vicariorum ' in Bradshaw and Words-
worth, op. cit. ii (i), 144 seq.

^ Maddison, Ficars Choral of Lincoln, 2.

' D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1321-39, fol. 9,
and 1448—62, fol. 64</.; and Line. Epis. Reg. Memo.
Grey, fol. 1 22. ^ ' Statuta Vieariorum.'

* D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1 348-5 5, fol. I o d.,
and Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. ii (ii), 392,
et seq.

" Maddison, Vicars Choral, 10 and 11. The date,
however, should be Nov. 1440, instead of 1 44 1.

' ' Ordinacio Puerorum,' printed in Bradshaw and
Wordsworth, op. cit. II (ii), 162.

cathedral, and were admitted as partakers in the
benefits of its prayers. In the fourteenth century
Richard II and his queen, Henry earl of Derby,
afterwards King Henry IV,* Philippa Chaucer
and Sir Henry Percy were all solemnly admitted
as brethren or sisters, and in the fifteenth century
there were a large number of such admissions,
including merchants of Lincoln and a prioress of
Stainfield.'

As was usual in the middle ages the power
of the cathedral was further enhanced by
royal concessions at the expense of the central
and municipal government. Henry II granted
to the dean and chapter and all their servants a
long list of franchises and the right to hold a
court, called the Galilee Court, weekly for
residents and daily for non-residents, to hear all
pleas within the limits of the close, both pleas of
the crown and others. These extensive liberties
naturally became a source of dispute with the
city, but the church made good its claim ^^ and
there are records of suits in the court held ' at
the west door of the church in the porch called
the Galilee porch ' throughout the middle ages.^^
In the quarrels of the fifteenth century one of
the complaints urged against the dean was that he
allowed suits which should have been judged in
the Galilee Court to be brought before the royal
courts.'^ A steward of the Galilee Court occurs
as late as 1793.^'

That so important and well-organized a body
should be free from all exterior control, as under
Bishop Chesney's decree it must have been, in-
volved such a menace to the welfare of the church
as could not be allowed to pass unchallenged,
and already in the first half of the thirteenth
century Grosteste had fought and won the battle
of authority. He had himself been a canon of
Lincoln," and it may be that personal knowledge
led him to believe that some definite exterior
control was needful. He was opposed not only
by his own chapter, who, it is said, openly
regretted having raised a man of so low birth to
a position of such authority," but by all the
exempt ecclesiastical foundations of England
and by the bishops themselves, who feared
that Grosteste's triumph might be used as a

^ He was admitted in the presence and probably
through the influence of his father, John of Gaunt,
who was a great patron of the cathedral. {Hist. MSS.
Com. Rep. xii, App. pt. ix, 563.)

'D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1384-94, fol. 13
and 22 a'. ; 1451-74, fol. 21 ; and 1479-92, fol. i6d.
and 63.

'» D. and C. Line. Press A, shelf I, box I, No. 61,
and Chapter Acts, 1479-1502, fol. 151.

" Thus, D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1465-78,
fol. 29 d. ; 1479-1502, foL 177 ; 1501-7, fol. 37 d.

" Complaints against Mac worth in 1437, printed in
Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. ii (i).

" Ibid, ii (ii), 564.

" John de Schalby, op. cit. vii, 204.
Matt. Paris, Chron. Majora (Rolls Ser.), iii, 528.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

precedent in a case then pending as to the right
of the archbishop of Canterbury to visit the sees
of his province.^

The course of the struggle is not easy to
follow, but it would seem that the dean and
chapter showed signs of revolt at the first sug-
gestion of episcopal visitation, and in consequence
Grosteste obtained a licence from the pope, in
January, 1239, to carry out his intention.^ By
the following Whitsuntide the canons had sent
a proctor to represent their case at Rome,' and
when the bishop gave notice that he should visit
the cathedral on 1 8 October, ' convocatis . . .
per decanum et capitulum omnibus canonicis in
crastino Sanctae Fidis in capitulo Lincolniae, et
habito super praedictis tractatu die Dominica
proxime sequente ad pulpitum in ecclesiae Lin-
colniae, accepta a populo publice licentia adeundi
sedem Apostolicam et interpositis appellationibus
propter injurias quas eis, ut dixerunt, faciebam
et facere conabar,' the cathedral dignitaries
and many of the other canons set out at once
for Rome, and sent letters to all the chapters
of England, inciting them against Grosteste.
When the bishop reached Lincoln for his visita-
tion the whole cathedral body absented itself;
but, hearing that he had been summoned to meet
the archbishop of Canterbury on 3 November,
the dean and chapter, instead of pursuing their
journey to Rome, waited for him in London.

The bishop was in doubt whether or not to
suspend and excommunicate the contumacious
canons, but after various proposals of arbitration,^
it was finally decided to ask the pope to entrust
the cause to the bishop of Worcester and the
archdeacons of Worcester and Sudbury.' In
January of the following year Gregory IX issued
a commission to the bishop of Worcester, the
archdeacon of Worcester, and the abbot of
Evesham, bidding them exhort the dean and
chapter to obedience, and, failing that, to hear
and judge the cause themselves.' It would seem
probable that the pope issued this mandate on his
own initiative as soon as he realised the gravity
of the quarrel, for three months later the cause
was committed to the arbitrators chosen at
London by the contending parties.' There
seems to be no evidence as to what took place
under their jurisdiction, but there is reason to
believe that a second meeting was held between
the bishop and the canons at the end of 1240
or early in 1241, when the chapter swore to a
new form of procedure.' It may have been
on this occasion that Richard de Kirkham was
chosen to be associated with the bishop of

' Grosseteste, Epistolae (Rolls Ser.), Ixxx,
" Cal. of Papal Letters, i, 178.
' Grosseteste, Epistolae (Rolls Ser.), Ixxix.
• Ibid. Ixxx. ' Ibid. Ixxxi.

° Cal. of Papal Letters, \, 185. ' Ibid. 189.

° Grosseteste, Epistolae (Rolls Ser.), xcii (289),
xciv (294).

Worcester as arbitrator.^ Certainly he was an
active judge during the autumn of 1241 and the
early part of the year 1242,^" and proved himself
to be of an independent spirit ; for, in spite of
the fact that he was appointed at the request of
the canons, he did not hesitate to suspend several
members of the chapter when they persuaded
the king, by means of a forged history of their
foundation, to remove the suit from the ecclesi-
siastical to the secular courts. ^^ It was by such
expedients that the suit was prolonged throughout
the years 1242 and 1243. At the end of the
latter year the dean and chapter appealed from
the decision of the bishop of Worcester to the
pope, and the case was referred to fresh judges
by Innocent IV.^^ At length, in 1244, the
bishop and the dean both sought the pope at
Lyons, and on 25 August, 1245, a judgement was
obtained.^' It is usually said that the pope's
decision was entirely in favour of Grosteste,
and it has been insinuated that the bishop
induced the dean to consent to the arrangement
by securing his promotion to the see of Coventry.
In defence of Grosteste it may be urged, how-
ever, that though the right of visitation was
secured to him, the other points of his conten-
tion, as mentioned in the pope's award, were
given in favour of the canons.^* Moreover,
the papal authority had from the first been in-
clined to favour the bishop," and Dean Roger
de Weseham, as Grosteste's own nominee,

' Grosseteste, Epistolae (Rolls Ser.), xc (280).

'" Curia Regis R. 123, m. 7.

" Ibid, and Grosseteste, Epistolae (Rolls Ser.), 280.
It seems to have been in the autumn of 1 241 that
the canons produced the story of the refoundation of
the see of Lincoln by William Rufus, which induced
the king to take part in the quarrel. (Matt. Paris,
Chron. Majora, iv, 154-6.) At a council held at
Reading the bishop was forbidden to pursue the case
further, and the following Easter a prohibition was
issued to Richard de Kirkham, who, however, dis-
regarded it, and appointed the parties to appear before
him upon the same day that they were summoned to
the king's court. (Curia Regis R. 123, m. 7.) It
would seem that the canons did all in their power to
prevent the revocation of the prohibition, and so
cause fiirther delay, but Grosseteste appears to have
frustrated their plans. (Grosseteste, Epistolae [Rolls
Ser.], xci, xcii).

" Cal. of Papal Letters, i, 203.

" Matt. Paris, Chron. Majora (Rolls Ser.), iv, 497.

" The papal award provided that the correction of
such offences as had already been in the competence
of the dean and chapter were to remain with them,
though if not executed within a time appointed by
the bishop, it was to devolve upon him by default.
The bishop's consent was not to be held necessary to
the election of a dean ; the chapter were to observe
obedience to the bishop, but need take no oath to
that effect. Grosseteste's claim to the sequestration
of vacant prebends and to procuration when visiting
the cathedral was also defeated. (Bradshaw and
Wordsworth, op. cit. i, 3 i 5 et seq.)

" Cal. of Papal Letters, i, 185.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

appointed on the deprivation of William de
Tournay, would hardly have required a bribe.^
Further, though the canons in 1243 refused to
accept an arrangement with the bishop made
by the dean without procuratorial authority,^
their confidence in the latter must certainly have
been restored before they employed him as
their representative at Lyons ; and the fact
that Matthew Paris, always a severe critic of
Grosteste, records Dean Roger's promotion
with approval ' ought in itself to be sufficient
to dispel any remaining suspicion.

In the absence of evidence in favour of the
dean and chapter it is impossible to determine
on whose side justice is to be found. All that
is known of Grosteste's character makes it
hardly possible to doubt that he only engaged in
this unseemly strife because he felt that a grave
principle was at stake ; his letters, moreover,
are full of affection for the dean and chapter,
and he asserted repeatedly that no one could be
more anxious for peace than he was himself,
but it must be a true peace to bring satisfaction.^
Again, though the canons probably based their
claim to exemption upon de Chesney's charter in
all good faith, it is difficult to find any excuse
for the means which they employed to prolong
the suit ; and even if Grosteste were wrong in
the motives to which he attributed their frequent
visits to the king, the absurd forgery of the
re-foundation story, and their protest against
Richard deKirkham's right to suspend the sub-dean
and chancellor, must be pronounced unworthy.
At the same time it should be remembered that
contemporary opinion for the most part blamed
the bishop for persisting in his claim, and even
Adam Marsh wrote in remonstrance, reminding
his friend that the divine command bids masters
strive to inspire love rather than fear.*

The rest of Grosteste's episcopate passed in
peace for the dean and chapter, but on the death
of the bishop the cathedral body were obliged to
defend their privileges against the archbishop of

' It seems impossible to ascertain either the date
or the circumstances of the substitution of Roger for
William de Tournay in the deanery. The statement
that de Weseham was appointed ' by grace and favour
of the bishop' on the deprivation of Dean William
cannot be traced to an earlier source than Leland ;
but the story has every appearance of probability, and
has been accepted without hesitation by subsequent
historians. (See Pegge, Life of Roger de Weseham, 8.)

* Cal. of Papal Letters, i, 202.

' Matt. Paris, Chron. Majora (Rolls Ser.), iv. 4.25.
One historian suggests that the step may really have
been a concession to the chapter on the bishop's
part, enabling them to elect their own dean in place
of his nominee. (See F. S. Stevenson, Life of Grosseteste,
248.)

* Grosseteste, Epistolae (Rolls Ser.), Ixxix, xciii, &c.
The bishop did not dispute the existence of the
charter, but denied de Chesney's ability to bind his
successors to any such renunciation of authority.

' Mon. Franciscana (Rolls Ser.), ii, 146-8.

Canterbury, who claimed the guardianship of the
property of the see during vacancy." The dispute
was settled in favour of the canons in May, 1261.''

The fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries
were marked by a constitutional struggle if
possible more unedifying than that of the
thirteenth. At the root of the matter lay the
frequent absence or non-residence of the deans.
Though bound by oath to reside, it was always
possible for them to obtain licence from the
pope to be absent for periods of greater or less
duration ; this was sometimes obtained on the
plea of being engaged in the king's service,
sometimes in order to go on pilgrimage or to
study at some foreign university, and once, in
the case of John de Schepey, in order to avoid
the expense of maintaining a household both at
Lincoln and on his prebendal estate.' This
condition of affairs gave rise to a quarrel between
dean and chapter as to whether the authority
which the dean was in the habit of exercising in
chapter, in the matter of visitation, correction,
sequestration of vacant prebends, and presentation
of vicars and chaplains, was really his by virtue
of his dignity as dean or by virtue of his position
as head and therefore agent of the chapter.

The first recorded occasion of dispute was in
1 31 2, when Roger de Martival and the canons
referred the case to Bishop John Dalderby.'
The arguments on both sides have been pre-
served at considerable length by John de Schalby,
who conducted the case for the chapter.^" They
are characteristically mediaeval in their dialectical
form and somewhat far-fetched deductions, but
there can be little doubt that the bishop, in pro-
nouncing in favour of joint authority, correctly
interpreted the spirit of the constitution." With
the next dean, Henry de Mammesfeld, similar
difficulties arose, with regard both to the right
to present chaplains to the altar of St. Peter^^
and the right to visit prebendal churches without
consulting the chapter. In 1324 the sub-dean
went so far as to order the succentor to record
and report the exact length of the dean's
absence upon his unsanctioned visitation, in
order that his share of the commons might be
deducted, since he was away purely on his own
authority and for his personal advantage.^'

^ Matt. Paris, Chron. Majora (Rolls Ser.), iv, 412.

' y.C.H. Line, i. Ecclesiastical History.

* Cal. of Papal Letters, ii, 531 ; iii, 172 and 350 ;
iv, 526. Cal. of Papal Petitions, 410.

° D. and C. Lincoln Press D. ii, 60, box 2.

"" Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. ii (i),
Ixxiv et seq.

" Ibid, i, 280 ; ii (ii), 319-22.

" Ibid, i, 325 et seq.

" D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, I 32 1-9, fol. ^d.
The common fund' was supported by the contribu-
tions of the non-resident canons, each of whom was
bound to subscribe one-seventh of the yearly value of
his prebend. (Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. ii (i),
144.) Cathedral charters also show many grants to
the ' comrauna ' of the canons.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

The friction increased under the succeeding
deans. In 1332, when Anthony Bek was
abroad, the sub-dean and chapter denied the
right of his vicar-general to appoint vicars to
two prebendaries also out of England.^ No clear
account of the dispute seems to be extant, but
apparently the dean adhered to his position.
An appeal was made to Rome, and the case
ultimately referred to the prior of Warter.^
No decision, however, was reached before Bek
was promoted to the see of Norwich, and
the suit was prolonged under his successor,
William of Norwich. Talliata, the papal
auditor, gave judgement unreservedly in favour
of the dean, and on the appeal of the chapter
this sentence was confirmed, with a proviso that
in case of the dean's continued absence or
neglect the sub-dean and chapter might act.^
That the chapter were determined not to
acquiesce in any such decision is clear from the
fact that in 1341 they repudiated the conciliatory
attitude of their proctor at Rome.^ In spite,
however, of the firmness of their resistance,
and a favourable judgement given by the
archbishop of Canterbury in March, 1343-4,*
they were still unsatisfied, and on the eve of
Dean William's promotion to the episcopate
both the sub-dean and the chapter wrote to him,
imploring him to make the desired concessions
before it was too late. The bishop also wrote
in the same strain, and the chapter addressed
two letters to the pope, speaking of the evils
caused by the absence of the dean, and desiring
him to provide some one who would be willing
to reside personally.*

The decree of the papal auditor was not
reversed, but the whole question seems to have
remained in abeyance for some forty or fifty
years when it was revived under Dean Schepey.
In December, 1403, Boniface IX made a statute
that in future the right of visitation should belong
to the dean, sub-dean, and chapter conjointly.'
This was nominally done by the pope 'ex mero
motu et ad nullius alterius instanciam' on account
of the confusion in the prebendal churches arising
from the cessation of all visitation for the last
forty years ; but it is evident that Dean Schepey
had already revived the old claims, for in the
same month Henry IV committed the case to the
bishop of Lincoln, hearing that ' Master John
Schapeye, dean of Lincoln, is striving to infringe

' D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1321-39, fol. 24.

' D. and C. Line. Press A. ii, 10, No. 2, and Cal.
of Papal Letters, ii, 529.

' Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. ii (ii), 236-8.

' D. and C. Line. Press D. ii, 60, box z.

'■ Ibid.

* D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1 342-6, fol. 7 and 8.

' Cal. of Papal Letters, V, 460 ; see also D. and C. Line.
D. ii, 60, box 2. This document has neither name
nor date, but corresponds so closely with the papal
letter as to make it almost certain that it belongs to
this time.

certain ancient customs of the chapter.' * Four
years later the king ordered that the statute of
Pope Boniface should be observed, and forbade
the dean to remove the case from the jurisdiction
of the bishop of Lincoln to the Court of Chris-
tianity.' In March, 1 405-6, however, on
Schepey's appeal Innocent VII confirmed the
decision of Peter Fabri,^" and in the winter of
1407—8 the case was once more committed to a
papal auditor, and the archbishop of Canterbury
and English bishops forbidden to take further action
in the matter.^^ From this time, however, the
bishops of Lincoln seem more and more to have
considered the case as one affecting the internal
discipline of the cathedral body, and as thus
coming within their own jurisdiction. In 1410
Bishop Repingdon on his visitation ordered that the
statutes should be written out and put in a place
where all could see them, and in 141 5, after the
death of Schepey, Dean Macworth was perempto-
rily reminded that his oath of office bound him to
residence.^' Fragments also remain of an award
pronounced by the bishop some time between
1 41 2 and 1420," but apparently without effect,
for in 1 42 1 the dean and chapter promised ad-
herence to a decision delivered by Bishop Flemyng
in the presence of the king, whereby the dean was
to be allowed to convoke the chapter under his own
name and seal for triennial visitations, but the
chapter were to appoint two canons with whose
advice the dean was to administer correction; in
the absence of the dean the sub-dean or other
president of the chapter was to act.^*

Such a judgement was not calculated to satisfy
the chapter ; and, though they seem to have
acquiesced in it for the time being," in 1433
they once more appealed against Macworth both
to Rome and to Canterbury, and the bishop of
Lincoln issued an inhibition against the dean and
ordered him to appear before him in chapter.** The
quarrel was now complicated by the existence of
what appear to have been real abuses on both
sides ; each accused the other of having failed to
observe the award in the matter of jurisdiction,
but the dean added grave charges of misappro-
priation of revenues on the part of the canons,
and the chapter accused the dean of offences
against ritual and custom, of abuse of patronage,
and of the betrayal of chapter secrets to seculars.*'

' Pat. 2 Hen. IV, pt. i, m. 15.
° Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. ii (ii), 252
and 254.

'" Cal. of Papal Letters, vi, 30.

" D. and C. Line. Press D. ii, 60, box 2.

'^ Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Repingdon, fol. 45 </. and
116^.

" Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. ii (ii), 257.

" D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1407-22, fol. I, 4
et seq.

" Ibid. fol. 8 d.

'" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gray, fol. \\\d. and 115.

" Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. ii (i), clxv
et seq.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Bishop Gray's compromise pronounced in
August, 1434, was strongly in favour of the
canons, and in December Macworth asserted that
he had not assented and would not assent to it
without better consideration.^ In these circum-
stances the quarrel dragged on for another two
years,' and in 1437 Bishop Alnwick, who had
lately been translated from Norwich, came to
visit his cathedral and found a deplorable state of
division and confusion. He visited again in
March, 1437-8, and in June, 1439, having
annulled his predecessor's pronouncement as
lacking authority, he summoned a chapter to es-
tablish his own award and to draw up a book of
customs.'

The award of Bishop Alnwick, unlike those of
his predecessors, bears the impress of the hand of
the statesman. He gave judgement in favour of
joint jurisdiction, but he also pronounced against
numerous abuses which were rife amongst the
canons, and he saved the dignity of the dean by
ignoring all complaints which were merely per-
sonal or irremediable. At first Macworth ap-
peared to be submissive; both he and the chapter
accepted the award, and at the bishop's suggestion
decided that it would be well to compile a com-
plete book of cathedral statutes to take the place
of the fragmentary and in part unwritten
customs which were all that had hitherto existed ;^
but before very long the dean broke out into
open rebellion against the bishop's authority, he
denied his right to visit the prebendal estates,
he stated his intention of refusing to accept any
new statutes and protested more than once in
chapter against the holding of convocations to
discuss those which Alnwick had compiled, and
he attempted to force the sub-dean to acknow-
ledge the authority of the award of Bishop
Flemyng.' The bishop bore his insubordination
until February, 1444-5, then at length sentence
of excommunication was passed,^ which remained
in force certainly until September, 1448, and

' D. andC. Line. Chapter Acts, 1424-43, fol. 7;-
86 and 98 </. This was not unreasonable, for it ap-
pears from Alnwick's award three years later that
Bishop Gray had not interviewed the parties person-
ally before pronouncing.

' Ibid. fol. lijd.

' Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. ii (ii), 366
et seq.

* Bishop Alnwick's Registrum, though it probably
represents Lincoln custom in the fifteenth century to
a large extent, is not entitled to be regarded as the
authentic statute book of the cathedral, as it never
received the necessary assent of the dean and chapter.
(See Mr. Bradshaw's argument in Lincoln Cathedral
Statutes I and the Report of the Cathedrals Commission
1884-5, ^°'- ^^'O

' Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. ii (ii), 443
et seq. and D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1438-47,
fol. 3 1 d. 42, 48, 45 d. 56, 64 d.

° Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. ii (ii),
524.

possibly until the end of the following year.' In
145 1 Macworth died.

The award of 1439 has been said to mark the
close of the legislative period of Lincoln Cathedral
history; certainly no fresh constitutional questions
of importance arose until the nineteenth century,
and what changes were introduced were merely
the gradual modifications which were the natural
outcome of an age when community life in
the church was little understood and everything
older than the sixteenth century regarded with
suspicion as savouring of poperv.^

Of the internal condition of the cathedral be-
fore the beginning of the fourteenth century
there is very little evidence. It is probable that
the greatest menace to the life of the church, here
as elsewhere, was the papal and archiepiscopal
power of provision. The archbishop claimed
the right to present to one prebend in return for
the confirmation of each bishop, and the pope
claimed patronage on a yet larger scale, and over
and above this expected the bishops to provide
for such men as he should suggest to them.*
The canons thus provided were frequently
foreigners and cardinals, and nearly always held
one or more prebends in other cathedrals,^" so
that not only did the revenues of the church go
out of England to the foreign beneficiaries," but
it was impossible that the canons should be
resident either at Lincoln or in their prebendal
parishes.

St. Hugh's objection to the appointment of
foreigners to Lincoln prebends has already been
mentioned. In 1253 Bishop Grosteste made an
equally determined and possibly even bolder stand
when the pope required him to provide for his
nephew Frederick de Lavinia.^' This, however,
appears to have been without permanent result,
for in 1289 all the prebends of Lincoln except
five were said to be in the hands of Romans,^'
and Clement V between his consecration in
November, 1305, and Michaelmas, 1309, pro-
vided thirty people to positions in the cathedral,
at least twelve of whom, to judge by their names,
must have been foreigners.^*

With the fourteenth century knowledge of a
more intimate kind as to the discipline of the
cathedral can be gathered both from the chapter
acts and the episcopal registers, and it becomes
evident at once that visitors had two distinct
classes of men to deal with. On the one hand

' D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1448-62, fol. I.
The dean's presence in chapter is not again men-
tioned until Jan. 1449-50. Ibid. fol. 10.

* See Report of Cathedral Commission, 1854, vol.
XXV and Ibid. 1884-5, vol. xxi.

' Matt. Paris, Chron. Majora (Rolls Ser.), vi, 148.

"> Pat. 22 Edw. I, m. 5^.; 24 Edw. I, m. 15 ;
25 Edw. I, pt. i, m. 6.

" Rolls of Parliament (Rec. Com.), ii, 339*7.

" Grosseteste, Epistolae (Rolls Ser.), exxviii.

" Jnn. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 501-2.

" D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, I, 1305, fol. 16.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

there were the vicars, poor clerks, and chantry
priests, who seem to have been of much the same
standing as the ordinary monk and to have shared
his temptation to gambling, drinking, irreverence
in choir, and immorality; and on the other there
were the canons, whose offences seem to have
been rather in the direction of self-interest,
favouritism, and neglect of the care and considera-
tion for their juniors which were essential to the
welfare of the cathedral.

In the early years of the fourteenth century
the charges against the vicars and poor clerks
brought before the chapter were few. In 1307
Robert Coty, a vicar, was twice convicted of
having lost all his clothes and even his choir
vestments at the gaming table, and consequently
resigned his post,^ and in 1310 the canons com-
plained to the bishop that in spite of the small
number of residents the vicars refused to help at
the celebration of chapter mass.^ In 1334
William of Dunham seems to have been ejected
by his fellow vicars from his lodging in the vicars'
court and to have been restored by the dean and
chapter ' with an admonition to lead an honest
life. A more serious state of affairs is perhaps
indicated by the injunctions issued in 1392 to
vicars of both forms, chaplains, and poor clerks, for-
bidding them to take any woman except a mother
or a sister to their own rooms except in the
presence of a third person, and imposing fines for
frequenting taverns.*

The chapter acts of the succeeding century
contrast unfavourably with these. Quite early
there are complaints of insolence to the dig-
nitaries and of evil life,* and from the year 1454
onward there is scarcely a page without some
record of irregularity, insolence, negligence,
debt,' or immorality. In 1508 such was the
laxness of morals among the poor clerks that the
treasurer undertook specially to visit and oversee

' D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1305-21, fol. 9.

' Ibid. fol. 25.

' Ibid. 1321-39, fol. 30.

* Ibid. 1386-95, fol. 46.

' D. and C. Line. Chapter Aets, 1407-22, fol. 7,
20 and 21.

* This, however, was not only a matter of individual
delinquency; there is some evidence that the financial
condition of the cathedral, like that of other religious
houses in the fifteenth century, was not entirely satis-
factory. In November, 1433, it was decided to ap-
point a general accountant and overseer of the revenues
so that the arrears of the past year might not
be confused with the income of the current year and
all the arrears might be cleared (D. and C. Line.
Chapter Acts, 1424-43, fol. 87). Twenty years later
Bishop Chedworth issued special orders that the arch-
deacons should encourage Pentecostal offerings and
bequests to the fabric, and regulated the contributions
of the archdeacons and prebends and the payments of
the latter on coming into residence (Ibid. 1448-62,
fol. 33-36). About the same time serious complaints
were made as to injudicious alienations by priests
and ministers of the church (Ibid.i479-i502,fol.i89).

them,^ and in 1509 new ordinances were passed
against neglect on their part and that of the
vicars.^

At the same time it is probable that the con-
trast between the fourteenth and fifteenth century
chapter acts was due to a stricter idea of dis-
cipline entertained by the canons at the later
date or to a more regular keeping of the act
books ; it is certain that as early as February,
1347-8, Bishop GynwelP found considerable
negligence to exist among the vicars and poor
clerks who absented themselves from the canoni-
cal hours and processions, walked and talked in
the cathedral during service, and wandered about
at night wearing arms, and the example of the
canons at the time was evidently not edifying, for
though the bishop told them that he found many
things to commend he was obliged to reprove
them also for talking loudly in choir and ab-
senting themselves from service, for withhold-
ing alms from the poor and, in the case of
the non-residents, subtracting the salaries of their
vicars. The general decency and order of the
cathedral also left something to be desired, vest-
ments were described as minus decentes and the
ordinale ^^ was not properly followed by the vicars.
A general injunction was issued to all members of
the cathedral body not to frequent the houses of
women living within the close, however honest.

A few years later a terrible state of affairs was
revealed; in January, 1359-60, the bishop had
already twice given orders that all women should
be removed from the close. Finding that he was
not obeyed he issued a third injunction, pointing
out at the same time that women with their
husbands kept taverns within the close which
were haunted by clerks and others at night, with
the result that robberies and murders and other
crimes were rife, and under the steps by which
the people went up to the great altar a secret
passage had been discovered which had an
outlet into the room of one of the poor clerks.^^
Apparently admonition was in vain, for three
months later a yet more stringent injunction was
issued, and a yet worse state of affairs revealed,
women of evil life having even been admitted to
the house of the dean.^^

The next sixty years undoubtedly saw some
improvement, but the archbishop of Canterbury,
on his visitation in 1390, still complained of

' D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, I 507—20, fol. 4.
* Ibid. 1509-13, fol. I.
' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynwell.
'" This would of course be the Lincoln Use ; unlike
Wells, London, and Lichfield, Lincoln does not seem
formally to have adopted the Sarum Liturgy until 1556
(Strype, Eccles. Memo. Ill (ii). No. 51) though probably
the Lincoln service books were becoming rare before
that date, for in 1497 ' one beautiful missale of Lincoln
Use ' is mentioned among the treasures of the cathedral
(D. and C. Line. ChapterActs,i479-i502,fol. 271 <?'.).
" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynwell, fol. 147.
"Ibid. fol. 147a.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

talking and laughing in choir, and of vicars
and others leaving the church in the middle
of the service. Obits of kings and bishops
and feasts of apostles and doctors were not
properly observed, and vicars wrere admitted
by favour and vi^ithout proper examination.
Great disorder was caused by the indecent cele-
bration of All Fools Day on the Feast of the
Circumcision when the vicars played practical
jokes even during the services.^

A certain amount of laxness at this time is
scarcely matter for surprise. The quarrels with
successive deans, which must have been seriously
detrimental to discipline, had now been carried on
intermittently for almost a century, and Schepey,
who was elected dean in 1388, seems to have
been utterly careless of anything but his own in-
terests. In January, 1393-4, he came into con-
flict with Bishop Bokyngham, certain of his
servants having polluted the cathedral by blood-
shed. When the bishop visited the dean refused
to profess obedience to him and would not show
his title to office ; he was consequently suspended
and excommunicated, and as he remained obdurate
the case was brought before the archbishop of
Canterbury. Schepey was ultimately induced to
submit, but in the meantime grave charges had
been brought against him by the canons, who
complained of his derisive treatment of them in
chapter, of his remissness in correction, and his
unpunctuality. They stated that he did not
appoint a chaplain to celebrate for him daily, but
retained the salary for his own use, that he mis-
appropriated the common funds and imposed
excessive fines upon the vicars, that he refused the
feedings and omitted the celebrations to which
he was bound,^ that he was extravagant in buying
unnecessary pictures and images, and was in the
habit of frequenting public games and shows and
of allowing their performance in the close.

In these circumstances it is hardly to be
wondered that there were serious complaints to
be brought against the junior members of the
church. The vicars, it was said, were noisy in choir,
the chaplains wandered about and were disorderly
and the poor clerks were negligent ; a clique of
vicars and chaplains sowed discord between dean
and chapter, several of the vicars were rectors of

'D.andC. Line. Chapter Acts, i386-95,fol. 31 d.
The archbishop further ordered that women of doubt-
ful character should not be admitted to the close. In
view of the injunctions of 1392, already mentioned
(p. 87), it seems fair to assume that as far as the canons
were concerned this order was merely formal. A higher
moral standard must have prevailed amongst them
before they could enforce it upon their juniors.

' All the resident canons were bound in virtue of
their office to entertain a certain number of the junior
ministers and servants of the church at their own
tables on certain days. Archbishop Benson has noted
that social influence was quite as much part of the
work of a canon as attendance at worship. W. E.
Benson, T^he Cathedral, pp. 22 and 39. See also
Jrch. li, p. 2.

parish churches, one was in the habit of coming
to choir in a state of intoxication, and fifteen
people were suspected of laxness of morals. Little
appears to have been said at the time about the
canons beyond a charge of slackness against the
precentor. It is evident, however, from the com-
plaints of the dean, that there was much discord
between him and the chapter, and much partisan-
ship among the vicars.' The friction appears to
have increased, and when Bishop Repingdon held
a visitation in 14 10 a very similar state of affairs
was revealed. Games were carried on in the
cemetery, the statutable feedings were not observed,
the vicars wore noisy wooden shoes, and wandered
about in secular habit outside the church at service
time.* Bishop Gray's injunctions of 1432 show
that the general carelessness had not lessened.
Vicars were appointed without examination and
were consequently open to the usual charges of
negligence, irreverence, and dissipation, repairs
were needed both in the fabric and the vestments,
and stipends were not punctually paid to vicars
and chaplains. Here, as elsewhere, some of the
chantries had become so much impoverished that
they had been united,^ and the bishop enjoined
that in such cases measures should be taken to
secure the fulfilment of the wishes of the founders
at least in part, and that the chantries thus united
should be given to priest vicars lest they should be
forced by lack of means to resign or to seek some
undignified employment outside the church. Such
was the poverty of the vicars that certain provisions
had been made without authority, obliging new
members of the body to live for a certain time
at their own expense. These were annulled, as
they prevented suitable people from joining the
community.*

Such complaints, however, were as nothing
compared with the confusion revealed when
Alnwick visited the cathedral at the time of his
award in 1437. As the comperta at this visi-
tation have been printed at length elsewhere,' it
will be sufficient here to say that the dean seems
to have been guilty of unbearable arrogance and
lack of consideration, that the precentor and
treasurer were negligent, that the chancellor was
guilty of scandalous conduct in his opposition to
the dean, that the canons were in many cases
arbitrary in action and withheld the stipends of
their vicars, that the standard of morality was low
amongst the latter, and that the sacrist had abused
his position as confessor.

Of the next sixty years no record appears to
exist, and when Bishop Smith visited in 1501
matters seem to have considerably improved. The

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham, fol. 466
et seq.

' Ibid. Memo. Repingdon, fol. 45 d.

' This was under an order of Bishop Repingdon,
Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. (ii), 201.

* Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gray, fol. 122 et seq.

' Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. ii (ii), 366
et seq.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

dean said he hoped everything was satis prospere, and
several of the vicars returned the verdict omnia
bene. Evil reports had indeed arisen from the
fact that a woman had access to the rooms of one
of the chaplains, and the dean and precentor had
not been sufficiently careful in admitting vicars,
clerks, and choristers, otherwise the bishop seems
to have been satisfied with hisvisit.^ Two years
later a more serious state of affairs had again arisen.
The bishop enjoined that chantry clerks should not
take their meals in taverns, that women of evil
life should not be admitted to live within the
close, and that an overseer should be appointed
for the vicars and poor clerks. There seem to
have been certain cases of misappropriation, and
vestments and jewels had been given away with-
out the dean's consent, chapter secrets had been
revealed to seculars, and a quarrel had arisen
between the dean and treasurer as to the right of
the latter to absent himself from the cathedral
without leave, and his obligation to provide good
wine for the celebration of the sacrament.*
Bishop Longlands seems to have visited about the
year 1524, and at some subsequent time wrote to
insist that the dean should make the required
corrections ; he added that the residents were
fewer in number than of old, the dignitaries ought
to reside, especially the treasurer, and as the
latter had long been absent he was sending Mr.
Richard Parker to fulfil that office, as he was
willing to keep residence.' In 1539 he issued
further injunctions empowering major residents to
profess minor residence after three years if ill,
and making one or two other regulations.*

The first half of the sixteenth century
was a period hardly less critical for the secu-
lar foundations of England than for the monas-
teries. It was very early in his reign that
Henry VIII began to show an alarming interest
in Lincoln, and issued a decree that none of the
singing men or boys of the cathedral should be
taken away unless it were to sing in his own
chapel.* By the year 1528 Bishop Longlands
seems even to have considered it a favour that he
was allowed by Wolsey to bestow the deanery
according to his own ideas of fitness — there is a
touch of irony in the words in which he thanks
the cardinal for his ' goodness in suffering me to

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Smith, fol. 140-7.

^ D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1 501-7, fol. 68 d.
et seq. and 78. Here again the injunction as to the
exclusion of women from the close may well have been
formal, but the character of the treasurer's language to
the dean and the general tone of the cathedral as re-
vealed by the injunctions do not seem to indicate a
healthy moral atmosphere.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Longlands, fol. 28.

* D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1520-45, fol. 170.
This was a reassertion of a privilege already spoken of
as an old custom by Bishop Alnwick (Bradshaw and
Wordsworth op. eit. i, 210) and may point to an at-
tempt to reduce the chapter to the number of major
residents only.

' D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1 507-20.

bestow my own livelihood.'* In August, 1534,
the acknowledgement of the royal supremacy
was signed by the dean and seventy-one others.

Two years later the Lincolnshire insurrection
broke out. It is not quite clear what attitude
was adopted by the dean and chapter. It would
seem that the rebels, on coming to Lincoln, met
with a favourable reception at the hands of
members of the corporation,^ and by some means
they obtained access to the chapter-house of the
cathedral. According to one witness the gentle-
men lodged one night with the dean and canons
and were well entertained.^ At the same time,
when the mayor was at a loss how to defend the
town in case of attempted plunder, the sub-dean
and chancellor who were in residence, being
unable to send men to his assistance, promised
and collected £2°, which they forwarded to the
town hall.^" Suspicion of complicity, however,
seems to have fallen on the dean, but the Duke of
Suffolk wrote to the king assuring him that
Henneage was absent from Lincoln at the time
and that he had had no communication with the
rebels, and either through innocence or influence
the cathedral suffered nothing worse than the
exaction of a loan from the residentiaries, to be
repaid before the issue of the king's pardon.^^

In June, 1540, the dean received orders to
take down and convey to London Tower ' a
certayn shryne and divers feyned Reliques and
Juels ' in the cathedral, whereby ' all the simple
people be moch deceaved and broughte into great
supersticion and idolatrye.' ^^ From the memoran-
dum of the execution of this order, it appears that
the king thus appropriated 2,621 oz. of gold,
3,285 oz. of silver, besides pearls, precious stones,
the pure gold shrine of St. Hugh, and the pure
silver shrine of St. John Dalderby. Between the
years 1548 and 1553 yet further plunder was
taken,^' and it is perhaps scarcely surprising that
the treasurer threw away the keys of his office,
which became from that time extinct in Lincoln
cathedral.^*

The story of the next few years is soon told.
In April, 1548, after a visitation by commis-
sioners, the dean read the royal injunctions
exhorting the whole of the cathedral body to
charity, studiousness, and general good discipline,
providing for a certain number of sermons and
for portions of the service to be conducted in
English, abolishing certain observances of the

* L. and P. Henry Fill, iv (2), No. 4,527. There
was no talk, it appears, of free election.

' Ibid, vii, No. 1,121 (5). ' Ibid, xl, No. 853.

' Ibid, xi, Nos. 971, 975, fol. 2, and No. 853. It
seems certain, however, that the dean was not present.
'" Ibid, xi, No. 939.

" Ibid, xi. No. 1,084, ^^^ ^^50 No. 1,043, and xii,^
1,218. " Ibid. XV, No. 772.

^^ Arch, liii, 38 et seq. Canon Wordsworth in
this article has given several interesting inventories of
the jewels and vestments of the cathedral.
'* Browne Willis, Survey of the Cathedrals, iii, 3.
89 12

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

cathedral, and making provision for choristers who

* have ther voices chaunged,' with a few other
regulations.^ In 1552 Matthew Parker was
installed as dean. Parker had modified an early
enthusiasm for Lutheran teaching by Patristic
study, but he was a married man, and on the acces-
sion of Mary espoused the cause of Lady Jane
Grey.^ The Chapter Acts make no comment on
the revolution which involved his downfall, simply
recording the installation of Dean Mallet in
September, 1555, and the significant injunctions
of the bishop of Lincoln in 1556 — that services
were to be performed in accordance with the Use
of Sarum, that prebendaries were to wear eccle-
siastical dress and to shave their beards, and that
married men were not to administer the sacra-
ment.' There seems to be no evidence as to
how the prebendaries and other ministers of the
cathedral received these quickly succeeding
changes of ritual or the injunctions of 1559,^
whereby Elizabeth practically reverted to the
position of 1548, only as late as June, 1580, the
episcopal visitor learnt that one vicar did not
' feel right about religion,' and thought it no

* derogation to the dignity of our Lord to invoke
the Virgin.' "

With the close of the sixteenth century began
the gradual slackening of those ties which had
originally bound every member of the cathedral
body and every parish under its jurisdiction into
a closely knit community. In the early years of
the fourteenth century there seem generally to
have been about ten resident canons,' in 1433
there were eight beside the dean,' and in 1492—3
an order was issued that each prebendary might
pay one visit to Rome so long as he left at least
five canons in residence at the cathedral * ; it was
therefore an innovation when it was decreed in
September, 1589, that in future the number of
residents should not exceed four.' Other signs
were not wanting that the ideal of the old com-
munity life had been lost sight of, for in answer
to articles issued by Bishop Chaderton, in 1607,
it was stated that visitations had so long been
omitted that jurisdiction over prebendal places was
lost ; thus the connexion between the non-resident
canons and their cathedral was practically reduced
to the visits necessitated in keeping their preaching
turns, and even these were in some cases

' D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1548, fol. 288.
' Did. Nat. Biog.

' D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1545-59, fol. 398
and fol. 413 a'. et seq.

* For these injunctions, which are almost identical
with those of Edward VI, see D. and C. Line. Chapter
Acts, 1507-20, fol. 83.

' D. and C. Line. Press A. iv, 3, No. 2.

* D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1305-21, fol.
16 d. and 1321-9 fol. 11. In 1310 the canons
spoke of the ' fewness of the residents,' which would
seem to imply that originally more had resided.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gray, fol. \i^d.

" D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1479-1502, fol. 83.

' Ibid. 1539-97, fol. 107.

neglected,^" and on the occasion of a metropolitical
visitation in August, 1 634, it appeared that some
prebendaries had never seen the cathedral, and
appointed insufficient deputies to preach for them.^*

Unfortunately the new era in the cathedral
history does not seem to have been a more
vigorous one. Other complaints at Bishop Chader-
ton's visitation were to the effect that the dean
and chapter were ' dissolute and careless ' in their
government ; that the choir was inefficient and
irreverent ; that the master of the fabric and the
vergers and bell-ringers were negligent ; that
preachers were usually much disturbed by the
' prophane walking and talking of idle and irre-
ligious persons'; that the close had become 'a
place of great licentiousness, especially in ale-
houses,' and that 'no course was taken for
beggars . . . who . . . trouble every stranger
with their importunity.'

Archbishop Laud's vicar-general in 1634
seems to have found an even more deplorable
lack of fitness, the communion table was 'not
very decent and the rail worse,' the organ ' old
and naught,' the copes and vestments had been
embezzled, and alehouses, hounds, and swine
were kept in the churchyard, A few years later
the senior vicars complained of the financial
oppressions which they were suffering at the
hands of the residentiaries.^^ The only activities
of the period seem to have been a renewal of the
dispute as to the rights of metropolitical visita-
tion,^' and the formation of a company of ringers.
This curious organization was very similar in
character to the craft gilds of the fifteenth cen-
tury, its members were chiefly tradesmen of
Lincoln, and the company had its own feasts and
constituted itself a kind of provident society.
Its ordinances were drawn up in 1612 and
received the acknowledgement of the dean and
chapter in 1 614; the last master was apparently
appointed in 1725."

The civil war involved the cathedral in the
common ruin which overtook the church and
the crown. In 1649 deans and chapters were
abolished by Act of Parliament,^^ and between
that year and 1658 most of the cathedral estates
were sold." Mr. Edward Reyner and Mr.
George Scotereth, or Scottericke, the former of
whom had been lecturer in the city since 1635,''
were appointed ministers in the cathedral church
in April, 1649.^^ In March, 1655-6, they were
empowered to appoint an assistant preacher, and
Reyner and one Abdy are spoken of as ' ministers

'" Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. ii (ii), 641.
" Cal. o/S.P. Dom. 1634, p. 204.
"Ibid. 1637, p. 61.
" Ibid, passim.

" Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. ii (ii),
605-23.
" Stat. 1649, c. 24.
'° Close Rolls, i6^g-^8, passim.
" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, loi.
" W. A. Shaw, Hist, of the Engl. Church.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

and lecturers of this city ' as late as September,
1660.1

Michael Honeywood, the first dean of the
restoration, was worthy of the work of reconstruc-
tion which he was called upon to undertake. He
devoted his whole energy to the vindication of
the lost franchises of the cathedral, the restora-
tion of choral services with an efficient choir, the
repair of the cathedral and the vicars' houses, and
the improvement of the library.^ Apart from
this there is little evidence of the condition of
the church in the later seventeenth and early
eighteenth centuries ; such visitations as were
made were more or less formal, and apart from
occasional complaints as to omissions of preben-
daries' preaching turns, and of the presence of
idlers in the church, throw very little light on
the life of the community ; that Samuel Fuller,
whose portrait hung in the ' drinking-room ' at
Burley,' should be one of the best known of the
deans of this period was perhaps a sign of the
times.

The nineteenth-century settlement was the
natural outcome of the gradual oblivion to which
the early organization of the cathedrals of the old
foundation had been consigned. By legislation
of the year 1840 it was provided that the chapter
was to consist of the dean and four canons*
— the precentor, chancellor, sub-dean, and one
archdeacon — and the terms of residence were
fixed at eight months in the year for the dean
and three months each for the canons, the dean
was to be appointed by the crown, and the
prebends were disendowed and their estates
vested in the ecclesiastical commissioners, as were
also the separate estates of the cathedral digni-
taries.' The silence of this statute, and still
more the character of the report issued by the
royal commissioners in 1854, show how little
either the framers of the Act or those for whom
it was framed realized the extent to which they
had deviated from the original constitution of the
cathedral. The unhistorical differentiation be-
tween the greater and lesser chapters, the narrow-
ing of the duties of the canons to the superin-
tendence of the fabric and services of the
cathedral and of education in the city, and the
failure to realize that the old statutes had not
regulated ritual and liturgy only, but the whole

' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 102 and 104,
and cf. Lambeth Palace Lib. Aug. of Church Livings,
972, fol. 114 and 472.

' Diet. Nat. Biog. The library had been plundered
in the war, and some of the books were supposed to
have come into the possession of the corporation.
Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 104.

' Diet. Nat. Biog.

* It is expressly stated in the Act that the term
' canon ' is to be construed to mean only every resi-
dentiary member of chapter, excluding the dean —
this was, of course, an innovation.

' Stat. 3 & 4 Vict. c. 1 13 ; Stat. 4 & 5 Vict. c. 39
made further provision as to the administration of
revenues.

activity of a vigorous social life, were the main
characteristics of the return. The entire report
would probably have admitted of the same
explanation as that given by the priest-vicars of
their doubt as to the date of their foundation —
namely, that no one could read their charters.*

No immediate legislation followed, but in 1870
the estates of the dean and chapter were surren-
dered to the ecclesiastical commissioners,' and in
1873 new regulations were made as to the re-
cstablishment of certain prebends and honorary
canonries.' In the meantime the spirit of
historical inquiry took possession of the cathedral
body. The ' Novum Registrum ' was carefully
studied and its authority called in question, and
the status of the non-residentiary canons became
a matter of dispute. On the one hand certain of
the prebendaries claimed to be summoned to
occasional meetings of a ' greater chapter,' both
as a matter of right and as an expedient to
secure closer union between the parishes of the
diocese and the mother church. The dean on
the contrary denied the historical foundation of
the greater chapter, and stated that in the middle
ages only major and minor residents were entitled
to summons to chapter meetings, thus excluding
all modern prebendaries as non-resident.'

The whole dispute was embodied in the
report issued by the Cathedrals Commission of
1884. The commissioners in this report pro-
posed to supplement the old custom by new
statutes which they said to a large extent
represented existing custom. Against these Dean
Blakesley issued a vigorous protest, to the effect
that he could not give his sanction to the vague
and unhistorical greater chapter which was to be
created in accordance with the wishes of the pre-
bendaries, and that he objected to the proposals to
dissolve the corporation of priest-vicars, to curtail
the rights of the dean, canons, and non-resi-
dentiary prebendaries in favour of the bishop, and
to extend the canons' term of residence from
three to eight months.^" Only one of the sugges-
tions embodied in the supplementary statutes was

* Pari. Reports, 1854, vol. xxv.

' Order in Council, Feb. 1870.

' Under Stat. 36 & 37 Vict. c. 39.

' Neither position seems to be entirely free from
objection historically. Though that of the dean has
received the support of those who have studied the
statutes with most care, and would appear to have
been correct as far as the history of the cathedral since
the fifteenth century is concerned, it is hardly possible
to believe that had the existence of any body of
canons outside the chapter been contemplated in early
days there should be no statement of their disabilities
even in the custom books (see also the form for the
election of a dean in the Black Book and Chapter
Acts, 1 305, fol. 2 d.). Attendance at chapter by non-
residents must no doubt have been a burden to them-
selves and a source of jealousy to the residents, and it
is not diiRcult to understand why it should £ill into
disuse.

'» Pari. Reports, 1884-5, =fxvi.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

ultimately adopted — namely, that of the creation
or revival of the greater chapter, which may nowf
be summoned by the dean for specified purposes.
In all other respects the cathedral continues to
be governed by the constitution of 1840.^

While the grants to the common fund [com-
muna] of the canons were very numerous about
A.D. 1200,'' these were for the most part grants
of small quantities of land, and the grants of
manors were chiefly in early times for the endow-
ment of prebends, and later in connexion with
chantries. William I granted ' to Rcmigius the
manors of Welton near Lincoln and Sleaford,
when the seat of the bishopric was translated to
Lincoln ; and in 1086 the bishop held both
manors of the king, six canons of Lincoln hold-
ing the Welton lands under the bishop ; * later
we hear of the prebend of Sleaford (LafFord),
though the manor continued in the bishop's
hands. Roger Fitz Gerold and Lucy his wife
gave the vill of Asgarby as the endowment of a
prebend, and William de Romara confirmed
the gift of his father and mother, which gift
had also been confirmed to St. Mary of Lincoln
and Canon Robert de Grainvill by King Henry."

King Henry I granted to St. Mary of Lincoln
the church of Brand, priest of Corringham, and
2|- carucates of land as the endowment of a
prebend, so that he, and his son after his death,
should hold the same as a prebend of St. Mary.'
Bishop Robert de Chesney alienated the prebend
of Canwick to the canons of the hospital of
Lincoln of the order of Sempringham, and
Bishop Hugh confirmed the gift c. 11 90 with
the consent of Haimo, the dean, and the chapter
of Lincoln.' In 1292 the abbot and convent of
Fecamp conveyed to the dean and chapter their
manor of Navenby, which they had received
from Henry III in exchange for Winchelsea and
Rye, because the safety of the realm did not
admit of these being held by them, and King
Edward I granted a licence of alienation on con-
dition that a chantry be founded at Harby in
honour of Queen Eleanor, who died there.'

' From information supplied by the chancellor of
Lincoln Cathedral.

'Abstracts of over 500 charters have been printed,
edited by W. O. Massingberd. Assoc. Archit. Sue.
Rep. xxvi, 18-96, 321-69; xxvii, 1-91.

'Registrum Antiq. fol. I, z.

* Domesday Book, 344. Circa 1 1 1 5 (Lindsey
Survey) the canons of St. Mary held in chief 14 car.
2 bov. in Welton, Riseholme and Willingham, of
vi'hich the church has 4 bov. and Robert de Haia
2 bov. It will be noticed that Domesday Book
mentions six canons holding the Welton land, though
we only know of five prebends of Welton.

'Registrum Antiq. fol. 8 and 16 d.

«Ibid. fol. 4.

'Ibid. fol. 397. The prebend of Canwick was
part of the endowment of St. Catherine's Priory,
Assoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. xxvii, z66.

' Cal. of Chart. R. i, 321. Cat. of Pat. 1292-1301,
p. II ; D. and C. Line. Chart. D. ii, 51, i ; Liber
de Ordin. Cart. fol. 10.

The manor of Normanby by Spittal was
granted to the dean and chapter by Henry Beck,
nephew of Bishop Thomas Beck, to maintain
two chantries in Normanby church and one in the
cathedral.' In 1324 a licence was granted for
the manor of Aunsby [Ounesby] to be alienated
to the dean and chapter, who were to find three
chaplains to pray for the souls of Robert de Lacy,
formerly treasurer of the cathedral, Richard de
Rowell, formerly canon, and Hervey de Luda,
custodian of the altar of St. Peter.^" The
manor of Glentham was conveyed to the dean
and chapter by three executors of John duke of
Lancaster to keep the anniversaries of Kings
Henry IV and V, and of the duke." The
manor of Greetwell was conveyed to the dean
and chapter in 1480,^'' and the Valor shows that
looj. was paid therefrom to the chantry of Dean
Robert Flemyng. The manor of Scamblesby
was in the hands of feoffees in 1497," and the
Valor shows that after its grant to the dean and
chapter there was a payment therefrom to the
chantry of Bishop John Russell. There are
court rolls of the manor of Friesthorpe in 1 3 14,
1339, and 1400," but nothing to show how it
was acquired.

In 1303 the dean and chapter held one-fourth
of half a knight's fee in Heydour, one-fifth
and one-hundredth of a fee in Mumby and
Theddlethorpe, one-tenth in Timberland, one-
sixteenth in Lissington, one-tenth and one-
hundredth in Searby, one-ninth in Scredington,
one-fourth and one-twentieth in Fotherby, one-
sixth in Tetford, one-tenth in Owmby, and
smaller portions in Thurlby, Hackthorn, Somersby,
and Langton.^' In 1346 the return is the same
with the exception of the omission of Mumby
and Theddlethorpe, and the addition of half a
knight's fee in Claypole, a quarter in Stoke, a
quarter in Ormsby, a tenth in Thurlby, three
quarters, a fifth, and one fifty-fourth in Aunsby.
In 1 40 1 -2 the chapter held one-tenth of a fee

^ Line. Notes and Queries vi, 123. Assoc. Archit.
Soc. Rep. xxiv, 47.

"D. and C. Line. Chart. D. ii, 6;, 3 ; Liber de
Ordin. Cart. fol. 144 d., 145 d. John son of Baldwin
Pigot had released all right in the manor, and
William de Waure and William Latymer, knt., son
. and heir of William Latymer, knt., granted licence
to alienate.

"Copy of Pat. Roll I Hen. V, pt. i, m. 18;
D. and C. Line. A. 4, 2. Fillingham lands were
included, which afterwards were termed a manor.
The manor had belonged to John son and heir of
Sir Robert de Brakenbergh, who granted it in 1325
to William de Snartford and Thomas his son. D. ii,
71, I.

" Cal. of Pat. 14.76-85, p. 176. John earl of Wilts
and Constance his wife gave the manor to William
Heton, esq. and Dorothy his wife in 1472. D. and
C. Line. D. ii, 71, I.

" D. and C. Line. D. ii, 86, 3.

" D. and C. Line. A. 4, 4.

" Feud. Aids, iii.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

in Willingham, and ;^I0 of annual rent in
Boothby and GrafFoe wapentakes. In 1428 no
mention was made of Timberland, Claypole,
Stoke, Thurlby, Scredington and Tetford, but a
quarter of a fee is mentioned in Thorpe-in-the-
Fallows, a quarter in Fillingham and in Hems-
well, and lesser portions in North Ormsby and
Utterby.^

The date of the foundation of each prebend
cannot be determined, but besides those already
mentioned we find that King Stephen endowed
that of Brampton.^ The endowments of several
other prebends consisted of the great tithes of
churches, such as St. Lawrence, Lincoln, and
St. Paul, Bedford, which had been granted or
confirmed to Remigius by William I, or which
belonged, as Caistor and Stow, to episcopal
manors.

According to the Taxatio of Pope Nicholas
the church was assessed in 1296 to about
^^1,398 3^.' In 1536 the clear yearly value of
the appropriated churches was £2^"] Os. ^^d.,
and that of the manors of Friesthorpe, Navenby,
Normanby, Glentham, Fillingham, Marton,
Ormsby, Croxton, Greetwell and Scamblesby in
Lincolnshire and Marston in Oxfordshire, held
in lay fee, was ;^93 i8j. "J^d. The annual
septisms of prebends were worth j^74 ioj. 'jd.,
the vicars' estates ;£i45 i is. 2d., and those of the
choristers ^^34 1 35. ^\d. ; pensions, oblations, fab-
ric money, and tithes, amounted to ;^I28 ']s. 6d.
net, and the keeper of St. Peter's altar received
;^20 loj. 10^. At the same date the deanery
was valued at ;^i87 14.S. 2d., and the precentor-
ship at ;^8 2s. 4^., the clear yearly revenue
of the chancellor was £S'i. is. $d., that of the
treasurer ^10 13^. 4^., and that of the sub-
dean ;^32 I2s. Of the prebends the wealthiest
at this time seems to have been Leighton
Manor whose clear value was ,^57 i^s. id.;
St. Botolph's, on the other hand, was only worth
^i a year, and Thorngate was returned as value-
less. Of the others Clifton was valued at
£i() 4.S. 2d., South Scarle at ;^ii, Farrendon at
^^30 I IX. 2d., Welton Beckhall at ^^5 2s. id.,
Welton Brinkhall at the same, Welton Ryvall
^t £7 7^- S*^-* Welton Painshall at £s 8x. ()d.,
Welton Westhall at £<) 6s. 8d., Heydor at
j^26, Corringham at ;^38 16s. 6d., Carlton cum
Thurlby at j/^17 6s. id., Carlton cum Dalby at
j^i2 151., Sutton in the Marsh at £1% Asgarby
at ;^I2 I OJ., Louth at ^36 35. ^d., Scamblesby at
^23 13J. ^d.. North Kelsey at j^i6 10;. 2d.,

' Feud. Aids, iii.

* Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xii, App. ix, 554.

' This included the appropriated churches of Wel-
ingorc, Searby, Scredington, Tathwell, Hainton, Little
Bytham, Skillington, Nettleham, Glentham and
St. Nicholas, Lincoln, and Hambleton co. Rutland.
Gosberton, Bottesford, Normanby and Ailesby churches
are mentioned in the Valor, as well as Greetwell,
Ashby Puerorum and St. Bartholomew, Lincoln, be-
longing to the choristers.

Sleaford at ;^i I i^s. sd., Caistor at £2 P-t
Stowe in Lindsey at j^io 19J. id., Norton Epis-
copi at £y y. 2d., Dunholme at £g p. 2d.,
Decem Librarum at £6 18s. jd., Sexaginta
Solidorum at 60s., Centum Solidorum at;^4 <)s. 4^.,
Crackpole at £4. 8s. 2d., All Saints Thorngate at
£4. js. id., St. Martin's at 38^. 4.d., Saint Cross
at £4., Empingham at £25 6s. Sd., Ketton
at ;^29 I Ox. 2d., the farm of Nassington at
£S 2s. 2\d., Leighton Ecclesia at ,^13 14X.,
Brampton at ^^26 Js. \d.. Long Stowe at
;^33 2s. 2\d., Bugden at £1"] "js. ^d., Bedford
Minor at £2 16s. 6d., Biggleswade at ;^42 "js. ^d.,
Aylesbury at £^,6, and Marston at ;^I2 55. 6d.*^
The value of the chantries in the cathedral as
given in the Valor was ,^177 16s. ^^d.; the list,
however, even for this date is very incomplete.
A register begun apparently about the year 1330
mentions the following chantries : — that of King
Edward II and Queen Isabella at the altar of St.
John the Baptist, of Hugh of Wells at the altar
of St. Hugh, of Henry de Lexington at the altar
of St. John the Baptist, of Oliver Sutton, of John
Dalderby at the altar of St. John the Evangelist,
of William de Tournay (Thornaco) at the altar
of St. Mary, of Simon de Barton, of Hugh de
Normanton, of Nicholas de Hiche, of William de
Hemingburgh, of John de Widdington, of
William de Aveton, of William son of Fulk at
the altar of St. Denis, of Peter de Hungaria (or
Hundegarde) at the altar of St. Nicholas, of
William de Thorenton and of William de la
Gare, of Henry de Beningworth at the altar of
St. John the Evangelist, of Robert de Lascy,
Richard de Rowell (or Rothwell) and Harvey of
Louth at the altar of St. Mary Magdalene, of
William de Lexington at the altar of St. Michael,
of William de Winchecumbe at the altar of St.
John the Baptist, of RuflFus called ' physicus ' at
the altar of St. John the Evangelist, of deceased
bishops at the altar of St. Peter, of Richard de
Faldingworth at the altar of St. Giles, of Geoffrey
de Mawdlin, of William son of Ulf, of Gilbert
of Kent, of brethren and sisters of the canons, of
Geoffrey Pollard, of Henry de Mammesfeld in
the chapel of St. John the Baptist, of Nicholas
and Joan Cantelupe at the altar of St. Nicholas,
of Bartholomew, Henry and Robert Burghersh in
the chapel of St. Katherine, of Hugh Walmesford
at the altar of St. Giles, of Richard Whitwell at
the altar of St. Stephen, of John Bokyngham at
the altars of St. Hugh and St. Katherine, of
Walter de Stanreth at the altar of St. Andrew, of
John Gynwell at the altar of St. Mary Magda-
lene, of Richard Stretton and of Hervey Beck at

* VabrEccks. (Rec. Com.), iv. No valuation is given
of Banbury, Bedford Major, Sutton cum Buckingham,
Cropredy, Gretton, Kilsby,Langford Ecclesia, Langford
Manor, St. Margaret's, Leicester, Leighton Buzzard,
Liddington, Milton Ecclesia, Milton Manor, and
Thame. The prebend of Stoke had been annexed to
the chancellorship since about the year 1458 (Hardy
and Le Neve, Fasti, ii, 211).

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

the altar of St. Katherine.^ Of these that of
Nicholas de Hiche was united with those of
William Lexington and John Widdington, that
of William Aveton with those of Geoffrey Pollard,
Geoffrey Mawdlin, and William Hemingburgh,
that of Henry de Beningworth with Richard
Faldingworth's,' William Fulke's with Peter
de Hungaria's, Stretton's with Wolfe's, and
Stanreth's with that of Antony Goldesburgh or
Goldsmith.' The chantries of Dalderby, Nor-
manton, Winchecumbe, RufFus, deceased bishops,
brethren and sisters, Henry de Mammesfeld and
Hervey Beck do not occur again, but in the cer-
tificate drawn up prior to the dissolution of the
chantries at the beginning of the reign of
Edward VI there is mention of the chantries
of Bishop Russell, Henry Edenstow, Robert
Flemmyng and Umfraville,* and yet another
list of the years 1547—9 oinits these and adds
the chantries of William Smith, Katherine coun-
tess of Westmorland, Thomas Alford, canon,
Agnes Cause, widow, Roger Benyson and Joan
his wife, Richard Ravenser and William Wal-
than, and two 'Works ' chantries, sometimes called
chantries of the Fabric* In addition to all these
there appear to have been chantries for the souls
of Bishops Alnwick and Longlands, of Katharine
Swyneford, and of Henry duke of Lancaster, and
others known as Swilling's, Crosby's Colynson's,
and Wellbourne chantries.^ With the exception
of the Lancaster and Westmorland families
nearly all those commemorated were connected
with the cathedral, having been either bishops,
deans, or canons. Most of the chantries were
served by one, or sometimes two priests, but
Bishop Hugh's grant in 1234 provided for three
chaplains, a deacon, and a sub-deacon.' Bishop
Bokyngham made provision for two chaplains,
and, if the chantry certificate be correct, for two
poor boys to be kept at school from the ages of
seven to sixteen,* and the chantry founded by
Bartholomew Burghersh in 1340 appears to have
been the largest of all, being served by five chap-
lains, one of whom was master or warden ; *
according to the chantry certificate six boys were
kept at school from the revenues, and at the
dissolution part of the endowment was set aside
to support additional choristers, now known as
the Burghersh chanters.^"

' Printed in Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit.
ii, (i) cc Ixi, seq.

' Duchy of Lancaster, Mins. Accts. -

' Visitation Book, 1440, printed in
Wordsworth ii, (ii) 439.

* Chant. Cert. 33.

" Duchy of Lanes. Mins. Accts. ■^^.

* Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. lii, App. ix, 560 and 567;
Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.); and Maddison, Vicars Choral,
40. That of Longland cannot have had more than a
few weeks' existence, as it was not founded until 1547.

' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xii, App. ix, 566.
° Chant. Cert. 33.
'Pat. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 3.
'° Maddison, Vicars Choral, 23.

280

Bradshaw and

A survey of the estates of the dean and
chapter 1649-50 mentions these manors in
Lincolnshire : Glentham, Fillingham, Navenby,
Normanby (2), Crosholm, Osbournby, Greet-
well, Aunsby, Willingham, Southrey, Welton
Panshall, Westhall with Goringhall, Beckhall,
Brinkhail and Rivehall, Friesthorpe, Asgarby,
Scamblesby, Maltby, Caistor, Corringham and
South Scarle ; also the manors of Hambledon,
Empingham and Ketton in Rutland ; of Gret-
ton, Nassington and Marston St. Lawrence in
Northamptonshire ; of Great Paxton in Hunts ;
of Walton in Bucks ; of Langford in Beds ; of
Chesterfield in Derbyshire ; and of Mansfield
and Edwinstowe in Notts.^^

Deans of Lincoln

Ralph, 1092 ^^

Simon Bloet, c. 11 10^'

Nigel," between 1 123 and 1 147

Philip de Harecourt,^* 1 1 4 1

Adelelmus or Ascelinus,^* called fourth dean,

but occurs 1 1 63, and according to Dugdale

in 1 145 and 1 162
Geoffrey Kirtling,^' or Kytlynge, c. 11 69 and

1176
Richard Fitz Neale,^* occurs 1186, became

bishop of London 11 89
Haimo,^' occurs 11 89 and 11 94
Roger de Roldeston, or Rolveston,^" occurs

1200 and 1222. According to Dugdale

and Le Neve, 1 195-1223
William de Tournay,^^ occurs 1225. Accord-
ing to Dugdale and Le Neve, 1223-39

" Assoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. xxiv, 1 27-1 31.

" Hen. of Huntingdon, De Contemptu Mundi (Rolls
Ser.), 301.

" Cott. MS. Vesp. E, xvi, fol. 8 d. and Le Neve,
Fasti, ii.

" Ibid, quoting Liber Rub. de Thorneia.

■'Ibid.

'° Giraldus Cambrensis, Opera (Rolls Ser.), vii, 155;
Harl. Chart. 45 A, 4 (Peter deGosla was sheriff in 1 163),
and Dugdale, Mon. Ang. vi, 1278.

"Le Neve, Fasti, and Cott. MS. Vesp. E, xviii,
fol. 200.

'* Ralph de Diceto, Opera, ii, 41, and Le Neve,
Fasti, ii, and Stubbs, Epis. Succession.

"Cott. MS. Vesp. E, ii, fol. 401/. and Hoveden,
Chron. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 285-6.

^"Chron. and Mem. of Rich. I (Rolls Ser.), ii, 511,
and Charters of Salisbury (Rolls Ser.), 122; cf. also
Magna Vita S. Hugonis (Rolls Ser.), 1 24.

"Pat. 10 Hen. Ill, m. 91/. Luard questions
whether the date 1239 does not arise from a con-
fusion of his suspension with his deprivation, but he
was certainly deprived before August, 1240, when
Dean Roger occurs [Boyd and Massingberd, Line.
Final Concords, 312, and see Grosseteste, Epistolae
(Rolls Ser.), xlvi, note 2]. William de Tournay
would appear to have become a monk at Louth Park
before his death [Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. x, App. iii, 69,
where de parco jud is probably a mistake for de parce
lud'-].

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Roger de Weseham,'^ 1239 or 1 240-5

Henry de Lexington,^ 1245-54

Richard de Gravesend,' 1254-8

Robert Marsh,* died in 1262

William de Lessington,' 1262-72

Richard de Mepham/ 1272, occurs 1274

John de Maydestun, called dean/ 1275

Oliver Sutton,* 1275-80

Nicholas Heigham,' occurs 1 28 1, executors of

his will mentioned 1288
Philip Wilughby,^" occurs 1288-1305
Joscelin de Kirnington," 1305
Reymund del God,^' or Goth, cardinal of New

St. Mary's, 1 305-10
Roger de Martival," 13 10-5
Henry de Mammesfeld," 1315-28
Anthony Bek," 1328-37
William of Norwich,^^ 1337-44
John de OfFord, or Ufford," 1344-8
Thomas de Bredewardyn,^* 1348-9
Simon de Bresley," 1349. He died, according

to Le Neve, in 1360
John de Stretle,^" occurs 1364 ; he was dead

in 1371
Simon Langham,^^ to 1376

'Matt. Paris, Chron. Majora (Rolls Ser.), iv, 425.

' Giraldus Cambrensis, Opera (Rolls Ser.), 206, and
note, and Ann. Mm. (Rolls Ser.), i, 318.

' Gir. Camb. Opera (Rolls Ser.), 207, and Cal. of
Papal Letters, i, 305.

* jinn. Mon. (Rolls Sen), iv, 131.
'Ibid, and iv, 251.

' Ibid, and Close, z Edv/. I, m. 1 1 d.
''Mm. Ang. viii, 1268 (note a) and 1278.

* Pat. 3 Edw. I, m. 4, and 8 Edw. I, m. 23.

' Close, 9 Edw. I, m. 8 d. and Ann. Mon. (Rolls
Ser.), iii, 341.

'" Pat. 16 Edw. I, m. l, and Line. Epis. Reg. Inst.
Dalderby A° 1305.

"Ibid. See also Memo. Dalderby, fol. 307, for
account of his removal in favour of the papal nominee.

"D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1305-21, fol. 27.

" Ibid, and Stubbs, Epis. Succession.

" Red Bk. ofExch. (Rolls Ser.), i, p. Ixxxiii ; D. and
C Line. Chapter Aets, 1321-39, fol. 11.

'* Ibid, and Stubbs, Epis. Succession. According to
Cal. of Papal Letters, ii, 548, he was promoted to
Norwich in 1340.

'* Ibid, and D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1342-6,
fol. \C)d.

"D. and C. Line. Chapter Aets, 1342-6, fol. 1912'.
and Cal. of Papal Letters, iii, 273;

'* Ibid, and Stubbs, Epis. Succession.

" D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1 348-55, fol. \od.

^ Cal. of Papal Letters, iv, 7 and 165.

"In Pari R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 339a, is a complaint
that a cardinal was holding the deanery of Lincoln in
1376. This is said in Fasti,n, to be Simon Langham,
and Widmore, Hist. ofWestm. Abbey, 98, quoting the
Westm. Archives, states that after Langham's disgrace
on being promoted to the rank of cardinal, in 1368,
he was provided by the pope to the deanery of liin-
coln. By his will, which was proved in 1377, he
bequeathed a ' capam de blueto blavio cum delphinis '
to the cathedral. Ibid. 187.

John de Schepey,^^ 1388-1412
John Macworth,^' 14 1 2-51
Robert Flemyng,^^ 1452-83
George Fitzh ugh, ^' 148 3- 15 05
Geoffrey Simeon,^^ 1 5 06-8
Thomas Wolsey,^' 1509-14
John Constable,^* 1514-28
George Henneage,^' 1528-39
John Taylor,^" 1539-52
Matthew Parker,'^ 1552-4
Francis Mallet,^^' 1555-70
John Whitgift,^' 157 1-7
William Wickham,'* 1577-84
Ralph Griffin,^' 1585-93
John Reynolds,'^ 1593-8
William Cole," 1598-1601
Laurence Stanton,'^ 1 60 1 - 1 3
Roger Parker,^' 1613-29
Anthony Topham,*" 1629-49
Michael Honeywood,*"^ 1660-81
Daniel Brevint,^ 1681-95
Samuel Fuller,*^ 1695-9
Abraham Campion," 1700-I
Richard Willis,*' 1701-21

^ D. and C. Line. Chapter Aets, 1 386-95, fol. 1 5 d.
Ibid. 1407-1422, 26 <^.

" Ibid, and Chapter Aets, 1448-62, fols. 10 and zod.

" Ibid.

''Ibid. 1479-92, fol. 18, and 1501-7, fol. 108 d.

'^ Ibid. fol. i\\ d. and 1507-20, fol. 21.

" Ibid. fol. 45 d.

"'Ibid. fol. 63, and 1520-45, fol. 74.

"Ibid. fol. 84, 166.

'° Ibid. 1 520-45, fol. 166, and Stubbs, Epis. Succession.

" Correspondence of Matthew Parker (Parker Soc),
482.

''D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1545-59, fol. 398 ;
1559-97, fol. (>%d.

'^ Ibid. fol. 69 d. and Stubbs, Epis. Succession.

"Ibid. 1559-97, fol. 82 </. and Stubbs, Epis. Succes-
sion.

^'Ibid. 1559-97, fol. 98, and Le Neve, Fasti, ii.

" Ibid, and Cal of Hatfield House MSS. (Hist. MSS.
Com.), pt. viii, 332. Cole and Reynolds changed
places — the latter, on the recommendation of the
archbishop of Canterbury, becoming president of
Corpus Christl College, Oxford, ' the rather ' be-
cause he was ' employed in writing against the Jesuits
and others our adversaries.'

"D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1598-1640,
fol. 2, 1 3 </.

5^ Ibid. fol. 12. ''Ibid. fol. 95 a-.

"Ibid. fol. 68. His will was proved in 1655.
Le Neve, Fasti, ii.

*' Chapter Acts, 1 598-1640, fol. 211 d. and 1670-
1 702, fol. 77 d. There seems to have been a rumour
in 1660 that the deanery had been given to Dr. Sterne
{Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v, pt. i, 396).

"D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1 670-1 702, fol.
78, 181.

"Ibid. 187, and Diet. Nat. Biog.

"Ibid. 1670-1702, fol. 230, 242 (/.

"Ibid. 2^zd. In 1715 he was made bishop of
Gloucester, but was allowed to hold his deanery in
commendam. Diet. Nat. Biog.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Robert Canon,' 1 721-2

Edward Gee,^ 1722-30

Edward Willes,' 1730-43

Thomas Cheney,* 1744

William George,* 1748-56

John Green, D.D.,^ 1756

Hon. James York, D.D.,' 1762

Robert Richardson,* died in 1781

Richard Cust, D.D.,» 1782-3

Sir Richard Kaye, bart.,'" 17 83-1 809

George Gordon, D.D.,'' 1809-45

John GifFard Ward, 1845-60

Thomas Garnier, B.C.L., i860

James A. Jeremie, D.D., D.C.L., 1864

Joseph William Blakesley, B.D., 1872

William John Butler, D.D., 1885

Edward Charles Wickham, D.D., 1894

The pointed oval twelfth-century chapter seal'^
of Lincoln Cathedral shows the Virgin, crowned,
holding in her right hand a sceptre terminating
in a flower, and with the left hand supporting
the Child seated on her knee. The Child is
of larger proportion than usual, with cruciform
nimbus, and the right hand raised in benediction ;
in the left hand is an orb (?). The throne has
projecting terminals at the sides and a plain foot-
board.

The legend on a concave bevelled edge
runs —

^SIGILLV CAPITVLI SANCTE MARIE
LINCOLINEN . . .

Another twelfth-century pointed oval seaP'
shows the Virgin and Child designed in a
manner similar to the last, but more artistic,
on a carved throne ; in her right hand a lily
sceptre ; the Child holds in the left hand an
open book. Footboard with two small arches
below.

The legend on a concave bevelled edge runs —

SIGILLVM - CAPITVLI - SANCTE - MARIE -
LINCOLNIENSIS - ECCLESIE.

The n's in lincolniensis are reversed.

A pointed oval seal of the fourteenth century ^*
shows in a double niche, with Gothic canopy,
trefoiled arches, and open work at the sides, the

Virgin (?) holding a small model of a church, an
angel addressing her. The corbel at the base is
enriched with foliage. In the field, over the
canopy, a crescent and estoile.

. . . CAPITVLI - ECCL'iE - LINCOLS : AD : CAVSAS :

ET : NEGociA : NEC : NON : AD : alien(andvm :)
The pointed oval seal of Dean William de
Tournay ^* shows the dean, full length, holding a
book.

SIGI LELMI DE TOVRNA . . .

The letters u, R are conjoined.

The seal of Dean Roger de Weseham ^° is a
pointed oval showing the dean, full length, lift-
ing up his hands.

^ ROGERVS LINCOLNIENSIS ECCLESIE DECANUS.

The seal of Dean William de Lessington,''
also a pointed oval, shows the dean seated on a
carved seat to the right reading at a lectern.

|J« s' MAGISt[ri] WI DE LING

The seal of Dean John de Stretle of 1366 '*
represents within a carved Gothic panel, and
suspended by the strap from a forked tree, a
shield of arms : gyronny of eight, on a canton, a
covered cup, Stretle.

sigill' : ioh'is : de : stretele : clerici -
The letters d, e are conjoined.

The pointed oval seal of Dean John de Schepey ^*
shows a male saint, perhaps St. John the Evange-
list, enthroned, with a flight of steps and rocky
sides in the foreground. On the left an un-
identified figure, full length, probably the dean,
on the right suspended by a strap from a tree
a shield of arms, the bearings obliterated by
pressure. The legend was a rhyming hexameter
verse.
shepeye : decanum ia : qz : sanum.

The pointed oval seal of Dean John Constable*
represents in a carved niche, with a heavy canopy
and tabernacle work at the sides, the Virgin,
holding a long sceptre, with the Child. In base
a shield of arms : quarterly 1-4 vair6, over all a
bend. Constable.

lOH is : constable : decani
lincolnie.

ecclie

HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE MONKS

2. THE MONASTERY OF IKANHO

Amongst the Lincolnshire monasteries which
are known to history the most ancient seems to

' D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1706-52, fol. 31,
and Le Neve, FasA, ii.

"Chapter Acts, 1706-52, fol. 131, and Reg. of
Westm. Abbey, 327.

^ First Fruits Bishops' Certificates, Lines. No. 24,
and Stubbs, Epis. Succession.

' Le Neve, Fasti, ii.

' Chapter Acts, 1706-52, and Le Neve, Fasti, ii.

' First Fruits Bishops' Certificates, Lines. No. 29.

' Chapter Acts, 1762-89.

have been the one which was built by St. Botolph
at Ikanho, probably somewhere near the town of
Boston. The English Chronicle dates the
foundation in the year 654." This house was

° Le Neve, Fasti, ii.

'Chapter Acts, 1762-89, and Le Neve, Fasti, ii.
'"Ibid. 1 790-1 8 II, fol. 260-1
" Ibid, and Le Neve, Fasti, ii.
" Add. Chart. 863. " B.M. Seals, 1, 22.

" Ibid. Ivii, 76. « Harl. Chart. 4.4, F. 2C.

" B.M. Seals, Ivii, 78. "Ibid. 77.
''Add. Chart. 21, 492.

" Wol. Chart, xi, 3 1 . » B.M. Seals, Ivii, 8 ^
" Ang.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 50-1

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

not modelled, like most, of the northern monas-
teries of the time, on the pattern of lona ;
St. Botolph's travels in Gaul, before he adopted
the regular life, had given him an acquaintance
vsrith other rules. It is said that when he re-
turned to Lincolnshire, he asked the sub-king
Ethelmund, virhose sisters he had met in Gaul,
to give him a piece of waste land on which to
build a monastery ; and the place at Ikanho was
chosen simply because it was as yet unoccupied.^
The rule which St. Botolph gave to his monks
was an eclectic one, gathered from sources old
and new ; but it was apparently well kept, and
when Ceolfred, the friend of Benedict Biscop,
and afterwards abbot of Wearmouth, was visiting
several of the English monasteries about 670, he
was much edified by the learning and piety of
the brethren at Ikanho.^

The monastery continued probably until the
devastation of this part of the country by the
Danes, near the end of the ninth century. It
was never rebuilt.

3. THE MONASTERY OF BARROW

The ancient monastery ' Ad Baruae ' in Lind-
sey was founded about the middle of the seventh
century ; probably between 669 and 672, when
St. Chad was bishop of Lichfield, for traces of
his discipline remained there in the days of Bede.'
The land on which the monastery was built was
the gift of King Wulfhere {657-75), and was
sufficient to support fifty families ; the rule it
followed was probably the same as that of the
more famous house at Lastingham. When
Wilfrid, bishop of Mercia, was deposed by Arch-
bishop Theodore for some act of disobedience,
he took refuge at Barrow, and ended his days
there 'in all holy conversation.'^

This monastery was also destroyed by the
Danes and never rebuilt.

4. THE ABBEY OF BARDNEY

The abbey of Bardney was the most ancient
of those monasteries of Lincolnshire which sur-
vived the Danish invasions, being founded in all
probability about twenty years before Crowland,
and certainly not later than 697.' The tradi-
tional founders of Bardney were King Ethelred
of Mercia and his Northumbrian queen Osthryd ;
Bede, however, only says that they ' greatly
loved, reverenced and adorned ' this house,' so it

' Bright, Early Engl Church Hut. \ 79.

' Anon. Hist, of Abbots of Jarrow, in Baedae
Opera Hist. (ed. Plummer), i, 389, and cf. ii, 372.

' Bede, Eccks. Hist. (ed. Plummer), bk. iv, c. 3,
p. 207, ' In quo usque hodie instituta ab ipso
regularis vitae vestigia permanent.'

* Ibid. bk. iv, c. 6, p. 218.
'' Bede, Eccks. Hist, v, c. 24, p. 3SS (the date of the

murder of Queen Osthryd).

* Ibid, iii, c. 11, p. 148.

is just possible that it may have been in existence
before their time. The great fame of the abbey
certainly dates from the day when Osthryd
brought to its gate the honoured relics of her
uncle, St. Oswald, whose noble example and
devoted labours had done so much to secure
the establishment of Christianity in the north of
England. It is characteristic of the age of the
Heptarchy that the Mercian monks of Bardney
at first refused to admit the body of an alien
prince, even though they knew he was a saint ;
and the legend says that the car remained outside
the gates all night. But a shining column of light
which rose above it, and was seen, says Bede, by
some who were alive in his own day, made the
monks ashamed of their prejudices ; and the next
morning they gave glad admission to the relics,
and laid them in a costly shrine, where many
signs and wonders were afterwards wrought.^

Queen Osthryd was murdered in 697 by
certain Mercian nobles, and a few years later her
husband Ethelred, like many other princes of his
race, renounced the world and became a monk
at Bardney. He was living there as abbot in
704, and was able to show much kindness and
hospitality to St. Wilfrid, who came to the
monastery in that year as a guest, bearing the
papal letters which were meant to reinstate him
in his see.*

Ethelred died in 716,^ and was numbered
with the saints ; ^^ and about a hundred and fifty
years later the abbey was laid in ruins by the
Danes.^^ It was remembered, however, as a great
and noble house, where many men of high rank had
lived and died in the service of God ; ^ and when,
soon after the Conquest, Gilbert of Ghent,
nephew of the Conqueror, came into possession
of the abbey lands, he determined to restore them
to the church. In the last year of the Con-
queror's reign,^^ and with his leave, a priory was
built at Bardney for Benedictine monks, and
dedicated as before to St. Peter, St. Paul, and
St. Oswald ; its foundation charter was witnessed
by Archbishop Lanfranc, by Remigius bishop of

' Bede, EccJes. Hist, iii, c. 1 1, p. 148.

* Bright, Early Engl Church Hist. 410-1 1.

° Florence of Worcester, Chronicon (Eng. Hist. Soc),
i, 49. The date 7 1 2 is also given for his death.

" He vifas the eldest of those five children of Penda
vifho were canonized as saints. Bright, Early Engl.
Church Hist. 168.

" The relics of St. Oswald were removed to
Gloucester Abbey in 909. Ang. Sax. Chron. (Rolls
Ser.), i, 182-3 ; ii. 77-8-

'* The charter of Walter of Ghent declares that the
monastery was ' of old time held in great veneration,
as Bede testifies, on account of many miracles per-
formed there, and the conversion of many nobles.'

" The date seems to be fixed by the fact that the
priory is not mentioned in the Domesday Survey,
while the names of the king and his three sons, as
well as that of Archbishop Lanfranc, appear on the
foundation charter.

97 13

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Lincoln, and many barons.^ In 1 1 1 5 Walter of
Ghent, son and heir of the founder, raised the
priory to the rank of a free abbey, confirmed all
his father's gifts, and added others of his own.^
The names of Gilbert earl of Lincoln, Simon
de Montfort his son-in-law, Robert Marmion,
Geoffrey Brito, Philip de Kyme, Henry Bek, and
many others well known in the early history of
this county, are found amongst the benefactors of
the abbey.^

The monks were involved in several lawsuits
concerning their churches and other property
during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In
1192 the abbot secured the advowson of the
chapel of Newton against William de Rochford ;*
in 1 1 94 the churches of Hale and Heckington
were claimed by the brethren of St. Lazarus,'
but finally secured to Bardney ; in 1199 the
church of Spridlington, for a short time lost, was
restored.^ A long course of litigation towards
the end of the reign of Henry III reduced the
monks to great straits, and they were not at
this time fortunate enough to secure abbots who
were likely to help them out of their difficulties.
Peter of Barton was indeed deposed by the
bishop in 1275 ;' but he was restored for a while
on appeal to the archbishop of Canterbury.' In
1278 he and his convent presented a petition to
Parliament, stating that their debts had brought
them to the verge of ruin and begging permission
to forbear for a while their wonted hospitality,
and to disperse themselves to other houses, leav-
ing but one brother to manage the estates and
pay off the debts. They were referred to Chan-
cery,' but it does not seem that the petition was
granted; and in 1280 Peter of Barton resigned
of his own accord.^" His successor, Robert of
Wainfleet, did not improve the condition of the
house. His administration of discipline brought
him into collision with Bishop Dalderby,^^ and he
was accused also of dilapidation and alienation of
monastic property .^^ Sentence of deprivation was
passed upon him in 1303,^' and the house was

' Cott. MS. Vesp. E. XX, 2-]%d. (Charter of Gilbert
of Ghent).

' Ibid. 55. The charter of Walter of Ghent was
.confirmed by Hen. I, Steph., Hen. II and later kings.
Ibid. 40, and Cal. of Chart. R. i, 147.

^ Their charters may be found in Cott. MS.
Vesp. E. XX. * Ibid. 48.

* Curia Regis R. (Rec. Com.), i, 9, 10.

* Ibid, ii, 200, and Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xx, 198.
'There were several suits also between the monks and

Gilbert of Ghent the younger in the reign of
Henry II ; e.g. concerning free passage across the
Humber, an old right of the house, which Gilbert for
a while resumed ; Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xx, 47.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Gravesend, 1266 ; Cal.
,ofPap. Letters, i, 452.

« Pat. 5 Edw. I, m. 27. ' Arch, xxv, 344.

'» Pat. 8 Edw. I, m. 20.

" Chron. Abb. Rames. (Rolls Ser.), 387.

•'= Rolb of Pari. (Rec. Com.), ii, 328^.

*' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 62.

declared vacant by the bishop ; and then began
a long series of appeals to Rome and to the king,
which lasted till 1318. For fifteen years the
monastery was almost continuously in the hands
of the king, and its revenues administered by
seculars, except for a brief space in 131 1," when
the temporalities were restored to the abbot.
Robert of Wainfleet resigned in 1318;^' but the
house had little chance of recovering its pros-
perity during the time of the great pestilence
and the wars with France. During the fifteenth
century its condition was somewhat improved,
and the abbots of Bardney were amongst those
summoned to Parliament ; but there were debts
and difficulties again in 1440,^° and the revenue
of the house in 1534 — ;^366 — seems very little
for a house originally so well endowed.

The last abbot, William Marton, signed the
petition to the pope to expedite the king's
divorce in 1530;^' in 1534 he set his name to
the acknowledgement of supremacy, with seven-
teen other monks.^' Two years later the brethren
of this house were conspicuous amongst those
implicated in the Lincolnshire rebellion. A
clear account of the part they played was given
at the subsequent trial by Thomas Maur, the
abbot's chaplain, and several others ; and there
seems no reason to doubt the main facts of the
story which they agreed in telling. William
Wright and Thomas Harlow, serving men, who
were petty captains of the insurgents, came to
the abbey on 4 October, and ordered the abbot
to send some of his monks to the host. Four
went forth in consequence ' by command ot
William Wright,' and returned again after the
collapse of the insurrection, when the abbot
received them 'without contradiction.'^' The
account is given in a quite simple and straight-
forward manner, without prevarication or excuse ;
yet there does not seem sufficient evidence to

" Pat. 4 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 10. The order of
events seems to have been as follows : — Sentence of
deprivation was passed in 1303, and the king's
escheator seized the house. In 1 308 an inquisition
was held, because of the great losses and damage done
to the house and the neglect of divine service there ;
and it was found that the abbot and certain monks
had impeded the king's ministers, impounded and
starved the cattle under their charge, and imprisoned
some of them (Pat. 2 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 19 <!'.).
The king petitioned the pope to do what he could
to reform the house (Dugdale, Mon. i, 628, charter
xix) ; and in 1 3 1 1 Robert was restored. He then
began a suit against the king's escheators and their
ministers, which dragged on till 13 14 {Rolls of Pari
i> 323^) 478'?), when a fresh inquiry was made, and
Robert's delinquencies were more fully revealed (ibid.
328^). A last appeal to Rome proving a failure,
Robert in 1 3 1 7 expressed himself willing to resign
(Pat. II Edw. II, pt. i, m. 19).

^' Ibid. 1 1 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 3.

" Visitations of Bishop Alnwick.

" L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (3), 6513.

" Ibid, vii, 1 121 (6). '^ Ibid, xii (i), 828 (7).

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

account for the fact that as many as six^ monks
of Bardney were finally condemned to death,
while the abbot himself was not brought to trial
nor the house attainted. We may indeed guess
at the means by which the abbot contrived to
make his peace with my Lord Privy Seal ; but
it is a mere matter of private conjecture.^ The
six offending monks were condemned on 6 March,
1537, to be drawn, hanged, and quartered ;' the
house was not surrendered till I November, 1538.*
At that time an annual pension of £(>(> 13s. /^d,
was assigned to the abbot ; to ten monks annui-
ties varying from £b ly. 4^. to £'^ ; to three
others smaller amounts.'

The honourable reputation of this monastery
in the early days before the Danish invasions
has already been noticed. After the rebuilding
by Gilbert of Ghent it was subject to the juris-
diction of the bishops of Lincoln, like all Bene-
dictine houses which had not obtained special
exemptions, and its visitation reports are un-
usually numerous and well preserved. It is,
however, a real misfortune that its interior
history has to be reconstructed almost entirely
from such materials as these. If any chronicle
of the abbey had been preserved, a much truer
impression could be given, for the chronicler
would help us to balance the criticisms of the
bishops by some account of the happier side of
the history of the monastery, and the good works
of different abbots. It must be remembered,
therefore, that the following account is very one-
sided, being mainly drawn from reports which
show only what was amiss in the house from
time to time. Nevertheless it must be frankly
owned that there was a good deal that was.

' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii ( i ), 5 8 1 . There should
have been seven ; for seven were arrested and examined,
but one escaped by an oversight. When all were let
out on bail, the recognizances of one of them were not
entered nor written, so that he was not summoned
to the next assizes, when his brethren were tried and
condemned. Sir William Parr discovered this after-
wards on a visit to the monastery, and charged the
abbot with the custody of the monk in question.
The one who escaped was almost certainly Thomas
Maur or Mower, the abbot's chaplain, who occurs in
the list of examinates, L. and P. Hen. VIII, xi, 828,
but not in the list of the condemned, ibid, xii (l),
581. The surnames are variously given, sometimes
the family name and sometimes the birthplace ; but
there is no Thomas among those condemned from
Bardney, while the name of 'Thomas Mower'
appears again on the pension list at the final surrender
of the house. Of those who were condemned three
had actually been in the field, like Mower ; the
particular offence of the others is unknown.

* It seems that he was not unwilling at any rate to
be an informer against his brethren. A letter con-
taining a charge of 'lewd words' against one of them
was written by him to John Hcneage, and sent up
to Cromwell ; L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii (i), 1030.

' P.R.O. Controlment RoD, m. 6.

' L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii (2), 737.

' Exch. Aug. Off. Misc. Books, 223, fol. 185 et seq.

seriously in need of reform early in the four-
teenth and again in the middle of the fifteenth
century.

It appears that the abbey of Bardney was one
of those which suffered from the arrogant be-
haviour of Nicholas of Tusculum,' the papal
legate, in 1215: a very good abbot, Ralph de
Rand, being deposed or compelled to resign in
favour of the prior of Lenton, a man of very
different character.' The legate's nominee,
however, only ruled the house for about a year.
In 1243 Abbot Walter of Benningworth was
deposed by the bishop (one authority says ' for
ignorance '),' and an act of interference on the
part of the royal patron of the house at this
time called forth one of Grosteste's most charac-
teristic letters. The king's escheator had received
orders during the vacancy to provide all neces-
saries for the deposed abbot and those who
favoured him, in greater abundance than for
those whose cause had been espoused by the
bishop, and Walter was to be allowed free
egress and ingress to the church. Grosteste
wrote to the king in great surprise at hearing of
this mandate. He would not have believed the
king capable of reconciling such procedure with
his conscience. Whether the ecclesiastical sen-
tence was just or unjust, the whole matter was
entirely outside the royal jurisdiction, and the
king, though patron of the house, had no busi-
ness to interfere.' The answer is not recorded :
but Abbot Walter had to accept the position,
and William of Halton was elected in his
place.''"

In 1275 Bishop Gravesend deposed another
abbot, Peter of Barton, ' for his offences,' as it
was stated in a letter to the pope.^'^ But Peter
appealed to Archbishop Kilwardby, who decided
that the sentence against him was unjust, and
had him reinstated for a while. ^ The arch-
bishop, however, thought it necessary to visit the
house, which was in great debt and distress at
this time ; and amongst other injunctions
ordered the banishment of four of the monks for
a time to other monasteries. This injunction
was apparently the only one which Abbot Peter
was willing to carry out, and that rather from
personal feeling than zeal for reform ; for two
years later the new archbishop, John Peckham,
had to write and order him to recall these
brethren and treat them with charity.^' Another

* History of the Enghb Church (ed. Stephens), ii,
217.

'' Hominem pessimum . . . loco viri optim't. Spalding
Register, quoted by Dugdale.
« Cott. MS. Vesp. E. XX, 285.
' Epist. Grosse teste (Rolls Ser.), 308.
'» Pat. 28 Hen. Ill, m. 5 and 4.
" Cal. of Pap. Letters, i, 452.
" Pat. 5 Edw. I, m. 27.

" Regist. J oh. Peckham (Rolls Ser.), i, 23. The
same letter orders the release of other brethren who
had been imprisoned more harshly than was right or
than they deserved.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

letter was written to the penitents urging them
to return without delay and to fulfil their obedi-
ence,^ but this letter was not delivered to them.^
It became evident that the fault lay with the
abbot, and the archbishop ordered a fresh
visitation,' whereupon Peter thought it best
to resign. The visitation was made, and in-
junctions issued under his successor,* Robert of
Wainfleet. It was enjoined, in the form
common on such occasions, that the rule should
be better kept, and the accounts rendered regu-
larly : faults involving severe penance were
defined.' The abbot was to be more faithful
than his predecessors in attendance at choir,
chapter, and refectory, that he might be an
example of regularity to the brethren.

Unfortunately Robert of Wainfleet was not
the man to restore the prestige of the abbey or to
mend its fallen fortunes in anyway. In 1303
he was already in difficulties with his bishop, being,
like his predecessor Peter, more ready to enforce
discipline upon others than to submit to it him-
self. The abbot of Ramsey wrote to him at
this time that he might still hope for reconcilia-
tion with the bishop if he would humble himself
to ask for it,° but evidently he was unwilling to
do so, for he was deposed before the year was
out.' From this time until 1318 the monks of
Bardney knew very little peace. The abbot

' Regist. J oh. Peckham (Rolls Ser.), i, 41.

* Ibid, i, 102. The second letter, six months
later than the first, threatened the abbot with excom-
munication if he did not receive the monks again
within eight days ; another order was given to release a
monk from prison, and no injury was to be done to
any of the offenders.

' Ibid, i, 408. It is evident that the archbishop
saw that his predecessor had been taken in by fair
words. This visitation was to be completed ' with
the counsel of the bishop elect of Lincoln ' (Oliver
Sutton).

* Ibid, iii, 823. It is dated 22 Sept. 1284.

' These faults were (i) incontinence, (2) theft of
anything important or frequent petty theft, (3)
malicious conspiracy against superiors or any seditious
conduct, (4) injury of a brother by word or
deed, (5) disobedience and attempted apostasy.
Only the abbot and one appointed confessor could
give absolution for these sins, and that only once ;
and the culprit was to be separated from the com-
pany of his brethren until his penance was complete.

^ Chron. Abbat. Rames. (Rolls Ser.), 387. A
jnonk of Bardney had been sent to Ramsey to work
.out his penance ; as it seems, according to the
•wishes of Bishop Dalderby, but in some points con-
nected with the affair the abbot had evidently given
.cause of offence. The abbot of Ramsey, writing in
the hope of preventing a complete breach, says of the
"bishop — ' He loves your person as a father, but your
•works are hateful to him.' The bishop's authority
was disregarded at the same time by the visitors of
the order, who had sent another monk of Bardney
to perform his penance at Ramsey without leave of
ihe diocesan. Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 7 5 .

'' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 62.

appealed to the king, the archbishop, and the
pope : he made at least four different journeys
to Rome * in the hope of recovering his abbey,
and was once, indeed, for a short time actually
reinstated.' While he was in possession he was
as unsparing as ever to the monks who opposed
him,^" and while the monastery was in the hands
of the king's officials he annoyed and impeded
their administration of its revenues as far as he
possibly could. ^^ During the short time when
the temporalities were restored to him (probably
between 1 3 10 and 13 1 2) his dilapidations and
waste of the monastic property were worse than
ever ; it was alleged in 1 3 1 5 that the losses of
the house due to his maladministration amounted
to 10,370 marks ; and that if something was not
done speedily to prevent his doing any further
mischief, the utter ruin of the abbey was in-
evitable.^^ His last appeal to Rome was made
in 1316, but it was evidently a failure, for in
1 3 1 7 he expressed himself willing to resign on a
competent pension. This was granted to him
for the sake of peace,^' and Robert of Gains-

* Before 1307, Cal. of Pap. Letters, ii, 25; in
1 3 10, Pat. 4 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 18 ; in 13 12, Pat.
5 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. II ; in 1 3 16, Pat. 10 Edw. II,
pt. i, m. 22. The Patent Rolls show that he had
been at the court of Rome three times at least before
his deposition, in 1284, 1291, and 1299, and this
may possibly have been one of the complaints brought
against him.

' The king gave orders for the abbot to receive a
fitting dwelling outside the abbey, and 6s. ^d. daily
from its property in 1307. Close, 5 Edw. II, m. 30.
In 1 3 1 1 Robert was restored at the request of the
pope, Pat. 4 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 10 ; a complaint
lodged by one of the king's officers (date uncertain)
speaks also of his restitution by the archbishop of
Canterbury — whether at the same time or another it
is difficult to say. Rolls of Pari, i, ^jia. In both
cases the bishop withheld his consent.

" A certain brother, Simon of Hanworth, was im-
prisoned by the abbot for more than a year, in the dark,
his feet bound by iron chains to a post : he was also
accused of having stolen goods of the monastery. He
cleared himself at last of these charges, and was re-
leased by the order of the presidents of the Bene-
dictine order. Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby,
215 a'.

" Rolls of Pari, i, 478<J, and Pat. 2 Edw. II, pt. i,
m. 191^.

^' Rolls of Pari, i, 328^. In the same year
Bishop Dalderby wrote to the king stating that the
house had been vacant since 1303, and begging him
as patron to do what he could on its behalf.

" The troubles and disorder of the house demanded
that great care should be taken of procedure. First
the monks had to make their oath of obedience to
Robert as abbot : they were then absolved for all
disregard of his authority in the past. The abbot
formally renounced his appeal against the bishop's
jurisdiction, and then made his resignation. The
prior and the remaining brethren of the convent
made submission to the bishop, and were free at last
to elect a new abbot. Brother Robert, ' worn out
with age and infirmity,' received a much handsomer

100

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

borough, a monk of Spalding, was elected abbot
in his place. But it may be easily imagined that it
was some time before the monastery was reduced
to order and peace after such a long season of
unrest.^

Two visitation reports of Bishop Bokyngham
are preserved, one dated 1383, the other some-
what earlier.^ The injunctions are the same as
those delivered to many other monasteries, and
may be merely a formal reminder of the principal
duties of the religious life ; at any rate it seems
that there was at this time no grave irregularity.
The buildings were to be repaired ; certain
legacies and pensions not properly secured to the
house were to be attended to ; six boys were to
be educated in the monastery ; the clothing of
the monks was to be free from all superfluous
ornament ; no hunting dogs were to be kept ;
better servants were to be engaged for making
bread and beer, that the brethren might not be
tempted to eat and drink outside the enclosure.

Bishop Gray visited the house before 1435.
He ordered the rule and constitution of the order
to be read daily in Latin and English ; no
women were to be admitted within the en-
closure except the mothers and sisters of the
brethren, and a certain Joan Martyn and her
daughter were to be rigorously excluded. He
noticed that there had been dissension at the
visitation, and ordered its authors to do fitting
penance.'

The state of the house in the middle of the
fifteenth century was distinctly unsatisfactory.
Bishop Alnwick visited it three times ; the first
time in January, 1437,* when he was received by
the abbot and fifteen monks. On this occasion
he dealt mainly with the question of finance, as
the house was in debt and difficulty. It appears
that at some time previous to this the monks of
Bardney had received as a privilege of very
doubtful value the right to live independently,
each on a fixed income, boarding themselves and
keeping private servants. The bishop now pro-
posed to them that they should abandon this
privilege of their own accord, and return to the use

pension than he deserved : the fruits of the church
and manor of Steeping, the vill of Firsby, and the
cells of Partney and Skendleby ; the ' Nova Camera '
by the infirmary to live in ; a chaplain and an
esquire to serve him ; and an honoured place in the
community. Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby,
356-7 ; and Dugdale, Mon. \, 635.

' In 1 3 1 8 the bishop instituted an inquiry as to
certain ' dissensions ' amongst the monks of Bardney.
Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 371. It is not
wonderful that such should have occurred after a
time of anarchy : and it is evident from records
already quoted that Robert, with all his faults, had
contrived to keep the favour of a certain number of
the brethren.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham, 184, 258 </.

' Ibid. Memo. Gray, 202.

* Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), fol. 32
et seq.

of a common refectory, letting their servants also
eat at one common table, to see if expenses
could thus be reduced. After deliberation the
brethren agreed to try this plan. Of three
brethren who had been suspended from voting
in chapter and other common rights at the last
visitation, one now made his submission, and was
restored ; the other two, who were still negligent
of their duty, were to have only one kind of
flesh or fish daily until they showed true peni-
tence.

The visitation was continued 19 March, when
it was acknowledged that the finances of the house
were already improved by the new arrangement.
There were other points, however, which needed
attention. The abbot owned that he, the cel-
larer, and the sub-cellarer, did not attend the
choir regularly — they were too much occupied,
and when a few of the monks were ill or being
bled, that left a very small number to keep up
the divine office. The infirmary was much
abused. The brethren went there on slight pre-
text, and sometimes turned it into a regular
guest house, entertaining their friends there till
late at night, and drinking great quantities of
beer. The church and manor-houses were
ruinous. The obedientiaries, especially the
sacrist and almoner, were unfaithful to their
trust, and made money for themselves and their
servants ^ out of the common funds. Women
visited the house freely, and ate and drank with
the monks, to the great cost and scandal of the
monastery. The brethren were dainty over
their food, and on days of abstinence would not
come to the refectory unless three kinds of fish
were provided, disdaining the red herrings and
stock fish which were the ordinary fare of
mediaeval monks in Lent. There was no scholar
at the university, and the house was still seriously
in debt, and could not afford a barber or a
cobbler. Games of chance were sometimes
played at night, which kept some of the brethren
from mattins. Only two of them, however, in the
midst of this general laxity and neglect of rule, were
actually charged with incontinence; though it was
suggested by one brother that a woman servant
at Southrey, where the monks went to be bled,
was a source of danger, and should be dismissed.

There were numerous complaints of brother
Thomas Barton, who was sub-cellarer, almoner,
and pittancer. He withheld their yearly portions
from the brethren, and yet lived at ease in the
infirmary, receiving his friends there, and serving
them with the best food. Indeed he was said
to be the author of all the troubles of the
house. He defamed the brethren to strangers,
and the late abbot on his death-bed had said to
him : ' Thou hast never been faithful in any
office. If I had done according to thy mind, I
should not this day have left a monk here, young
or old.'

" Mention
and others.

is made of ih.& phtor,faber, janitor, sutor.

lOI

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

The bishop delivered injunctions dealing with
all these points, and ordered Thomas Barton to
be imprisoned until further notice.^ There was
another visitation in 1440, when it was noticed
that there had been discords in the house on
other points. There may have been some im-
provement, as very little was said. Brother
Thomas Barton was to be let out of the prison
where he had been confined for his misdeeds, but
on no pretext whatever was he to leave the
house.^ He seems, however, to have speedily
recovered his influence with the abbot, for in
1444 the monks were again loud in their com-
plaints against him.' It was also alleged that in
spite of the late injunctions the abbot had sold
certain manors without consulting the brethren.

It may be that at this final visitation of Bishop
Alnwick (of which the injunctions are not pre-
served) Thomas Barton was more severely dealt
with. The general standard of observance
throughout the monastery seems to have im-
proved, and one of the monks was even sent by
the bishop to visit another monastery in his
name.^

No other visitations are preserved, except that
of Bishop Atwater in 15 19. His visitations
were carefully made, and it is some satisfaction,
therefore, to find that he had not such grave
work to do in this abbey as Bishop Alnwick.
Hunting dogs were to be removed ; the books
used in choir were out of repair by the care-
lessness of the chanter ; the ' Lady Mass ' was
not as regularly attended as it should have been ;
two monks had been out without leave, and
were irregular in coming to mattins. The
injunctions ordered reform on all these points :
the brethren were to keep themselves from secular
conversation, to admit no women, and to grant
no more corrodics.'

Very little is known of the state of the
monastery between this time and the outbreak of
the Lincolnshire rebellion, but at any rate nothing
evil is recorded. As to their share in the insur-

' This may be gathered from the injunctions of
1440 : there are none preserved for 1437.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Alnwick, 37.

' Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), fol. 24.
' Brother Thomas Barton is intolerable to the brethren.'
' Brother Thomas Barton sings the psalms too fast and
makes a discord.' ' He consumes all that he has
charge of in food and drink and tithes, and calls in
the secular powers to help him.' ' He appropriates
money to himself,' &c.

* Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Alnwick, 56.

" Visitations of Atwater (Alnwick Tower), fol. 5 1 .
A curious complaint was made at this visitation : — -
That the monks' barber, contrary to ancient custom,
shaved seculars in the shaving house of the monastery ;
and — still worse ! — ' for the mobt part he puts the
seculars before the monks, to the injury of the
brethren.' The bishop enjoined that in future 'he
was not to shave seculars any more in that place, or
to prefer them to the monks, but to do his shaving of
the brethren diligently.'

rection, it is quite impossible now to discover
how far they really approved or sympathized
with its aims or its promoters. Like the monks
of Kirkstead and Barlings (as will be seen here-
after), and some of the Yorkshire monks in the
Pilgrimage of Grace, they were compelled ' to
go forth to the host,' whether they would or no.
It would not be a matter for much wonder if,
after their scruples as to the propriety of bearing
arms were overruled, they went cheerfully
enough to aid what seemed to many at that
time the cause of true religion. Most of them
were probably of the middle class,* and may well
have shared the sentiments of their friends and
relations in the world. We are here, however,
dealing only with facts, and so far as facts go
there is no clear evidence at all as to the actual
opinions of the monks of Bardney. There is no
proof that they were in any way instigators of
the rebellion ; they went into the field under
compulsion ; they were conspicuous there only
because they wore the habit of religion. Their
punishment seems, therefore, to have been a very
severe one, and its object was doubtless rather
to deter others from following their example
than to satisfy any real demands of justice.

The original endowment of the abbey by
Gilbert of Ghent included the vills of Bardney
and Osgodby, with land at Steeping and Firsby,
and the churches of Bardney, Firsby, Partney,
Skendleby (Lines.) and Edlesborough (Bucks.),
with tithes of several parts of his demesne.'
Walter of Ghent added the churches of Barton
(with chapel of All Saints), Stainton, Kirkby
Laythorpe, and Hunmanby (Yorks.) with all
its chapels,* and the chapel and hospital of
Partney, as well as mills and lands in divers
places, including the manors of Steeping,
Edlington, Hagworthingham, and Barton, and
the free passage of the Humber.' Other bene-
factors added at the same period the churches of
Folkingham, Lusby, Edlington with its chapel,
Irnham, Scampton, Steeping, Wainfleet, Hag-
worthingham, Spridlington, Claypole, Boultham,
Sotby, Baumber, Hale, Heckington, with Ged-
ling and Laxton (Notts) and Hertesholm, as
well as small parcels of land chiefly within the

' Their names in the pension list suggest this.

' Charter of Gilbert of Ghent (recited by his son
Walter), Cott. MS. Vesp. E, xx, fol. 278 d.

* Wold Newton, Burton Fleming, Reighton,
Argam, Middleton on the Wolds, Fordon, Muston,
Buckton, and Barkesdale, are named ibid. 8 and 5;.

' Ibid. 55, 64. In a document of the fourteenth
century mention is made of the ' cells ' of Partney and
Skendleby. The cell of Partney is probably the
same as the hospital named in the foundation charters.
The cell of Skendleby may have been no more than
a manor-house for the accommodation of one or two
monks who served the church. As both ' cells '
together formed only a f>art of the pension of one
retiring abbot, they could not have been large or
important houses.

102

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

counties of York and Lincoln.^ The advowsons
of most of these churches were retained until
the fourteenth century, as appears from the
Taxatio of Pope Nicholas IV, the Patent
Rolls, &c. ; but the heavy losses sustained by the
monks during the fourteenth century ^ no doubt
compelled them to alienate some of their
property without hope of recovery. Henry son
of Walter Beck of Lusby granted to the abbey
all his lands in Lusby, c. 1 240 ; the grant no
doubt including the manor.'

In 1 29 1 the income of the house in temporals
was assessed at ;^I26 "Js. 2^d., in spirituals it is
not possible to give an exact value, but the
profit of so many rectories probably amounted to
another ^lOO at least. In 1303 the abbot of
Bardney held one knight's fee in Calceby,
Swaby, and Cawthorpe ; one quarter in South
Langton, one-eighth in Barton, and smaller
fractions in Burton-by-Lincoln, Winceby, Potter-
hanworth, and Hagworthingham.^

In 1346 he was returned as holding the
same, except the parcels of land in Winceby
Burton, and Barton* ; in 1428 almost the same
as in 1303,° and a share with several others in a
knight's fee at Aby and Strubby.

In 1534 the clear income of the abbey was
^^366 6i. id.,'' including the profits of the
rectories of Bardney, Barton, Skendleby, Steep-
ing, Edlington, Hale, Heckington, and Hunman-
by ; and the manors of Bardney with Southrey
(including the manor of Seny Place), Monks-
thorpe (in Great Steeping), Partney, Bardney
Hall (in Barton-upon-Humber), Edlington and
Lusby.*

The monastery was at this time bound to
pay 30J. 2^d. annually to two poor men to pray
for the soul of John Cooke, archdeacon of
Lincoln ; and I os. had to be distributed annually
on the anniversary of the said John.^

Abbots of Bardney

St. Ethelred, ex-king of Mercia, made abbot

about 704, died jiS^"
Kenewin," occurs 833

' Cott. MS. Vesp. E, xx, 8 (confirmation charter
of Pope Alexander III) and elsewhere in the same
chartulary. The largest of these gifts was the vill of
' Buteyate,' from Robert Marmion.

* Especially in the time of abbots Peter Barton
and Robert Wainfleet.

' Line. Notes and Queries, vi, 121.

' Feud. Aids, iii, 130-65.

■^ Ibid, zoo-35.

' Ibid. 257-305. The land in Burton-by-Lincoln
appears also in 1401 : ibid. 248.

' Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 81.

' Dugdale, Mon. \, 641, quoting Mins. Accts.

' Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 81.

" See Florence of Worcester Chronicon (English
Hist. Soc), i, 48 and note, and Ang. Sax. Chron.
(Rolls Ser.), ii, 38 and 39.
" Ingulfs Chronicle in Rerum Angl. Script, (ed. Gale),

I, II.

Ralf,!^ prior in 1087, abbot 1115

Ivo,^' occurs about 1 133

John of Ghent," elected 1 1 40, occurs 1 147

and 1 1 50
Walter,^* occurs 11 55 to 11 66
John, occurs 1167 "
Ralf of Stainfield," occurs n8o
Robert,^* occurs 1191

Ralf de Rand," occurs 1208, deposed 12 14
Peter of Lenton,^" intruded 1 2 1 4
Matthew," occurs 1218, died 1223
Adam de Ascwardby,^^ elected 1225, occurs

1 23 1 and 1240
William of Ripton ^'
Walter of Benningworth,^ elected 1 241,

deposed 1243
William of Hatton,^* elected 1244
William of Torksey,^^ elected 1258, died

1266
Peter of Barton,^' elected 1266, resigned 1280
Robert of Wainfleet,^* elected 1280, resigned

1318
Richard of Gainsborough,^' elected 1318, died

1342
Roger of Barrow,'" elected 1342, died 1355
Thomas of Stapleton,''^ elected 1355, died

1379

" Cott. MS. Vesp. E, XX, 40. Ralf had previously
been a monk of Caroncous.

" In Browne Willis's list, as from Cott. MS.
Vesp. E, 18. Pat. 3 Rich. II, m. 16, recites a
charter said to "be of Henry III, but obviously
Henry I, in which the king grants the abbey to Ivo
as abbot, and speaks of Walter of Ghent as still alive.

'' Date of election is in Browne Willis ; occurrences
in Cott. MS. Vesp. E, xx, 13, and Lans. MS. 207 E
(Holies collection), 157.

" Cott. MS. E, XX, 15, 22 ; Lans. MS. 207 E,
163, 173, 197.

'* In Browne Willis's list. A confirmation charter
of 'T. archbishop of Canterbury' (in Cott. MS.
Vesp. E, XX, 29) may refer to this John if T.
means Thomas, but if the archbishop is Theobald it
may refer to the earlier John.

" Cott. MS. Vesp. E, XX, 49.

•* Ibid. 48.

'* Ibid. 49 ; and Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of
Final Concords, i, 83.

^ Dugdale, Mon. i, 623 ; Ann. Mon. (Rolls
Series), iii, 40, 41.

"' Cott. MS. Vesp. E, XX, 33 -J- ; and Pat. 7 Hen. Ill,
m. 2.

'' Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Hugh of Wells and
Cott. MS. Vesp. E, xx, fol. 47.

'^ He occurs on Browne Willis's list, but Adam's
name is found up to 1240, and Walter was elected
in 1241.

** Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Grosteste.

"' Pat. 28 Hen. Ill, m. 5 and 4.

"= Ibid. 42 Hen. Ill, m. 5.

*' Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Gravesend.

*» Pat. 8 Edw. I, m. 20.

" Ibid. 1 1 Edw. II, m. 12.

'" Ibid. 16 Edw. Ill, m. 14.

'' Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Gynwell, 45.

103

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Hugh of Braunston,^ elected 1379, resigned

1385
John of Haynton,^ elected 1385
John Woxbrigge,' elected 1404, died 14 13
Geoffrey Hemingsby,* elected 14 13, died

143s
John Wainfleet,' elected 1435, died 1447
Gilbert Multon,^ elected 1447, resigned

1466
Richard Horncastle,' elected 1466, resigned

1507
William Marton,* last abbot, elected 1507

There is a fine thirteenth-century seal of
Bardney Abbey,' the obverse of which is
evidently of earlier art than the reverse, and
may be of the date of the foundation. The
Obverse shovsrs St. Oswald crowned, seated on a
throne, the sides of which terminate with small
stars, and the feet with animal's claws ; feet on
a rectangular footboard ; in the right hand a
sceptre fleur-de-liz6, in the left hand a small
cross.

SIGILLUM . SANCTI : OSWALrU . REGIS . BA ,

The Reverse is a smaller pointed oval counter-
seal, showing a section of the abbey church with
three arched niches, in the centre the Virgin,
seated, holding the Child ; on the left St. Peter,
full length, with keys and book ; on the right
St. Oswald crowned, full length. In base,
under a trefoil arch, the abbot half-length to the
right, praying.

SECRETUM . PETRI . ABBATIS . DE . BARDENAI

There is another seaP" with obverse similar
to the last, and reverse a small oval counter-seal,
being the impression of an ancient oval gem,
slightly convex. Full-length figure of a deity on
an estrade. Very imperfect.

. . . LEGE . LECTA . . .

The legend when complete probably read
'Tecta lege, lecta tege.'

There is also a seal of the fourteenth century."
The pointed oval obverse represents the patron
St. Oswald, crowned, seated on a carved throne
under a trefoiled arch, pinnacled and crocketed
with niches of four stories at the sides ; in the right
hand a sceptre fleur-de-liz6, background diapered

' Pat. 3 Rich. II, m. 21.

' Ibid. 8 Rich. II, m. 10.

^ Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Repingdon, 57^/.

* Cott. MS. Vesp. E, xx, 281 </.; and Harl. MS.
6,952, fol. 46 (transcribed from Line. Epis. Reg.).

'' Pat. 14 Hen. VI, pt. ii.

" Ibid. 26 Hen. VI, pt. i. John Bracy seems to
have been first elected, and his election accepted
by the king, but ultimately the temporalities were
restored to Gilbert Multon.

' Ibid. 6 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. 5.

* Harl. MS. 6,953, fol. 14 (transcribed from
Line. Epis. Reg.).

' Harl. Chart. 44 A, 7, and 5 3 D, 50.
'"Ibid. 45 A, 52. "Ibid. 44 A, 8.

lozengy, with a small pierced cinquefoil in each
space. In base, under a carved, round-headed
arch, with trefoiled panels in the spandrels, a
shield of arms, a cross patt^e between four lions
rampant. Bardney abbey. The reverse repre-
sents St. Paul, full-length, with sword and book
on the left, and St. Peter, full-length, with key and
book on the right, under two trefoiled canopies,
pinnacled and crocketed, supported on slender
columns. Background of fine diaper-work,
lozengy, with a small star or cross in each space.
In base, under a carved round-headed arch, with
arcading at the sides, the abbot, half-length to
the left, with a pastoral staff, praying, between ■
the initial letters R.G., which probably refer to
Richard de Gaynesburgh, abbot 1318-42, in
whose time the matrix was apparently made. In
the field above on the left a crescent, and on the
right an estoile ; at each side a wavy sprig with
trefoil leaves and roses.

s' COMVNE : ABBATIS : ET : COVENTVS : MON :

ap'lorvm : PETRI : et : pauli :

The seal ad causas ^^ is pointed oval, under a
pointed arch, pinnacled and crocketed, supported
on slender columns, the patron St. Oswald, with
crown and sceptre, full-length, turned slightly to
the right. In the field on the left the keys of
St. Peter, on the right the sword of St. Paul.

s abbat et coven

rdeneya ad cavsas

The pointed oval seal of Abbot John de
Haynton ■'^ shows the abbot full-length in a
finely-carved and canopied niche, with tabernacle
work at sides ; in the right hand a book, in the
left hand a pastoral staff. On the carving at the
sides two shields of arms, on the left a cross
glory, between four lions rampant — Bardney
abbey — on the right crusily a lion rampant
debruised by a bend, Hayntone ?

5. THE ABBEY OF PARTNEY

It seems clear that there was a monastery at
Partney during the seventh century ; two of its
abbots were well known to the Venerable Bede.^*
One of these, Deda, ' a very truthful man,' re-
peated to the historian a description of the per-
sonal appearance of St. Paulinus, given to him
earlier by an old man whom the saint had bap-
tized. The other, Aldewin, was the brother of
Ethelwin,^^ who was bishop of Lindsey in the
time of Theodore : he had probably been edu-
cated in the monastic schools of Ireland." The

" Harl. Chart. 44 A, 10.

"B. M. Seals, Ixvi, 81.

" The name of ' Peartaneu ' given in Bede, Eccles.
Hist. bk. ii, c. 16, p. 117, has been confused vs^ith
Bardney, but the identification has been pronounced
impossible by Mr. W. H. Stevenson.

'* Bede, Eccks. Hist. bk. iii. e. 11, p. 149.

" Ibid. bk. iii, e. 27, p. 192, and bk. iv, c. 12,
p. 229. Ethelwin and another brother Ethelhun
had certainly been educated in Ireland.

104

Bardney Abbey (Obverse)

Bardney Abbey {Reverse)

Bardney Abbey

Crowland Abbey Kirkstead Abbey

Seals of Lincolnshire Religious Houses — Plate I

To face page 104.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

name of the founder of the abbey is unknown :
nor is there any reason for connecting it with
Bardney. It was probably destroyed by the
Danes and never rebuilt. There was a hospital
at Partney in the eleventh century, which will
be dealt with in its proper place ; but this can-
not very well have been of the same foundation.^

6. THE ABBEY OF CROWLAND

The origin and foundation of the monastery
of Crowland are veiled in obscurity. Until the
first quarter of the nineteenth century was past,
a history purporting to have been written by
Ingulf, the first Norman abbot, from the muni-
ments of the house and the materials of his pre-
decessors,^ was accepted as a genuine and valuable
chronicle. Later scholarship has, however,
rejected it.'

In 7 1 4 an anchorite of widespread fame died
at Crowland. Guthlac was the son of a Mercian
lord, and when he grew up he became the
leader of a band of youths who lived a life of
fighting and plunder. At the age of twenty-four
he suddenly repented, and entered the double
monastery of Repton. But he craved for soli-
tude and a more austere life. At the end of two
years he left Repton, with the leave of his superior,
and in 699 took refuge with two followers at
Crowland, then a lonely island in the marshes.
The story of his life was written before 7 5 7 by
a certain Felix,* at the will of Ethelbald, then
king of the Mercians, who, when a fugitive from
the wrath of King Ceolred, had come to visit
Guthlac.

In 105 1 there was a monastery at Crowland,
which at that time seems in some way to have
been subject to the abbot of Peterborough.' In
that year, at the will of Abbot Leofric, Edward
the Confessor appointed Ulfcytel, a monk of
Peterborough, abbot of Crowland. When in
search of materials for his Ecclesiastical History,

' The editors of Dugdale call Partney a ce/l of
Bardney, apparently confusing the ancient monastery
with the later hospital, which was called a cell of the
abbey in the fourteenth century. Dugdale, Moii. i,
635, and vi, 1,621.

' Hhtoria Croylandensis {Rerum AngUcarum Scriplores),
ed. W. Fulman, i, 1-107.

' Quarterly Rev. xxxiv, 289-98 ; Arch. Joum.
six, 32-49,114-133. The most complete exposition
of the forgery is to be found m Liebermann's article
in ' Gesellschaft filr altere Deutsche Geschichtskunde,'
Heues Archiv. xviii, 225-67.

* Vita S. Guthlaci auctore Felice, ed. W. de Gray
Birch.

' Ordericus Vitalis, Hist. Ecclesiastica (ed. A. Le
Prevost),ii, 285 ; cf also Vitae Abbatum Croylandiae,
printed in Bibliotheca lopographica Britannica (ed.
John Nichols), iii, 138. Had the dependence not
been a fact, it would not thus have been admitted at
Crowland ; cf. Ang. Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 1 70,
where it is stated that Edward the Confessor gave
Crowland to Leofric, abbot of Peterborough.

Orderic Vitalis came to Crowland for a stay of
five weeks, on the invitation of Abbot Geoffrey
(1109-24). He put together the traditions of
the monastery, which he learnt from Ansgot,
the sub-prior, and some of the older monks.*
They told him that after the death of Guthlac in
714, Ethelbald, king of the Mercians, founded a
monastery on the island of Crowland, and gave
a charter setting forth the bounds of its posses-
sions in the marshes. In those days an abbot
named Kenulph bore a great reputation. There
had never been a break in the monastic life of
the house. In the Danish invasions in 870
Crowland, like other monasteries, was burnt, and
its possessions were occupied by lay lords. In
the reign of King Edred (946-955) a clerk of
London, Turketyl, a kinsman of Osketul, arch-
bishop of York, had great possessions, which he
longed to use in God's service, and he begged
that Crowland might be given to him. The
king granted his request, he was received by the
monks of Crowland and chosen as their abbot.
He gave his lands at Wellingborough, Elming-
ton, Worthorp, Cottenham, Hokington, and
Beby to the monastery. He was the familiar
friend of Dunstan, Oswald, and Ethelwold,
and had their advice and help. Six abbots ruled
Crowland between the death of Turketyl and
the accession of Ulfcytel, in 105 1. During the
abbacy of Osketul the bones of St. Neot were
brought to Crowland. The monastery of Pea-
kirk was united to Crowland, and ruled by
Abbot Wulgeat after 1044. Whether these
traditions had any foundation in fact, it is diffi-
cult to decide. It is not improbable that Ethel-
bald should have founded a monastery at Crow-
land, but at that time monastic life in England
had greatly degenerated. It is not impossible
that Crowland was refounded at the same time
as Ely, Peterborough, and Thorney, but the
silence of writers of the tenth century is very
baffling. Two documents of which Orderic
made mention were most probably forgeries.'
After the Conquest, when many of the older
monasteries lost some of their possessions, the
claim to be founded several hundred years ago by
a Saxon king was an obvious advantage. It was
of the utmost importance to be able to show that
the relics of the monastery were genuine. There
can scarcely be a doubt that the interesting story
of the destruction of Crowland by the Danes,
the sparing of the boy Turgar by Jarl Sidroc,
and the return on the next day of the younger
monks who had been sent away with the relics
of St. Guthlac, the charters and jewels of the
house, grew out of the imagination of the four-
teenth-century writer. His object was to find
a clear proof of the continuity of the history of
Crowland. The reputation for hospitality

° Ordericus Vitalis, Hist. Ecclesiastica (ed. A. Le
Prevost), ii, 268-90.

' Neues Archiv. xviii, 250.

105

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

which afterwards made ' Courteous Crowland ' ^
proverbial may have suggested to him the story
of the kindly welcome given to Turketyl on his
first visit to the poor old monks. The account
of the founding of a cell at Spalding by Thorold
de Bukenhale in 1051 occurs for the first time
in his work,^ and the charter granted by Thorold
is another obvious forgery. About 1085 Ivo
Tailbois founded a cell at Spalding for the
monastery of St. Nicholas at Angers.^ As the
abbot of Crowland then held two carucates and
a granary at Spalding,'* strained relations with
the monks of Spalding were inevitable. It is pos-
sible that Ivo Tailbois deprived Crowland of part
of its lands for his foundation, and after the law-
suits of the thirteenth century a claim to prior
possession would easily have occurred to the
writer of Ingulfs history.

As it is impossible to warrant the truth of
much that is contained in the histories ascribed
to Ingulf and Peter of Blois,^ there is but little
to record of the earlier abbots of Crowland.
Abbot Ulfcytel began to build a new church, and
received much help from Waltheof, then earl of
Northampton and Huntingdon, afterwards earl
of Northumbria.' He gave the vill of Barnack,
noted for its quarries.' After the earl's unjust
execution in 1076 his body was brought to
Crowland and buried in the chapter-house.* It
was the deliberate policy of William I and
Lanfranc to get rid of English abbots, and at
the mid-winter council of 1085 Ulfcytel was
deposed, apparently for no other reason than
that he was English, and sent to the monastery
of Glastonbury.' In his stead William appointed
Ingulf, prior of the Norman monastery of St.Wan-
drille. He was by birth an Englishman, and had
been in William's service as a clerk. On his
return from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem he be-
came a monk at St. Wandrille. In spite of some
misfortunes the monastery prospered under his
rule.'^*' The possessions, according to the Domes-

' A^. and Q. ist series, vi, 281, 350.

* The compiler of Chronicon Angliae Petriburgense
(ed. J. A. Giles, Caxton See), to which the editors
of the Mon. iii, 206 refer, borrowed from Ingulf, cf.
Neues Archiv. xviii, 236, 237. In the chartulary of
Crowland, written about the middle of the 1 4th cen-
tury (Wrest Park MS. 6), a note of the foundation
of the cell at Spalding is scribbled in on fol. 2542^. in
a later hand, doubtless after it had become accepted
in the monastery. The Sheriff Thorold undoubtedly
gave Bucknall to Crowland, cf. Dom. Bk. fol. 346^.

' Mm. iii, 208.

* Dom. Bk. fol. 346^.

* 'Neues Arch'w. xviii, 225-267.

" Ord. Vital. Hist. Eccles. (ed. A. Le Prevost), ii,
285. Waltheof was so great a benefactor that in a list
of monasteries drawn up at Southwark Priory about
1208 he was accredited as the founder. Cf. W. de
Gray Birch, Fasti Monastic! ^vi Saxonici, 13.

' Ibid, ii, 285. ' Ibid.

' Ibid. Freeman, Norman Conquest, iv, 600.
'» Ibid. 286.

day Survey, consisted in Lincolnshire^' of the
manor of Holbeach and Whaplode, two carucates
in Spalding, the manors of Dowdyke in Sutterton,
Langtoft and Baston, berewicks in Drayton and
Algarkirk (Alfgare), and a bovate in Burtoft, the
manor of Bucknall; in Leicestershire^^ of two
carucates in Sutton and two in Stapleton, the
manor of Beby ; in Northamptonshire^' of the
manor of Worthorp and lands in Elming-
ton, Edinton, Wellingborough, and Badby ; in
Huntingdonshire^* of the manor of Morborne, and
also a hide and a half in Thurning ; in Cam-
bridgeshire ^* of the manors of Hokington, Cotten-
ham and lands in Drayton ; and of three fisheries
in Wisbech. The property was valued in money
at £$"] Z.S. 4^., and had increased by ^■^ 2s. ^d,
since the time of Edward the Confessor.

In response to the entreaties of Ingulf, William
allowed Ulfcytel to leave Glastonbury for Peter-
borough,^^ from which he had come to be abbot
of Crowland in 105 1. Ingulf translated the
body of Waltheof to the church ; and it is re-
corded by Orderic Vitalis that miracles were
often worked at the tomb.^' In 1 09 1 a serious
fire destroyed part of the church, its vestments
and books, and some of the monastic buildings.^'
A new church 'of most beautiful work' was
begun by Ingulfs successor, Geoffrey, prior of
St. Evroul, who was appointed by Henry I in
1 1 10.^" In the opinion of Orderic Vitalis, him-
self a monk of St. Evroul, he was a man of great
learning and a zealous ruler of the monastery.
The miracles which are again said by Orderic
to have occurred at the tomb of St. Waltheof
doubtless brought in much money for the build-
ing fund. In 1 1 24 Geoffrey was succeeded by
Waltheof, an English monk of Crowland,^" and
brother of Gospatric, formerly earl of North-
umbria. The body of St. Guthlac was trans-
lated in 1136.^'^ Accusations were brought
against Abbot Waltheof by the monks, and in
1 138 he was deposed at the synod of London
by the papal legate, Alberic.^^ Godfrey, prior of
St. Albans, was chosen as his successor, and is
said to have introduced into the monastery the
customs of St. Albans.^' During his abbacy, in
or about 1 141, the cell of Freiston was founded
and endowed by Alan de Croun.^*

" Dom. Bk. fol. 346^.

" Ibid. 231. •' Ibid. 22 23.

" Ibid. 204. '^ Ibid. 192^.

'* Ord. Vitalis, Hist. Eccles. ii, 285.

" Ibid. 286, 287.

•' Ibid. 286. Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 37.

'" Ibid. 287.

'» BMotheca Topog. Brit. (ed. John Nichols), iii,

1 39-
^' Acta Sanctorum, April, ii, 54.

^^ Bibl. Topog. iii, 139. Simeoni Monachi Opera
Omnia (Rolls Ser.), ii, 299.

" Ibid.

" Mon. iv, 124. For the date cf. Wrest Park
MS. 6, fol. 28 ; 'post liberacionem regis Stephani
presente Gaufrido abbate.'

106

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Edward, prior of Ramsey, was appointed abbot
in 1 1 42 and ruled for thirty years.^ He obtained
from Stephen in 1 142 an important charter con-
firming the lands and possessions of Crowland,
and defining the bounds of the surrounding
marsh, which was again confirmed by Henry II
early in 1155.^

In 1 1 42 Stephen also granted the right of
holding a fair at Crowland.' In 1 1 47 the abbot
obtained from Eugenius III a bull confirming all
the possessions of the monastery, and taking it
under his special protection/ He was an able
and vigorous ruler, and increased the possessions,
ornaments, and books of the monastery. The
church and monastic buildings were again in
great part destroyed by fire, but the re-building
was well advanced before his death.' Under his
successor, Robert of Reading, prior of Leo-
minster, the whole of the nave was finished.^ His
abbacy was marked by the beginning of the first
of those great lawsuits which are so special a
feature in the history of Crowland. The lords
and men of neighbouring manors looked with
covetous eyes on the marshes of the monastery.
Indeed, the fen-lands were so profitable in those
days that Hugh the White, a monk of Peter-
borough, described the site of his house as a
veritable paradise. ' The marsh,' he wrote,
about 1 150, 'is very necessary for men, for there
are found wood and twigs for fires, hay for
fodder of cattle, thatch for covering houses,
and many other useful things. It is, moreover,
productive of birds and fishes.' ' Some of the

' ' Historiae Croykndensis Continuatlo (ed. W. Fulman,
Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores), 451, 452.

" This is the earliest genuine charter of Crov/land,
cf. Neues Archiv. xviii, 253. It is the first document
in the chartulary, compiled about 1366 (Wrest Park
MS. 6, fol. 231'. 24). The bounds were 'de Croy-
lande usque ad Asendyke, et sic usque ad Aswyktofte,
et sic per Shcpee usque Tydwarthare, et inde usque ad
Normanneslonde, et sic per aquam de Ncen usque ad
Fynset, et sic usque ad Greynes, et ita ad Folward-
stakynge, et inde sicut Southlake cadit in aquam de
Welande, et sic ex altera parte aquae usque ad
Aspathe, et inde usque Warwarlake, et sic usque ad
Harenholte, et sic sursum per aquam de Meugerlake
et inde sia.; Apynholte cadit in Welonde.' The
charter, granted at Stamford, is undated, but from the
witnesses and the place, it must be assigned to the
early part of 1142 ; cf. J. H. Round, Geoffrey de
Mandevilh, 159. The charter of Henry II, also
undated, is said to have been granted to Abbot Robert,
but was probably granted early in 1 1 55. For the
date cf. J. H. Round, Geoffrey de MandevUle, 1 60.

' Wrest Park MS. 6, fol. 25, on the feast of
St. Bartholomew, the three preceding and three follow-
ing days. St. Bartholomew was the patron saint of
St. Guthlac, and the monastery was dedicated to
St. Mary, St. Guthlac, and St. Bartholomew.

* Wrest Park MS. 6, fol. 49.

' Hist. Croyl. Cont. 452.

« Ibid.

' Historiae Anglicanae Scriptores (ed. Joseph
Sparke), pt. iii, 2.

marshes of Holland had already been drained,
and converted into fertile arable land, and,
accordingly, the men of Holland greatly desired
rights of common in the marsh of Crow-
land that they might have sufficient pasturage
for their cattle.* They attempted to secure
them by violent occupation, and it was not until
the end of the fifteenth century that these
troublesome disputes ceased. Yet the oft-
renewed struggle had its compensations in the
succession of vigorous and able abbots, in the
absence of dissension within the house, and in a
keen interest in historical study.

Early in ii8g a false report of the death of
Henry II reached England. A conspiracy was
at once set on foot among the men of Holland.
Gerard de Camville, Thomas of Moulton, and
other enemies of Crowland united under the
leadership of Nicholas, prior of Spalding, meeting
sometimes in the prior's barn at Weston, some-
times in Holbeach church.

According to the usual custom at Rogation-
tide, a proclamation was made on Spalding
bridge, by the abbot's command, that the men of
Holland and others should keep their cattle oiF
Crowland marsh because the hay was growing.
As it was disregarded the abbot's servants im-
pounded the cattle. On 12 May over 3,000
men came in arms to the marsh. At Asendike
they were met by the abbot, who sued for peace,
fearing an attack on the monastery itself. The
invaders divided the marsh among the vills
which they represented, and encamped for fifteen
days. They dug the turf, cut down most of the
woods and alderbeds of Crowland, and pastured
their cattle in the meadows. The abbot and
monks scarcely ventured forth from the
gates of the monastery, but they managed to
send a messenger to one of the justices, Geoffrey
FitzPeter, who was then in Northamptonshire.
He sent four knights to investigate the outrage,
and each body of men replied that they were
there by their lord's orders. The abbot secretly
made his way to London with the charter of
Henry II to show to the justices, who com-
manded Geoffrey FitzPeter to give the abbot
full redress. A number of the trespassers were
imprisoned, and both parties were bidden to
appear at Westminster at Michaelmas. Mean-
while Henry II died on 3 September. The
knights, in alarm, made their peace with the
abbot, but the prior of Spalding persisted in his
claim, stating that he had occupied his own
marsh, which was of the fee of William de
Romar. This time the abbot had left the
charter at Crowland. Accordingly, an inquisi-
tion was ordered, and sixteen knights were
chosen to make view of the marsh. The trial
was twice postponed on account of the abbot's

' Hist. Croyl. Cont. 453-6. The first few lines occur
also in Wrest Park MS. 6, with this reference, ' sicut
scribitur in libro armarioli Croilande qui dicetur Ysido-
rus Ethimologiarum circa finem.'

107

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

illness, and he died on the vigil of Easter, 1 1 90.
Richard I was then in Normandy, and his
chancellor, William Longchamp, bishop of Ely,
obtained leave from him to appoint as abbot his
own brother Henry, then a monk of Evesham.^
After the chancellor's disgrace and expulsion
from England in 1 191, the cause was resumed
at the instigation of William de Romar, and
Abbot Henry was summoned to Westminster to
hear the verdict on the view made of the marsh.
Fearful of the fate which had overtaken his
brother, he had himself essoigned on the first
day for illness on the road, and on the second
for being confined to his Ijed. Four knights
were sent to view him, but as they did not come
on the appointed day, the abbot left Crowland
and set out for London. After two or three
postponements the verdict was at last pronounced.
Because the abbot was not found in bed when
the knights came to view him, judgement was
given that he should for a time lose his seisin
but not his right, and the seisin was given to
the prior of Spalding, who speedily entered upon
it. In the middle of the winter in 1 1 93 the
abbot set out to see King Richard, and arrived
at Spires fifteen days before he was ransomed.

On 22 January Richard I granted a confir-
mation of the bounds of the monastery,^ and
wrote to the justiciar, Hubert Walter, arch-
bishop of Canterbury, ordering that the abbot of
Crowland should have seisin of his marshes. But
in 1 1 95 the abbot of St. Nicholas, at St. Angers,
persuaded Richard I that his cell of Spalding
had been wronged, and the question was re-
opened. Abbot Henry again crossed the seas,
and followed Richard from place to place in
Normandy praying for a settlement in his favour.
A final judgement was given on 2 November,
1 195. In 1202 the abbot of St. Nicholas, at
Angers, again attempted to get seisin of the
marsh, another vexatious trial followed, and the
abbot of Crowland and a monk of Spalding pur-
sued John from one place to another in Nor-
mandy, outbidding each other in presents. On
their return to England an indecisive judgement
was given. A monk of Crowland was sent to
John in Normandy, and for 100 marks obtained,
on I April, 1202, a confirmation of Richard's
warranty for seisin of the marsh, and of the
charter of Henry II setting forth the bounds of
Crowland.'

Abbot Henry was soon involved in a costly
suit with the abbot of Peterborough, who put
forward a claim to the southern marsh, called
Alderland, and in 1206 succeeded in securing
rights therein to the detriment of Crowland.*
The impounding of the abbot's cattle on his own
marsh of Goggisland, by Hugh de Wake, lord of
Deeping, forced him into another suit, which,

' Hist. Cray I. Cent. 457-71.

' Wrest Park MS. 6, fol. 24.V.

^ Ibid. fol. z^v.

* Ibid, fol. 39 ; Hist. Croyl. Cont. 471-2.

however, was settled at Lincoln in his favour in
1234, and at the same time an agreement was
made with Simon, prior of Spalding, about rights
of common in their respective marshes.*

In 1 2 16 Crowland suffered, like a number of
other monasteries, in the civil strife. Savaric de
Mauleon was sent by John to arrest certain
knights and servants of the king, who were
in hiding. They arrived at Crowland on
30 September, and broke into the monastery.
Armed men rode into the cloisters, monastic
buildings, and church, and while mass was being
celebrated they dragged men away from before
the altar and carried them ofi;* They also took
away as their booty a great number of beasts and
cattle.

Abbot Henry's rule of forty-six years was marked
by progress in many directions. Much rebuild-
ing went on in the monastery, and on the
manors belonging to it.' A Wednesday market
in the manor of Wellingborough was obtained
from John in 1201.^

Costly ornaments, books, and vestments were
provided for the church. In 1 1 96 the body of
St. Guthlac was again translated.^ Learning
and literature flourished. One of the monks, by
name William of Ramsey,^" dedicated to Abbot
Henry a life of St. Guthlac in hexameters, a
metrical life of St. Neot,^-' and an account in prose
of the translation of St. Neot, which took place in
1213. When the bones of St. Waltheofwere
translated in 1 2 1 9, William compiled a ' Vita
Waltheofi.' In 1199 Edward, a monk of Eves-
ham, compiled at Crowland a life of Thomas,
archbishop of Canterbury,^^ and about 1 2 13
Roger of Crowland added to this compilation by
interspersing the archbishop's letters.^^ A copy
of his work was sent by the abbot to Stephen
Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, at the time
of the translation of St. Thomas, in 1220.^^* Yet
no continuous history of the monastery, or of
national affairs, seems to have been written at
Crowland, so that when the prior compiled his
work in the middle of the fifteenth century he
complained that only a few facts had been com-
mitted to writing, 'and not in any direct
historical order, but only as anything new took
place at intervening periods.' ^^

Abbot Henry was the last monk chosen from
another house, and the right of free election,

' Hist. Croyl. Cont. 475-6 ; Wrest Park MS. 6,

" Memoriak fratris Walteri de Coventria (Rolls Ser.),
ii, 232.

' Hist. Croyl. Cont. 477.

« Chart R. 35 Edw. I, m. 4.

' Hist. Croyl. Cont. 463.

*° Neues Archiv. xviii, 251 ; T. D. Hardy, Descriptive
Catalog of Materials (Rolls Ser.), i. No. 926.

" iieues Archiv. xviii, 252 ; Hardy, i. No. 523.

'* T. D. Hardy, Descriptive Catalogue of Materials
(Rolls Ser.), ii, 342.

" Ibid. 344.

" Hist. Croyl. Cont. 474. " Ibid. 545.

108

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

subject to the king's confirmation, was obtained
either from Henry III or Edward I. As in
other Benedictine houses, the congi (Telire was
granted by the king on the news of an abbot's
death. When the monks' choice was made, it
was then notified to him for his assent, and he
signified it to the bishop of Lincoln.^ At the
same time he sent a mandate to the escheators
to restore the temporalities which fell into the
king's hands during the vacancy. At the instal-
lation of the abbot, the chapter of Lincoln
claimed his cope, and in the fifteenth century one
not worth more than five marks was thought
good enough for the occasion.^ The archdeacon
of Lincoln claimed a palfrey or five marks, but
in 1248 the house secured an exemption from
Innocent IV.^ In the fifteenth century the earl
marshal had established his right to a palfrey,
and the king to a corrody of 40J. a year for a clerk,
until a benefice was found for him.*

The house prospered greatly under the three
abbots who ruled it from 1236 to 1280. Its
property was developed, Aswyk and Dowdike
were enclosed and reclaimed from the marsh, the
manors were well stocked and profitable.^ The
right of holding a market and fair in the manor
of Whaplode was obtained in 1255,^ a market
and fair in Baston,' and a market at Crowland
in 1257.* ^'^ 1253 rights of free warren were
granted in ten manors.' A manor in Gedney
was first leased and then purchased from Walter
of Thurkelby in 1262,^" and in spite of the
efforts of his widow and heirs and of the chief
lord to oust the abbot, after two costly lawsuits
he was left in peaceful possession in 1268.^^
Another manor in Gedney was leased for thirteen
years for 320 marks down, and then granted to
the monastery by Henry of Stanhow in 1270.^^
In 1267 the church of Whaplode was appropri-
ated,^^ and, in consideration of the help given by
Richard, bishop of Lincoln, the abbot and con-
vent granted him their patronage in the church
of Sutton." In 1276 Simon de Lindone granted

' e.g. Cal. Pat. 8 Edw. I, m. 5, m. 3 ; 5 Hen. VI,
pt. ii, m. 16, 19.

" Hist. Cray I. Cent. 513.

' Wrest Park MS. 6, fol. 52.

* Hist. Croyl. Cent. 513. ' Ibid. 479.

* A market on Saturday, a fair for eight days,
beginning on the vigil of the Assumption of the
Virgin. Chart. R. 39 Hen. Ill, m. 3.

' A market on Thursday, a fair for five days,
beginning on the vigil of the Nativity of St. John the
Baptist. Chart. R. 41 Hen. Ill, m I.

* A market on Wednesday. Chart. R. 41 Hen. Ill,
m. I.

° Crowland, Langtoft, Tetford, Baston, Burthorp,
Whaplode, Holbeach, Dowdike, Bucknall, and
Halington, co. Line. Chart. R. 35 Edw. I, m. 4.

'» Hist. Croyl. Cent. 480. Wrest Park, M.S. 6, fol.
116 v. 117.

" Wrest Park MS. 6, fol. 1 1 7 s-. 1 1 8.

" Ibid 1191', 120.

"Ibid. 80, 80 1'. "Ibid. i94f.

the advowson of the church of Eston,^' which his
father had successfully disputed with the
monastery in 1249." The house was involved
in several important lawsuits in defence of its
rights. The abbey of Peterborough was worsted
in 1247,^' and ^g^'" '" 1268." In 1278 the
prior of Spalding failed to prove his claim to 100
acres of wood and 1,760 of marsh in Weston,
Moulton, and Spalding,^' and Thomas of Moulton
to 20 acres of wood, 190 acres of marsh in
Weston, and 90 in Moulton.^" Yet, in spite of
the immense cost of so much litigation, and the
heavy exactions of both crown and papacy in the
reign of Henry III, the abbots seem to have
kept the house clear of debt. Abbot Thomas
Welles journeyed to the papal curia,^^ and found
Innocent IV at Lyons. From him he obtained,
doubtless at great cost, several bulls, one of pro-
tection and general confirmation of the possessions
ofCrowland,^^ two others securing the house against
the exactions of archdeacons on their visitation of
the churches appropriated to it,^' others protecting
the house from the obligation of appointing nomi-
nees to benefices.^* There is no record in the
chronicles or elsewhere of financial difficulties, such
as occurred in many other monasteries in the thir-
teenth century. Building went on. The farmery
was the work of Richard Bardney,^^ the central
tower and the chapel of St. Martin were built
under Ralph de Mersh, and the serious damage
done to the west front and nave in a great gale
was repaired.^^ Internal dissensions are not
recorded. In the division of property between
the abbot and convent, which, as in other Bene-
dictine houses, probably took place soon after the
Norman Conquest,^' the abbots seem to have
received a very large share. In the thirteenth
century they were generous in their dealings
with the convent, the revenues of the obedientiaries
were increased by Richard Bardney,^** and again
by Thomas Welles,^' the manor of Dowdike was
assigned by Thomas to the pittancer to provide milk
for supper in the summer and tunics every year.^"

" Wrest Park MS. 6, fol. 208.

'= Ibid. 208, 208 !>.

" Hist. Croyl. Cont. 477.

" Wrest Park MS. 6, fol. 40.

" Ibid. 37.

>»Ibid. 38.

" Hist. Croyl. Cont. 479. He is said to have been
taken prisoner in Italy, but there is apparently some
confusion in the mind of the writer, as Innocent IV
was at Lyons from 2 Dec. 1244 until 1253. In the
lives of the abbots, Bihl. Topog. iii, 140, he is only
said to have been taken prisoner on his way to the
papal curia.

^» Wrest Park MS. 6, fol. 51.

*' Ibid. 52 V. « Ibid. 53.

" Bibl. Topog. iii, 140. =« Ibid.

" e.g. the church of Wellingborough was appropri-
ated to the office of the sacrist between 1 1 2 3 and
1 148. Wrest Park MS. 6, fol. 222.

** Hist. Croyl. Cont. 479.

'' Ibid. '0 Ibid.

109

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

They were revered by their monks as men of
holy life, who cared no less for the spiritual wel-
fare of the house than for its temporal interests.
Abbot Thomas was a stern ascetic and a great
preacher who was heard by the people on feast
days as well as by the monks in chapter. ■*■ Such
was his reputation that miracles were said to have
been worked at his tomb.^ Ralph de Mersh was
called the good : ' He was, duteous to God and
scrupulously careful in the observance of religion,
bountiful and generous to the world, faithful and
cheerful to all, and blameless in his life.' ^

Richard of Crowland was elected in 1280.
At a vast outlay and expense he began the new
work of the quire, and built the manor house of
Dowdike, and the halls of Langtoft, Welling-
borough, and Morborne.^ In the Quo Warranto
trials in 1 28 1, he successfully defended those
claims and rights of the monastery which were
in question.* In 1294 he was called upon to
defend the rights of Crowland to the advowson
of Whaplode,* and he gave 40 marks to Robert
de Hakebeth for his quitclaim.' Only four
years earlier the revenues from the church had
been recovered on the death of a papal nominee
who drew 80 marks a year from it.* The abbot
and convent had apparently seized the occasion
to diminish the vicar's portion from 60 marks at
which it was fixed in 1268 ' to £10^'^ thus in-
creasing the revenues of the rectory which accrued
to them tOj^73 6i. id}'^ In 1291 the temporali-
ties were assessed at ;/^423 7^.,'^ and the house
drew over £,2^0 from its spiritualities,^^ and at
the beginning of the fourteenth century was
selling on an average as much as 30 sacks of
wool each year at the rate of 12 marks a sack.^*
In 1299" and again in 1300,^^ for fines paid to
the exchequer, licence was granted to the abbot
and convent to acquire more property in mort-
main. The abbot was summoned to attend the
great Parliament of 1295, and although it was
shown in 1322,^' and again in 1341,^" that the

> Hist. Croyl. Cont. 479. * Ibid. 480.

'Ibid. * Ibid. 481.

* Placita de Quo Warranto (Rec. Com.), 103.
« Wrest Park MS. 6, fol. 78. ' Ibid. 79.

° Cat Papal Letters, i, 515.
' Wrest Park MS. 6, fol. 80 v.

'" Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 62b.

" Ibid. " Ibid. 665, &c.

" Ibid. 623, &c. ; Wrest Park MS. 6, fol. 54.

" W. Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and
Commerce, ed. 1905, 640.

'° For a fine of 10 marks, 3 roods of land in Wig-
toft and the advowson of the church there. Cal. Pat.
28 Edw. I, m. 23.

'^ By Reginald de Celer of 2 messuages, 23 acres of
land and 10 acres of meadow in Crowland, Langtoft
and Baston ; by John Wygan of 5 acres in Langtoft ;
by Robert Foulman of 6 acres in Holbeach ; by John
and Alice Milys of 3^ acres in Whaplode ; by Stephen
Walren of 2 acres of land in Whaplode. Cal. Pat.
20 Edw. I, m. 26.

" Madox, Hist, of the Exch. \, 531.

" Cal. Pat. IS Edw. Ill, iii, m. 12.

abbots of Crowland did not hold their lands by
barony, their successors continued to receive
regular summons."

Early in November, 1303, the abbot resigned,^"
and on the 1 3th for a fine of 40 marks Edward I
granted the custody of the abbey during the
vacancy to the prior and convent,^^ thus protecting
it from the escheators. However, it was a grant
limited to a particular case, and at the next va-
cancy the crown again entered into possession.

For twenty years the monastery was under the
rule of Simon of Luffenham. In 1307 for a fine
of £20 he obtained from Edward I a very im-
portant confirmation of a number of charters
affecting the rights and property of the monastery.^-
He attended the general council at Vienne in
1311,^' and was again abroad in 1314.^* Before
1 3 1 5 the house was visited by an epidemic disease
of which thirteen monks died in fifteen days.^*
In 1324 Simon was deposed by Henry Burg-
hersh, bishop of Lincoln, because he had favoured
his kinsfolk at the expense of the house.^' During
the vacancy ^' there were in the monastery forty-
one monks, of whom three were novices, fifteen
persons who held corrodies, five of them being
clerks, and only thirty-six servants, a comparatively
small number in a great Benedictine house.

After the election of Henry of Casewick, a
petition was sent to Edward II that an allow-
ance might be made out of the profits drawn
for the crown by the escheators for the main-
tenance of the monks, the holders of corrodies,
and the servants, their clothes, shoes, linen, and
necessaries, and for the lights in the church.^'
Accordingly the king directed the treasurer and
barons of the exchequer to search the rolls and
find out what allowance was usually made during
a vacancy at Crowland. They reported that
they had found two vacancies and none what-
ever was made. The king held that a charge
for maintenance was reasonable, and ordered an
inquisition to be made into the numbers in the
house during the vacancy. As the result of an
inquisition held at Stamford on 19 March, 1328,
6^. a day was allowed for the prior, 3^. for each
monk and holder of a corrody, id. for each ser-
vant. The clear weekly profit to the crown
was ;^8 I J. iid.^'^ over £'] being charged for
maintenance.

Henry of Casewick was an able and vigorous
ruler. In 1 327, by an important act of the chapter,

" Mon. viii, app. 1635.

^^ Cal. Pat. 32 Edw. I, m. 29.

" Ibid. 3 1 Edw. I, m. 7.

"Chart. R. 35 Edw. I, m. 4.

"^ Cal. Pat. 5 Edw. II, i, m. 18.

" Ibid. 8 Edw. II, i, m. 22.

'^ Chronicon Abbatiae Rameseiensis (Rolls Ser.),
app. 397. 'Litera a domino Simone abbate Crulon-
diae pro morte confratrum suorum Ramesiae directa.'
He wrote when the plague was raging, asking for
prayers, so the mortality may have been still greater.

« Bibl. Topog. iii, 141. >' Mon. ii, 121.

"' Hist. Croyl. Cont. 482. »' Ibid.

110

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

the master of the works was relieved of the charge
of keeping the abbot's buildings in repair, his obli-
gations were strictly defined,^ and the endowment
of his office was increased by the abbot.^ In
pursuit of a policy of further expansion, in 1327,
for a fine of ;^20, a licence was obtained to
acquire lands and rents not held in chief to the
value of j^20.' In 1334 licence was acquired to
appropriate the church of Drayton,* but it was
not acted upon.

The monastery was again involved in a number
of lawsuits. In 1 332 Abbot Henry sued the prior
of Durham for ;^io8, the arrears of a rent of
9 marks which in 1307 was guaranteed to the
convent of Crowland for giving up their rights
in the town and church of Ederton.^ The prior
of Durham pleaded that, as the agreement was
made at Stirling, it was illegal, but the abbot
recovered the annuity, 27 marks of arrears, and
^10 for damages. On several occasions he had
to contend against the hereditary foes of the
monastery. In 1 329 ^ he complained to the crown
that the prior of Spalding, with the men of Spald-
ing and Moulton, cut to pieces beams which were
placed to strengthen the dikes which prevented
the abbey from being submerged and washed
away. They destroyed the dikes and the arable
land was flooded. They extorted tolls and cus-
toms from persons coming to Crowland fair, and
assaulted the officers appointed by the abbot to
collect tolls and profits in his manors of Spalding,
Holbeach, Whaplode, and Sutton. In 1332'
Thomas Wake of Liddell and the men of East
and West Deeping and Barholm prevented the
bailiffs from holding the fair, which at that time
lasted for seventeen days, and from collecting
tolls and other dues, and hindered merchants from
attending. The abbot complained also that they
had mowed the rushes on his meadows at Lang-
toft, Baston, Pinchbeck, and Spalding, and carried
them away as well as his turves and hay. At
Baston they had broken into his close and house,
driven away 10 horses, chased 40 horses, 120
oxen, 300 cows, and 3,000 sheep from several
of his manors to West Deeping. There they
impounded them until he paid fines to the amount
of j^500 for their release. But in 1332 Thomas
Wake had a countercharge against the abbot.*
With seven of his monks and many other men
he rescued some beasts which Thomas Wake had
lawfully impounded, carried away his goods at
East Deeping, seized six boats on the Welland
at Crowland and assaulted his servants. At the
Parliament which met at Westminster early in
1332, Edward III inhibited both parties from
injuring each other. On 22 July he issued a

' Bibl. Topog. iii, 73. ^

' Cal. Fat. I Edw. Ill, iii, m. 15.

' Ibid. 8 Edw. Ill, i, m. 7.

' Bibl. Topog. iii, 78.

" Cal. Pat. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 3 d.

' Ibid. 6 Edw. Ill, ii, m. 34 d.

' Ibid. pt. i, m. 7 d.

Ibid. 74.

commission of oyer and terminer, because there
were at that time in the parts of Holland assem-
blies of armed men of the abbot of Crowland
and the prior of Spalding, Ebulo Lestrange and
Thomas Wake.'

The maintenance of causeways, bridges, and
dikes in the marshes had long been a source of strife.
In a petition to Parliament in 1335, the men of
Hollandand Kesteven stated thatthe ways between
Crowland and Spalding were in a very dangerous
state, and that this could be remedied if the abbot
of Crowland would make a causeway on his soil
between Crowland and a manor of his called
the Brotherhouse, on the understanding that he
and his successors should take tolls for its con-
struction and maintenance.^" Negotiations with
the abbot followed," but with no result.^^ As
dikes to protect the lands of one owner hindered
the flow of water into the fisheries of another,
quarrels were inevitable. The abbot of Crow-
land firmly maintained his rights. Thomas Wake
again attempted to rob him of profit in his marshes
by making a dike for the convenience of the men
of Deeping. In 1342 it was destroyed by the
abbot accompanied by four of his monks and a
number of his men.^^ The people of Spalding
were no more successful in 1349. They built
a causeway on the abbot's land, so that the waters
overflowed his marsh of Goggisland, and the abbey
and town were ' in danger of drowning.' The
abbot gave orders that the causeway should be
broken down in several places, and was after-
wards discharged by the jury before the sheriff of
Lincoln on that count." At the same inquisition
he also proved that he was in no way bound to
maintain a causeway between Crowland and
Brotherhouse.

In 1 344 the monastery was in serious financial
difficulties. Owing to raids on the manors and
granges by men who carried off goods and drove
away animals and cattle to places unknown, it
was so much impoverished that the abbot and
convent could not pay their creditors or provide
for their own maintenance." Accordingly
Edward III took the abbey and its possessions
into his special protection, and committed the
custody during his pleasure to John Stratford,
archbishop of Canterbury, and William de Bohun,
earl of Northampton, to apply the issues and
profits, saving reasonable sustenance for the
abbot and convent and their servants, in dis-
charge of the debts and relief of the estate of the
house, by view, aid, and counsel of the abbot
and more experienced monks.

' Cal Pat. 6 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 23 d.

" Ibid. 10 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 8.

" Ibid. 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 8 d.

'* Dugdale, Hist, of Imbanking and Draining (ed.
1772), p. 214.

'^ Cal Pat. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 34 a'.

" Dugdale, Rist. of Imbanking and Draining (ed.
1772), p. 214.

'' Cal. Pat. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 26.

Ill

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

The abbot made a vigorous effort to prevent
encroachments of the crown. In 1338 he bar-
gained with Edward III, on condition of granting
a corrody to his yeoman, John of Ashmeresbroke,
that on his death the monastery should be in no
way bound to receive another royal nominee.^
He urged that the lands of the house were held
in free alms, and were therefore exempt from
any such service to the crown. His contention
was true, and in 1346 he only owed service for
two knights' fees in Langtoft,^ and with others for
one-third of a fee in Gedney besides one-tenth of
a fee in Witham. In 1284-5 the abbot held the
vill and site of Crowland in free alms, he also
held with others the vill of Gedney, and 4 caru-
cates of land in Holbeach and Whaplode, i caru-
cate in Pinchbeck, and 2 carucates in Spalding.
In 1303 he held three fees in Langtoft, and one-
third with others in Gedney. In 1428 he held
three-quarters of a fee in Bucknall.

There is no record of the visitation of the
Black Death at Crowland, and the effects do not
appear to have been particularly serious either on
the temporal prosperity of the house or in perma-
nently diminishing the numbers of the monks. It
is true that the numbers had fallen from forty-
one ' in 1324 to about twenty-seven under Abbot
Ashby,^ but in 1445 there were again about
forty-one.^

When Henry of Casewick died in 1358 the
prior and convent made a fine of 100 marks to
have the custody of the monastery during that
vacancy." Little is known of the welfare of the
convent during the twenty years of Thomas of
Barnack's rule, but he is said to have triumphed
over his enemies.'

Although there were serious disturbances in
several of the eastern counties in 1 38 1 and the
following years, discontent among the bondsmen
of Crowland is only recorded in the manor of
Wellingborough in Northamptonshire. In 1383
they besieged the abbot and his servants in the
manor house and threatened to burn it.*

Under the three abbots who ruled from 1 3 7 8 to
1427, Crowland was engaged in another succes-
sion of lawsuits about its possessions in the marshes.
In 1389 the commons of Holland and Kesteven
again petitioned for a division between their

^ Cal. Pat. 12 Edw. Ill, ii, m. 33. Abbot Ralph
had a similar struggle with Henry III in 1268, and
John Delebuche was then admitted on condition that
another corrody should not be demanded by the crown
on his death. Wrest Park MS. 6, fol. 30 f. Neverthe-
less Edward II had sent Peter le Saucerto the monastery.

^ Feudal Aids, iii, 213.

' Mon. ii, 121. The numbers may have been
greater before the epidemic which visited the house
between 1304 and 1315. cf. p. no.

*■ Hist. Croyl. Cont. 498.

* Line. Alnwick's Visitations of Monasteries, 64 d.
' MS. Cole xliv (B.M.), 45.

' Bii/. Topog. iii, 141.

* Cal. Pat. 7 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 8 d.

marshes.^ Accordingly a commission was ap-
pointed to make inquiry that stone crosses or
posts might be set up to mark the boundaries.
The result was that new crosses were erected at
Kenulfston, Wode-lode-Graynes,and other places.
Nevertheless the king's half-brother, Thomas
Holland, earl of Kent, and his servants, committed
a number of outrages. They drove away cattle
from the manor of Langtoft, fished in the Wel-
land from Kenulfston to Brotherhouse, destroyed
the fishing-nets of the monastery, beat the abbot's
servants at Deeping Market and threw them from
their boats into the water. In 1390 and again
in 1 39 1 the abbot presented complaints in Parlia-
ment against the earl, and the earl made counter-
charges ; but John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster,
took up the abbot's cause very warmly. The
abbot and the earl were several times cited before
the council, but though the abbot always appeared,
the earl failed to present himself on every occasion.
He chose a steward of Deeping who was guilty
of further outrages in 1392. In the autumn the
abbot again complained in Parliament. John of
Gaunt exerted all his influence, and peace at
length prevailed for a short time. At Whitsun-
tide, 1394, the men of Deeping invaded the
marsh in arms, and destroyed the cross at Kenulf-
ston.^" Abbot Thomas of Overton hastened to
London to lay his grievance before the king, and,
largely owing to the support of John of Gaunt,
a grand assize was held to investigate the matter.
Many of the men of Deeping were seized and
taken in chains to Lincoln Castle, where they
remained till their friends and neighbours had set
up another cross at Kenulfston.

In 1413 Abbot Thomas was stricken with
blindness, and the monks had no longer a power-
ful protector like John of Gaunt. The men
of Holland saw a chance of trespassing with
impunity .^^ Armed men from the vills of Moulton
and Weston occupied an island called ' Le
Purceynt ' within the bounds of the abbey for
nearly a year. They fished, fowled, plundered
the nets and everything they could find, and
burnt the fishing-house at Sandistowe to the
ground. Men from Spalding fished in the Wel-
land as far as Crowland, dug turves in the marsh
of Goggisland, cut sedges and bulrushes, and
prevented the entry of the tenants of Crowland.
The abbot had wished to resign on account of
his blindness, but the monks prevailed on him
to continue in office. With the consent of
Repingdon, bishop of Lincoln, the management
of the afl&irs of the house was deputed to the
prior, Richard Upton. He was a man of con-
siderable experience, and had formerly been prior
of the cell of Freiston for ten years.^^ He also
bore a reputation for learning, and had taken the
degree of bachelor of divinity at Cambridge.

' Hist. Croyl. Con. 483-91.
'" Ibid. 492-3.
" Ibid. 501.

" Ibid.

112

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

He firmly determined to end the disputes about
the marsh, and gained his purpose by the pro-
duction of the forged charters and other docu-
ments, which were used for the first time as
evidence in a lawsuit.^ His first step was to
excommunicate all persons who infringed the
liberties of the church of St. Guthlac, plundered
its property, or invaded its possessions.' The
sentence was pronounced with the leave of the
bishop of Lincoln, in virtue of a privilege which
was then said to have been granted by Dunstan,
archbishop of Canterbury, but which had never
been mentioned or used on any previous occa-
sion. Afterwards, in the words of the chronicler,
' he manfully girded up his loins as though about
to fight against beasts,' and hastened to London
to prosecute the men of Spalding, of Moulton,
and Weston, taking with him the charters of
Ethelbald, Edred, and Edgar. The charters of
Ethelbald and Edred were inspected and con-
firmed in 1393,' and again in 1399,^ but they
had not been ofScially recognized by any pre-
vious kings. It must be concluded that these
and other Saxon charters were forged soon after
the middle of the fourteenth century.' The
writers showed ignorance of the language of an
old English diploma and of the history of the
rights which were claimed,* but their ignorance
was shared by all who afterwards accepted them.
About the same time, before 1360, the history
of Crowland was compiled and ascribed, with a
stroke of genius, to Ingulf, the first Norman
abbot.' The object of the writer seems to have
been to provide a setting for the Saxon charters,
and a defence of the rights of the monastery.
With vivid imagination and keen insight he
wrote a delightful story, weaving into it tradi-
tions which at that time may well have gained
acceptance as history among the monks of Crow-
land.* Another monk about the same time
compiled a continuation of the history to 1135,
which purported to be written by Peter of Blois
at the request of Abbot Henry Longchamp.^ It
is only extant to 11 17. It may well have been
based on materials then at Crowland, which
have now disappeared, but it contains a full share
of amusing fiction.

The suits dragged on for nearly two years,
and the expenses exceeded ;^500. The prior

' AVa« Archiv. xviii, 255-7.

* Hist. Croyl. Cont. 502-12.
' Cal. Pat. 17 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 21.

* Ibid. I Hen. IV, ii, m. 7, 8.
' It is noteworthy that they do not occur in the

chartulary (Wrest Park MS. 6), which from an entry
on fol. 232'. seems to have been compiled c. 1366.
However, on fol. ziv. a list of the Saxon kings, to
whom the forged charters contained in Ingulfs History
were attributed, has been added in a later hand.

* Neues Archiv. xviii, 255-7.
' Ibid, xviii, 257-62.
' Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores (ed. W. Fulman), i,

1-107.

' Ibid, i, 108-32.

fell sick in London from vexation and despair.-""
His counsel was a skilled lawyer named William
Ludington. According to the story current at
Crowland St. Guthlac appeared one night to
Ludington with cheering promises of success.
The next day he succeeded in agreeing with the
counsel for the other parties to submit the ques-
tion to arbitration. Two arbitrators were chosen
on behalf of the abbot and convent of Crowland,
and two for the men of Moulton and Weston,
and William Ludington and John Cockayne,
both justices of the common pleas, acted with
them. After an examination of the evidence
and muniments at Crowland, they gave their
award early in September, 141 5- The island
called ' Le Purceynt ' was adjudged to be within
the bounds of Crowland, and the men of Moulton
and Weston were excluded from common of
pasture, piscary, or turbary therein. They were
condemned to rebuild the fishing-house at Sandi-
stowe before I November, to pay 40 marks to
the abbot and convent for damages, and to
enter into recognizances to pay ^^200 before
25 December. The award of the arbitrators in
the suit against the men of Spalding and Pinch-
beck on 30 October, 1 41 5, was equally favour-
able, and the rights of the abbot and convent in
the marsh of Goggisland were strictly safe-
guarded.

In spite of serious damages to property and
the heavy cost of the lawsuits, there was much
activity in other directions. Abbot Thomas
bought the fee of Shelton in the manor of
Gedney about 1398,^^ and also part of a knight's
fee in Baston called the fee of Beaumont,^^ and
thus added 36 marks to the rental of the house.
He obtained from Henry IV a charter granting
the custody of the monastery to the prior and
convent in each successive vacancy on condition
of a payment of ;^20, and thus excluded the
escheators, who, in the words of the chronicler,
' raged like lions, committed waste in the manors,,
and made heavy exactions.' ^'

Abbot John had the great bells of the church
recast, and provided vestments, thuribles, and
other ornaments." Abbot Thomas repaired the
bells in the central tower and built a new brew=
house and bakehouse." The finances of the
monastery were so flourishing that several of the
obedientiaries were able to expend their surplus
revenues and gifts from their friends on further
benefactions." Laurence Chateres, the kitchener,
found ^^40 for the building of the west, side of
the cloister, ^20 towards building a farmhouse
on the manor of Dowdike, £26 for a set of
black vestments, and ^40 to provide milk of
almonds on the days when only fish was eaten.

'" Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores (ed. W. Fulman), i,
502-12.
" Ibid. 496 ; Wrest Park MS. 6, fol. 121.
" Ibid. 496. " Ibid.

" Ibid. 492. " Ibid. 4.06.

" Ibid. 497-8.

"3 15

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Ten marks were therefore assigned to the master
ot the works, almoner, pittancer, sacrist, cham-
berlam, and cellarer. Each in turn was bound
to supply three pounds of almonds and good
bread and honey, a pound of almonds sufficing
for each eight or nine monks. William Crow-
land, master of the works, built the western
cloister, the north and south transepts, which he
vaulted and glazed, the reredos of St. Guthlac's
altar, the Lady chapel, and the frater, and he
rebuilt the western part of the nave. Towards
his work he received ;^270 from benefactors
outside the monastery. Simon Eresby gave the
reredos of the altar of St. John the Evangelist,
and two silver-gilt thuribles which cost 40 marks.
Abbot Upton ^ rebuilt the abbot's hall and
the west side of the court leading to the
water-gate. He added many valuable books to
the library. To the vestiary he gave a reliquary
worth 100 marks and some most costly vest-
ments. When John of Freiston was sacrist he
hired workmen to embroider a ' Jesse ' vestment
valued at 300 marks, a blue cope embroidered
with eagles in gold, and some beautiful albs.

Abbot John Litlington was elected in 1427,
and ruled the monastery for forty-three years.
The question of the liability to repair embank-
ments again became very prominent. There
was already friction with the people of Moulton
when a priest of that vill met the receiver of
Crowland going along an embankment belonging
to Moulton.^ After violently abusing him he
threw him into the marsh, and as the monk was
an old man he with difficulty escaped alive.
The abbot appealed to William Gray, bishop of
Lincoln, who cited the priest and compelled him
to do public penance on a great festival before
the high altar at Crowland. The people of
Moulton next complained to William Bondvill,
lord of that manor, of the overflow of water
from the precinct of Crowland because the em-
bankments were out of repair ; in consequence
their meadows and pastures were so swamped
that they could not pay their rents.' Bondvill
impleaded the abbot for the damage to himself
and his tenants. Abbot John hastened to London
to defend himself, and after a great outlay of
money on both sides the matter was referred to
Crowland for a final settlement in 1433. The
award was that the abbot should rebuild the
embankment between Brotherhouse and Whap-
lodesdike and keep it in repair for forty years,
but if the rainfall was very excessive he was not
to be held responsible for any overflow.^ In
1439 there were heavy storms, and the water
overflowed the embankment on the south side
of the precinct, which happened to be out of
repair, and inundated the common lands of
Whaplode. Accordingly the abbot was pre-
sented for default before the commissioners of

' Rerum Jnglicarum Serif tores (ed. W. Fulman), i,
514-15. ' Ibid. 516.

' Ibid. 516-17. * Ibid. 517.

114

sewers, who pronounced that he was bound t^

repair the embankments." With great ettort

the abbot succeeded in getting the judgemen

reversed. At an inquisition held at Bolingbroke

before the sherifiF of Lincoln, the jurors swor

that the abbots of Crowland, their men an

tenants, had never repaired the embankment!

' either for the safety of the lands adjoining, 0

for the purpose of keeping out the water runnin

between the embankment or for the easement c

the people ... or any one of them, nor ough

of right to repair the same . . . but only fo

their own easement, advantage, and profit, a

their own will and pleasure.' ^

In 1433, *°°> '" sP't^ °f the award of 14 15
the people of Spalding again trespassed in th
marsh of Goggisland.' With some difficulty th
abbot brought them to justice, and recovere
£^0 for damages and ;^io for costs. A fev
years later there were serious quarrels with th
lord of Deeping, John earl of Somerset.* Anothe
very expensive suit was against Thomas Dacrc
lord of Holbeach, who encroached on the abbot'
manorial rights in Whaplode.^ By consent c
both parties the question was transferred fror
the grand assize at Lincoln to the arbitration c
the bishop, William Alnwick, and on 2 Septem
ber, 1448, Dacre's rights were restricted to th
punishment of his own few tenants in Whaplode.
In the lapse of years the boundaries of th
marsh of Alderland had disappeared, and th
abbot of Crowland, anxious to avoid strife wit
the abbot of Peterborough, proposed an arbitra
tion." However, the arbitrators met seven
times without coming to any conclusion, and th
abbots failed to agree. After the payment c
large fees and further heavy expenses the mattf
was left unsettled in 1448.

In 1446 Litlington won a suit in the Coui
of Arches against the vicar of Whaplode, wh
had tried to make the abbot liable for the repa
of desks and stalls in the chancel." About 145
he successfully defended his rights as lord of th
manor of Baston."

Crowland escaped injury during the Wars <
the Roses. Henry VI visited the monastery i
Lent, 1460, and granted a charter confirmin
the liberties of the vill of Crowland." In 146
the approach of the Lancastrian army, whic
had marched from the north pillaging churchi
and committing sacrilege, filled the country wit
terror." Many refugees came with their vah
ables to Crowland. Vestments, jewels, treasure
charters, and muniments of the monastery, wei
hidden away. There were daily processions ar

' Rerum AngRcarum Scrijitores (ed. W. Fulman),
519- ° Ibid. 520.

' Ibid. 517. « Ibid. 518-19.

' Ibid. 521. '» Mon. ii, 122.

" Hist. Croyl. Cont. 525-6.

" Ibid. 521. " Ibid.

" Ibid. 530 ; Mon. ii, 123.

" Hist. Croyl. Cont. 531.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

prayers for protection. The approaches were
guarded by stakes and palisades. Hearing of
Edward's march northwards, the army turned
back when within six miles of Crowland.

In the Parliament of 146 1 all charters of
privilege granted by the Lancastrian kings were
cancelled. Accordingly, Abbot John obtained
in 1466 for 40 marks a confirmation of the
right of custody during a vacancy, and also a
further confirmation of charters of the monastery.^

The prior, writing soon after his death, judged
that ' in his time the observance of the monastic
rule flourished to such a degree that it might not
unworthily have been called a very castle of the
Gospel, and one worthy to be entered by our
Lord Jesus, and where mystically the sisters
Mary and Martha had together taken up their
abode. For while one part of the officers was
diligently intent upon the careful performance
of their respective duties, the others, bestowing
all due attention upon the service of God, were
occupying themselves in the quiet pursuits of
contemplation amid the mystic embraces of
Rachel.'* Visitations of the bishops of Lincoln
on the whole suggest a high standard of life.
In 1 43 1 Bishop Gray' enjoined that the rule of
silence should be kept, and those who indulged
in taunts and reproaches were to be punished.
The prior and other officers were bidden to be
affable, modest, discreet, and intelligent in ad-
ministering correction, and officers who made
themselves hateful were to be removed. The
sacrist was ordered to repair the buildings of his
office, ' lately very ruinous,' especially the house
provided as a dwelling for the parish chaplain.
The kitchener was to supply the monks with
healthy and sufficient food in such quantities
that there might be plenty for them and for
alms afterwards. The almoner was to distribute
the fragments among the poor, not to his own
servants. The pittancer was to provide a ser-
vant to cater for the monks who were at Dove-
dale to be bled. The master of the works and
the sacrist were to provide horses for monks who
went to visit their kinsfolk or to receive holy
orders from the bishop, and the abbot was to find
servants for them. The barber was to be provided
at the common expense. The monks were to
get their allowance for clothes and spices at the
right time. Their friends and relations were to
be lodged, according to their rank, at the common
expense. Freiston Cell was to be better served
and administered. The abbot was bidden to
make to the chapter a clear annual financial
statement of the position of the house between
29 September and 11 November. He was
warned against granting corrodies, pensions, and
annuities, and against cutting down the woods
of the monastery, without the consent of the

' Hist: Croyl. Com. 534 ; Ca/. Pat. 5 Edw. IV,
pt. i, m. 20.
' Ibid.
' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gray, fol. 128.

convent and the bishop of Lincoln, except for
necessary repairs, and then only with the advice
of three monks. Nine years later, when Aln-
wick * visited the monastery, there were thirty-
six monks who made depositions. The abbot
stated that all his monks were professed except
three novices, and that there were two scholars
at Cambridge. The prior and most of the monks
replied that all was well. The complaints were
that the almoner and master of the works did
not each provide two horses for the monks, that
sick and aged relations of the monks and the
servants of the convent used to be received and
supported at the ' Sisterhouse ' in the office of
the almonry, but the custom had fallen into
disuse, and lastly that the prior of Freiston was
away from his cell.

An important step was taken in 1428 when a
licence was granted to the abbot and convent of
Crowland to appropriate in mortmain two mes-
suages in the parish of St. Giles, Cambridge.' It
was represented to Henry VI that some of the
monks were continuously sent to the university
of Cambridge to study canon law and theology,
but as there was no hostel for the Benedictine
order, they were compelled to lodge with
seculars. A condition of the grant was that
other Benedictine houses should be able to build
rooms for their monks. The site embraced the
principal portion of the present Magdalene
College, and until the Dissolution was known
as Buckingham College.*

Litlington was a great benefactor to the
monastery.' The nave was vaulted and gilded
at his expense, the windows were glazed, and a
gilded reredos and screen were provided for the
high altar. The large organ and the small one
in the choir were his gifts. He gave to the
vestiary nine embroidered copes of cloth of gold
valued at ;^240, a set of red vestments, a pro-
cessional cross, chalice, water-bottles, and cande-
labra of silver gilt ; he erected new buildings in
the court of the monastery, and a number of
tenements in Crowland which he gave to the
convent, and repaired all his manor-houses and
tenements. Shortly before he died he built a
fair hostel for distinguished guests, and had five
new bells cast in London and brought by water
to Crowland at a total cost of j^ 160. There
was much activity too among the obedientiaries,
who expended their revenues on building and
gifts to the sacristy.*

The interest shown at Crowland in the writ-
ing of history at a time when it languished
utterly in other monasteries is very conspicuous.
A monk who at the death of Litlington had
held the office of prior for many years devoted
his moments of leisure to compiling a history of

* Line. Alnwick's Visitation of Monasteries, 64 d.

' Bibl. Topog. iii, 88.

' R. Willis, Arch. Hut. of Cambridge, ii, 351.

' Hist. Croyl. Cont. 535.

Mbid. 536.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

the monastery from the accession of Stephen
until the abbot's death in 1470.^ His sources,
as he explained in the very charming and modest
conclusion of his work, were the scattered annals
of the house, and the charters and deeds, some
even then 'aged and worm-eaten,' which he
found among the muniments. The events of
his own time he read ' more truthfully still in
the book of experience.' He was painfully con-
scious that his style was very inferior to that of
the authors of the earlier history of the house
whom he believed to be Ingulf and Peter of
Blois, and he has suffered from the advantage
which the picturesque writer has always had
over the student whose pen is fettered by his
scrupulous regard for accuracy. He confessed
that he had wished to leave a memorial of his
name that his readers might pray for his soul,
but he forbore of his own accord, for he would
not appear to covet an undue meed of praise.^

A more ambitious monk began to write after
the death of Litlington. His outlook was wider
than the prior's, and he wrote a general history
of his times from 1459 ^° 1486,^ digressing
occasionally to relate what was happening at
Crowland. His work is a valuable authority for
the reign of Edward IV. Another monk con-
tinued his history with the avowed object of
setting an example to those who should come
after him, but unfortunately the manuscript ends
abruptly, and part of his work is lost.'*

The abbacy of John of Wisbech passed with-
out one lawsuit, and the historian commented
' that he enjoyed the singular and especial privi-
lege and piece of good fortune which never fell
to the lot of any of his predecessors.' ^ Like
Litlington he was a great builder within the
abbey and without.^ At Buckingham College
he built chambers for the scholars of Crowland.
He abolished the old custom, ' or rather corrup-
tion,' of giving away knives on St. Bartholomew's
Day to all who asked for them. As there
was a vast concourse of people at the fair, it had
become a very expensive matter. A fire in the
vill of Crowland diminished the rental of the
monastery by twenty marks, but in compassion
for the poor tenants the abbot gave divers sums
of money towards the rebuilding.

Perhaps an unwarranted sense of security,
coupled with an enthusiasm for learning, led the
monks to elect Richard Crowland.' He was a
student and a writer of books, and gave to the
library several manuscripts written at his expense
and by his own hand.* In 1478 he obtained

' His work is the Hist. Croyl. Cont. 451-546. It
•was evidently a complete work, but unfortunately
there are several gaps in the text, {a) from about 1 254
to iz8i, (^) from 1281 to 1327, (c) from 1328 to
1388.

' Hist. Croyl. Cont. 545-6.

' Ibid. 549-81. * Ibid. 581-93.

"Ibid. 553. Mbid. 560.

' Ibid. 560. * Ibid. 569.

two bulls from Sixtus IV. In virtue of the first
the convent was able to farm manors, churches,
and other possessions for ten years without
the leave of the ordinary.' On account of a
lack of monks of the age to take the order of
priest, the other bull allowed them to be or-
dained as soon as they had reached their twenty-
second year.^"

In the opinion of the historian, advantage was
taken ' of the simple innocence and innocent
simplicity ' of the abbot.^^ Three hundred men
of Deeping trespassed in the marsh of Goggi£>-
land, seized the reeds that had been collected by
the men and tenants, and either beat or threw
into the water all the people they met. Em-
boldened by success, they assaulted the vill of
Crowland, and the abbot in turn met them in
the nave of the church to answer their importu-
nate demands. Presumptuous officials of the
manor of Deeping fined the abbot heavily for
cutting the embankments to avoid an inundation
of the parts of Holland, and distrained upon his
grain from Langtoft and Baston. At Whaplode
the tenants and parishioners cut the trees which
grew in the churchyard and attacked Lambert
Fossdyke, the steward of the monistery, who
was compelled to bar himself into the sacristy of
the church.*^

With the prospect of three serious lawsuits, in
January, 1484, the monks elected Lambert Foss-
dyke as successor to Richard Crowland. He
was a bachelor of law, and would have rendered
useful service to the monastery, but within two
years he died of the sweating sickness.^' During
his rule the turbulent men of Moulton and
Weston again claimed rights within the precinct
of Crowland, and laid a complaint against the
monastery.^* The judges who were sent to try
the case found that they had never possessed the
rights of common to which they laid claim.
However, provision was made against the over-
flow of water from the precinct into Holland.
Fossdyke was succeeded by the prior, Edmund
Thorpe, a bachelor of divinity. He sought to
secure and maintain his rights by tact and con-
ciliatory conduct.^' At Moulton he obtained the
support of the family of the Welbys, and their
influence over the inhabitants kept the peace.
He showed much patience in his dealings with
the men of Deeping, who were also restrained
by the Lady Margaret Beaufort, to whom the
manor belonged. The fresh dispute with the
monks of Peterborough about the marsh of
Alderland was settled between 1480 and 1484
by the arbitration of Rotherham, archbishop of
York, greatly to the detriment of Crowland.
The abbot and convent were bound to pay ^^lo
a year to Peterborough until they had purchased

' Wrest Park MS. 6, fol. 56. '" Ibid.

" Hist. Croyl. Cont. 569.

" Ibid. cf. also Bibl. Topog. iii, 95.

" Ibid. 569. " Ibid. 576.

" Ibid. 576.

116

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

lands of that value for the said monastery, or
procured the appropriation of the church of
Brinkhurst.^ Accordingly Abbot Edmund ex-
erted all his influence to obtain the appropriation,
which was finally concluded at the expense of
Crowland in 1486.^

With this settlement the last instalment of
the history of Crowland ends abruptly, and there
is but little to record until the dissolution.

The last abbot, John Wells, or Bridges, ruled
the house from 15 12 until 1538. The visita-
tion of Atwater,' bishop of Lincoln, in 1 5 1 9,
shows that he was very arbitrary and unpopular.
He then kept in his own hands the emoluments
of the cellarer and receiver, so that they were
officers only in name. In consequence the
monks got neither soup nor pudding. Sick
monks who were away with leave could not get
the customary allowance of food and drink.
One very old monk was denied the privileges
which were his due. The bishop ordered the
abbot to make full amends, and also to remove
the janitor who spent much of his time in the
town of Crowland, and sent pilgrims to Walsing-
ham astray.

An anxious desire to appease Cromwell and
Henry VIII appears in the abbot's correspondence
in 1534, 153B, and 1539.* Demands were
made on him for leases and grants which were
beyond his power to satisfy. There is no record
of any discussions among the monks about the
progress of aSairs, and they certainly swallowed
any scruples which they may have had. In
June, 1534, the abbot and thirty-two monks
subscribed to the royal supremacy.' On
25 March, 1537, the abbot sent a present of fen
fish to Cromwell, begging him ' to be good and
favourable lord ' unto him and his poor house.^
Between 1535 and 1539 he granted over thirty
small annuities,' some of them possibly for sums
of ready money with the object of providing for
the future.

On 4 December, 1539,^ Cromwell's com-
missioners arrived at Crowland, and the surrender
was signed by the abbot and twenty-eight monks.
Probably for his compliance John Bridges was
awarded the large pension of ;£i33 6s. 8d., and
the rest of the monks received sums varying
from j^io to ;^5 a year.^

The clear value of the possessions of Crow-
land, including the cell of Freiston, in 1535
amounted to ;£i,093 15^. lo^d}" Of this sum
about ;^i6o was drawn from spiritualities. In
the hands of the crown-bailiffs four years later

' Hist. Croy/. Cent. 576. ' Ibid.

* Line. Atvi-ater's Monastic Visit. 471^. 48.

* L. and P. Hen. VIII, vii, Nos. 272, 338 ; xiv

(I), 54-

' Ibid, vii, 769. ' Ibid, xii (l), 729.

' Bibl. Tofog. iii, 120.

« L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv (2), 631.

' Ibid.

'» Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 85-7.

the property brought in ;^i,434 n^- 42'^-'^ '^^^
rectories belonging to the monastery were Crow-
land, Whaplode, Sutterton, Langtoft, Tetford,
and Baston, in Lincolnshire ; Wellingborough
in Northamptonshire ; Hokington in Cambridge-
shire ; and to the cell of Freiston, Freiston,
Butterwick, Burton Pedwardine, and Claxby in
Lincolnshire ; Stonesby in Leicestershire ; and
South Warnborough in Hampshire. There were
charges on a number of other churches. The
manors were Cottenham, Hokington, Dry
Drayton in Cambridgeshire ; Crowland, Gedney,
Whaplode, Aswyke, Holbeach, Spalding, Dow-
dike, Langtoft, Baston, Manthorpe, Bucknall,
Freiston, and Claxby in Lincolnshire ; Welling-
borough in Northamptonshire ; Morborne in
Huntingdonshire.

Abbots of Crowland ^^

Ulfcytel, 105 1
Ingulf, 1085-6"
Geoffrey, 1 1 1 o "^^
Waltheof, 1 1 24
Godfrey, 1138
Edward, 1142
Robert of Reading, 1 1 75
Henry de Longchamp, 1191
Richard Bardney, 1236
Thomas Welles, 1247
Ralph de Mersh, 1254
Richard Crowland, 1 28 1
Simon of Luffenham, 1303
Henry of Casewick, 1324
Thomas of Barnack, 1358
John of Ashby, 1378"
Thomas of Overton, 1392
Richard Upton, 141 7
John Litlington, 1427
John of Wisbech, 1470
Richard Crowland, 1476
Lambert Fossdyke, 1484
Edmund Thorpe, 1485
Philip Everard, 1497
William Gedding, 1504
Richard Bardney, 1507
John Wells alias Bridges, 15 12

A seal of the date 1392 ^° is in shape a pointed
oval and represents St. Bartholomew on the
right, holding a book, and giving to St. Guthlac
on the left a triple-thonged whip. Between the
two figures there is a bird, one of the emblems of
St. Guthlac, to the right on a bush. Overhead

" Mon. ii, 1 24-6.

" The list of abbots compiled by the editors of the
Monasticon, ii, 96-104, has been checked. References
are only given when a correction is needed.

" Freeman, Norman Conquest, iv, 600 ; Ordericus
Vitalis, Hist. Eccles. (ed. A. le Prevost), ii, 286-7.

" Ordericus Vitalis, Hist. Eccles. (ed. A. le Prevost),
ii, 287.

'' Cal. Pat. 1 Ric. II, pt. v, m. 26.

'« B.M. Cast, Ixvi, 93.

117

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

is a carved canopy ; below the feet of the figures
an arched footboard.^ The legend is —

SIGILL' : COMMUNE : ABBATIS : ET : CONVENTUS
CROYLANDIE

A seal of Abbot Edmund Thorpe is attached
to a deed dated 1487.^ It represents the Virgin
and Child in a canopied niche, with a smaller
niche on each side, now broken away. In base,
under a carved arch, is a half-length figure of
the abbot with pastoral staiF.' The legend is
imperfect.

7. THE CELL OF ST. PEGA

It seems very doubtful whether this was ever
a monastery in the strict sense of the word. St.
Pega, the sister of St. Guthlac, is said to have
occupied a cell somewhere near her brother's
monastery, and the traditional site of her hermi-
tage is in Northamptonshire. But the chronicle
of Ingulf* asserts that her cell was on the east side
of the monastery of Crowland ; and also that
on the rebuilding of the abbey Abbot Turketyl
established in the cell of St. Pega, and to her
honour, a community of learned clerks, who
were to keep the canonical hours day and night,
and to be maintained by the abbey, though they
were not monks. Seculars who wished to em-
brace the regular life at Crowland were sometimes
tested here first. Some years later, however,
when nearly all these clerks had become monks,
Turketyl decided that it would be better not to
have a regular community at St. Pega's, as it
might prove prejudicial to the abbey. He there-
fore withdrew the remaining clerks, and appointed
a single priest to serve the chapel of St. Pega at
the expense of the monastery. There was still
a chapel of St. Pega within the precincts of
Crowland in 1434^; but never again a com-
munity of clerks to serve it.

8. THE ABBEY OF STOW

The monastery of St. Mary, Stow, was
founded early in the eleventh century for secular
clerks ^ ; and its revenues were augmented a little
later by the generosity of Leofric, earl of Mercia,
and his wife Godiva.^ The Eynsham registers
contain a copy of an agreement between Ulf,

' W. de Gray Birch, Cat. of Seals, i, 526.

' Harl. Chart. 44.^, 63.

' W. de Gray Birch, Cat. of Seals, i, 527.

* Rerum Angl. Script, (ed. Gale), fol. 40.

'.Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gray, 128.

' The founder was evidendy one of the bishops of
Dorchester ; if the suggested date, 1 040, be correct it
would have been Eadnoth III. Henry of Huntingdon
and Roger of Howden assign the foundation to
Leofric and Godiva ; but in their agreement with
Ulf they only undertake to augment the house, and
speak of it as existing ' of old ' before their time ;
Dugdale, Mon. iii, 13.

' Ibid. Charters 1-3.

bishop of Dorchester, and Leofric and his wife,
for the enlargement of the house, and for the
establishment therein of the same services as were
customary in the church of St. Paul, London.
The bishop was, as of old, to have two-thirds of
all offerings made in the monastery, and the
monks to have the third part.* King Edward
the Confessor and Pope Victor confirmed the
gifts of the earl and countess.^

After the Conquest Bishop Remigius found that
the house had been for some time desolate by the
carelessness of its rulers; and in 1091 he deter-
mined to convert it into a Benedictine abbey .^^
It is probable that this arrangement was planned
in the lifetime of the Conqueror and received his
sanction, as the charter of William Rufiis con-
tains a confirmation of his father's gifts.^^ With
the permission of the king, the lands and revenues
of the abbey of Eynsham were annexed to the
new monastery at Stow, on condition that the
abbots should be appointed with his consent, and
all their lands should be held direct from him.^^
Remigius issued a charter in which he ordained
that Columbanus should be the first abbot ; and
handed over the site of the abbey to the monks
' in the hope that Mary, the mother of God, for
the sake of his gifts to her Son, would help him,
who was sore athirst for the water of life, to pass
from hope to open vision ; if he might be found
worthy to behold the King in His beauty.' ^'
Rufus bade the monks to be obedient to
Columbanus as they had been to the bishop ;
he sent another letter to Remigius to sanction the
transference of the Eynsham lands, adding, 'See
that I hear no more outcry, for on this condition
only have I suffered the change of place.' ^*

These arrangements, so carefully made and
confirmed, were not, however, destined to be per-
manent. In 1 109 Henry I issued a new charter,"
at the desire probably of Robert Bloett, Remigius's
successor,^^ for the restoration of the abbey of
Eynsham. The monks of Stow were soon
afterwards transferred thither, and the estates of
their church were annexed to the see of Lincoln.

9. THE PRIORY OF SPALDING

The priory of Spalding it is said was
founded in 105 1, when Thorold of Buckenhale,
sheriff of Lincoln,^' and a special benefactor of

' Dugdale, Af OS. iii, 13, Charters 1-3, and Harl.
MS. 258, fol. 3. " Harl. MS. 258, fol. ib.

'° Dugdale, Mon. iii, 13, Charter 7.

" Bradshaw and Wordsworth, Lincoln Cathedral
Statutes, ii (i), i.

" Harl. MS. 258, fol. 3^. " Ibid. fol. 4.

"Ibid. fol. 5. "Ibid.

" Ibid, and Giraldus Cambrensis, Opera, vii, 195.

" The Chronicle of Abbot John of Peterborough,
though untrustworthy, calls him brother of Countess
Godiva ; Dugdale, Mon. iii, 206. The above story
is doubtful, as Tailbois held Spalding in 1086 and
Thorold was a Norman.

118

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Crowland Abbey, granted the manor of Spalding
to that house for the relief of its necessities.
Sustenance was thus provided for six of the
brethren, and their departure from the parent
abbey lessened for a while the expenses of the
refectory.^ In 1059 ^^^^ Algar moved the
abbot to give the monks of Spalding the little
wooden chapel of St. Mary, and himself bestowed
on them certain lands and rents for their support.^
But in 107 1 Ivo Tailbois, who had been standard-
bearer at Hastings, apparently married the heiress
of Spalding, and came to live in the neighbourhood.
If the chronicle of Crowland may be believed, he
seems to have had his full share of that Norman
arrogance which marred the first days of the
Conquest, and despised the monks of Spalding
because of their Saxon blood. ' By the instigation
of the devil,' says Ingulf, he was roused to such
an extremity of hatred and fury against them
that he did everything he could think of to
annoy and vex them ; and being his near neigh-
bours they were indeed very much at his mercy.
He would lame their cattle, kill their swine, and
browbeat all their tenants and servants in his
manorial courts, until at length, worn out by the
hardships of their position, after vain efforts to
propitiate his servants with gifts, the brethren of
Spalding returned to the mother house, taking
with them all their movable property. For a
good while after this a single monk was sent to
celebrate the divine office and mass at the wooden
chapel of St. Mary, for the sake of the village
folk who worshipped there : but when he was
drowned one day on his way to perform this
duty, in the floods caused by a great storm of
rain, no other was willing to take his place, and
the services ceased. Then Ivo, ' being greatly
overjoyed because the Lord Himself seemed to
be fighting for him against Crowland,' sent to
the abbot of St. Nicholas, Angers, and offered him
the manor of Spalding for the support of a prior
and five monks, promising to have a fair and
sufficient cell prepared for them. The offer was
accepted, and Spalding became a cell of St.
Nicholas.' William I confirmed the charters of
Ivo.^ Countess Lucy, the widow or heiress of
the founder,' renewed the gift in 1 129, and her

' Ingulfs 'Chronicle,' in Rerum Angl. Scriptores,\,6^,
gives this account, with the year 105 1. The charter
of Thorold, quoted p. 72, and in Lans. MS. 207 c.
fol. 126, has this date, but the Chronicle of Abbot
John has 1052.

' From the Chronicle of Abbot John, in Dugdale,
iii, 215.

' For the above, see Ingulfs Chronicle (ed. Gale),
i, 72. The historical value of this chronicle has been
discussed in connexion with the abbey of Crowland :
and it is only necessary to say here that the above
account of events preceding the gift of Spalding manor
to Angers may be partly drawn from the imagination
of the chronicler.

* Add. MS. 35296, fol. 8.

' The ancestry and personality of Countess Lucy,
and her various marriages, present some interesting

charter was in turn confirmed by William de
Romara, her son by another marriage.' The
abbots of Crowland made vain efforts all through
the twelfth century to recover the property;
but the priory was never restored to them. In-
deed, for a while it was rather worse than lost :
the priors of Spalding were their open rivals and
enemies. At the end of the reign of Henry II
the chronicler of Crowland asserts that all the
most powerful men of the wapentake of Elloe,
with the prior of Spalding at their head, marched
into the abbot's enclosures, dug up turf, cut down
woods and alder-beds, and depastured their cattle
on his meadows. A long and tedious suit
followed, as to the marshes on which Crowland
was built, and the influence of William de Ro-
mara and other powerful friends of Spalding was
used against the abbot, and he was threatened
with the loss of the best part of his lands.
Ultimately, however, in 1193, judgement was
given in favour of Crowland.'

The property of the priory increased very
much during the twelfth century. To the
original gifts of Ivo Tailbois, William de Ro-
mara, son of Countess Lucy, and his grandson
after him, with other benefactors, added lands and
churches of considerable value,* and the monks
were soon involved, as a natural consequence, in
many lawsuits. Thomas of Moulton, who had
granted the church of Weston to the monks on
the day of his father's burial,' reclaimed it in
1198,^° while the prior in 1 195 secured the
advowson of the churches of (Gate) Burton and
Lea against Roger de Trihamton.^^ About the
same time the abbot of Peterborough had to

problems, which it is not, however, within the pro-
vince of this paper to unravel. The chartulary of
Spalding last quoted (Add. MS. 35296) supports the
traditional account of her, calling Ivo Tailbois her
first husband, and Wm. de Romara her son (by her
second marriage), and names her as countess of Chester
in her confirmation charter, implying a third marriage
with Ranulf de Meschines. The three marriages are
not chronologically impossible, though of course there
may have been more than one Lucy. Her confirma-
tion of the manor of Spalding to the monks from
St. Nicholas shows that her sympathies were more
with her Norman husbands than her Saxon ancestry.
She was remembered as ' foundress ' of Spalding as
long as the house stood; and in 1534 gifts were still
distributed on her anniversary to thirty poor persons
in the vills of Moulton and Allcborough — ' namely,
3| ells of woollen cloth called " duds" at id. the ell,
with 28/. as the price of 7 quarters of beans called
"pardon beans" ' {Valor Eccles. [Rec. Com.], iv, 97).

= Add. MS. 35296, fol. 9.

' Ingulfs Chronicle (ed. Gale), i, 453 et seq. The
chronicle, however, says Prior Nicholas led the men of
Elloe, which must be a mistaice, as Nicholas was not
prior till after 1 193, unless there was another prior of
the same name earlier.

" Add MS. 5844, fol. 196 </. 220.

Mbid. i()6d. '"Ibid. 197.

" Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Con-
cords, 4.

119

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

resign all claim to the church of Hautberg ^
(Alkborough) ; in 1205 Roger de Lacy quit-
claimed the church of Addlethorpe to the
prior ; ^ the church of Holbeach was lost in
1224.' In 1234 there were new troubles in
connexion with Crowland Abbey. The abbot
complained that the prior took and imparked his
cattle and exceeded his rights in common of
pasture on Crowland marshes. The prior agreed
to offend no more in this respect. The abbot
undertook, however, not to impark the cattle
of the prior or of his men of Spalding and
Pinchbeck in the same marshes.^ In the same
year a baker of Crowland, one of the abbot's
men, was caught selling bread in the market of
Spalding against the prior's assize, and was put
on the tumbrel. The abbot complained that
his liberties were invaded, and that he ought to
have the punishment of his own subjects. It
was agreed finally that if such a thing should
occur again the man should, on the first offence,
be pardoned ; for the second offence, delivered
over to the abbot's bailiff; for the third, he
should undergo the penalty of the tumbrel at
Spalding, and lose for ever the protection of the
abbey.° These disputes between the two houses
continued throughout the thirteenth century ;
in 1283 they could not agree as to their
respective duties in maintaining the bridges,
gutters, dikes, and ditches of Spalding,* and as
late as 1329 the abbot accused the prior of
having cut in pieces the beams placed to
strengthen the dikes which defended the abbey,
and extorted tolls and customs from those who
came to Crowland Fair.^ At last, however, in
1332 a final agreement was made, and the two
monasteries formally entered upon a league of
brotherhood. Henceforward each was to share
the spiritual goods of the other, the divine
office, and all prayers, masses, meditations, vigils,
&c. ; a monk who died in either house was
to have his absolutions and requiem celebrated
in both, and each should strive to reclaim and
reform apostates from the other.*

The priory of Spalding grew in wealth and
importance. In the thirteenth century the priors
claimed lordship in the vills of Weston, Spalding,
Moulton, and Pinchbeck, with wreck of the sea
for three leagues along the coast, free warrens
and fisheries in several places,' and their income

' Harl. MS. 742, fol. 270.

^ Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
61.

' Ibid. 173. Other suits concerned the vill of
Wilton, and the churches of Pinchbeck and Belchford.

• Ibid. 286.

' Ibid. 267.

" Pat. II Edvf. I, m. 22.2'.

'Similar complaints had been made in 1275.
Harl. MS. 7 and 2, fol. 9 </. Ibid, ic Edw. II,
pt. i, m. 29 d.

« Add. MS. 35296, fol. 438 <^.

' Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 271.

in 1294 amounted to ;^5i5 Os. "jd}^ The
monks became more and more desirous to be
free of all subjection to the parent abbey of
St. Nicholas at Angers. The history of their
gradual emancipation is interesting, but can only
be briefly sketched here. The priors had been
at first sent direct from Angers, and were placed
and displaced entirely at the abbot's will ; and
when they were recalled to France they were
wont to carry away with them all the money they
could collect together.^^ In consequence of these
proceedings, the bishop of Lincoln, Hugh of
Wells, and Ralf earl of Chester, as patron of
the house, invited the abbot to a conference, and
explained to him the many disadvantages which
this system produced.^^ An agreement was made
in 1232 that in future the priors of Spalding
should be elected in England and instituted by
the diocesan, so as to have full administration in
things temporal and spiritual ; but the right of
visitation was reserved to the abbot on condition
that he did not make his visits too expensive
and burdensome. Novices were still to be
professed at Angers unless the abbot of his own
free will chose to allow them to make their
profession at Spalding, and four monks from the
abbey were to be maintained at the priory, being
under obedience to the prior, but liable to be
recalled by the abbot from time to time. A
pension of 40 marks a year was to be paid to
the abbey.^'

This arrangement, however, did not give
complete satisfaction to either party. Before
1 241 Pope Gregory IX, at the instance of the
abbot of Angers, had published two bulls against
the prior of Spalding for not sending his novices
to the mother-house for profession,^^ and for not
going there himself for visitation,^' as well as
another addressed to the bishop of Lincoln
ordering him to inquire into the quarrel, and
informing him that the abbot had excommuni-
cated the prior for disobedience, while the prior
complained that the abbot exceeded his rights."
A new agreement was made in 1242, and con-
firmed by Pope Innocent IV in 1245.^' It was
very similar to the previous one, only that now
the abbot agreed to visit the priory every three
years and to receive the profession of novices
there instead of requiring them to come to
Angers ; his stay, however, was not to exceed a
month, nor was he to bring more than fifteen
mounted attendants with him. The pension
was to be increased to 60 marks on account
of the great expense incurred by the abbot in
forwarding his suit at the apostolic see. The

'» Add. MS. 5844, fol. 94.

" Dugdale, Mon. iii, 215 (from a register of
Spalding).
" Ibid.

" Ibid, and Add. MS. 35296, fol. 1 1 d.
" Add. MS. 35296, fol. 12 a'. '5 Ibid.

'"Ibid. fol. 13.
" Ibid. fol. 14 ; and Cal. of Pap. Letters, v, 76.

120

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

bishop of Lincoln was to see that all these
arrangements were faithfully carried out, and
arrears of pension paid.

Towards the close of the thirteenth century
the priory suffered some losses from inundation,^
a recurrent difficulty with all houses near the
Lincoln coast. In the reign of Edward II the
monks of Spalding were in trouble on other
accounts : in 1314 for usurping the possession
of Deeping manor during the minority of
Thomas Wake ; ^ in 1 3 1 6 they were charged
with carrying corn and other victuals to the
Scots ' ; in 1316 and 1 3 1 8 they had difficulties
about getting in their rents and market tolls ^ ;
in 1324 they were accused of harbouring and
selling the goods of a traitor.' The outbreak
of the French wars brought anxiety and loss to
all monasteries dependent on foreign abbeys, and
to Spalding among the rest, as its exemption
from the mother-house was not yet complete.
In 1275 the king confiscated the 40 marks due
to Angers,^ and the prior seems to have thought
this a convenient opportunity for escaping alto-
gether from subjection to foreigners. He ex-
pelled the four alien monks who were quartered
on his house, and though at first the king ordered
him to take them back again,'^ the intercession of
Henry de Lacy, as patron of the priory, brought
about an agreement which made the monks
of Spalding virtually independent. The king
ordered the house to be released by the escheator
and granted it the privilege of governing itself
in future on condition that the pension due to
Angers was paid to the exchequer instead, and
that no aliens were received without his consent.*
The priory was again seized in 1325, but, after
a series of inquiries as to its patronage, released
in 1327 on payment of the arrears of pen-
sion.' At the conclusion of peace the proctor of
St. Nicholas tried again to assert his rights. From
1327 to 1329 a series of royal writs was issued,
ordering the prior to pay all arrears since the
conclusion of peace.^" It was not, however, long
before war began again, and in 1339 the pension
was transferred once more to the exchequer.^^

' Pat. 3 Edw. I, m. 2 1 </. ; Cal. of Pap. Petitions, i,
213.

' Pat. 7 Edw. II, m. 9 d.

'Harl. MS. 742, fol. 321.

* Pat. 10 Edw. II, pt. \, m. z^d ; 11 Edw. II,
pt. ii, m. 34</.

' Harl. MS. 742, fol. 121 d. On this charge,
and that of sending victuals to the Scots, the prior
was fully acquitted after inquisition.

' Add. MS. 35296, fol. 42 d. ' Ibid. 43.

' Ibid. 44. The process of election in the four-
teenth century was rather unusual. Three monies
were to be chosen as electors by the abbot of Angers
and convent of Spalding : they took to themselves
eight more, and these eleven elected one amongst
themselves who had power to nominate the prior.
IbiJ. 76.

'Ibid. ^6d. 55. '"Ibid. 5S<^. 64.

" Harl. MS. 742, fol. 60.

2 12

In 1 34 1 the prior obtained exemption from
attendance in Parliament for himself and his
successors on the plea of all these expenses lately
incurred. In 1397 a bull of Pope Boniface IX
set the priory free for ever from all subjection
to Angers.^^ The abbot was no doubt more
easily reconciled to this mandate by the fact that
he had long ceased to reap any profits from his
English property.

Towards the middle of the fifteenth century
the monastery was considerably in debt, owing
to the mismanagement of its revenues,^' but it
appears to have recovered from this during the
last fifty years before the suppression. In 1534
it was one of the richest monasteries in Lincoln-
shire. The prior had long enjoyed the right of
using the ring and pastoral staff, in consideration
of the dignity of the house,^^ and there were still
nineteen monks in it beside the prior and sub-
prior, when the Act of Supremacy was passed.^*

In 1526 great efforts were made by the bishop
of Lincoln to induce Prior Thomas (Spalding) to
resign his office : as it seems, because Cardinal
Wolsey was desirous of appointing some one else
to suit his own ' honourable pleasure and pur-
pose.' The bishop wrote to Wolsey at this
time saying that the prior was himself good and
gentle, but had been induced by others (notably
the abbot of Peterborough) to resist all persuasion
on this point, and was determined to die prior of
the house." In 1528 there was a rumour that he
had died, and the abbot of Bardney wrote to
John Heneage to solicit the cardinal in favour
of one of his own monks.^' Thomas Spalding,
however, signed the acknowledgement of su-
premacy in 1534 : but evidently resigned or
died some time between 1534 and 1540, for the
name of the prior who heads the pension list is
Richard Elsyn alias Palmer.^' This monastery
was not actually implicated in the Lincoln
Rebellion, but it was reported that the prior had
refused to contribute any men to the royal forces,
on the ground that he was a ' spiritual man.' "
Either this report was not true, or the prior
managed to make his peace with Cromwell, whose
friend he seems to have been ; '" at any rate he
was not brought to trial. The house was finally
surrendered in 1540 ; the prior receiving a pen-

" Cal. of Pap. Letters, v. 76. The subjection had,
however, been once at any rate a convenience to the
prior, when he wished to escape a summons to the
general chapter of the order in England. Add. MS.
35296, fol. 69.

'^ Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower).

" Cal. of Pap. Petitions, i, 395.

'^ L. and P. Hen. VIII, vii, 1024 (p. 394).

'° There are two letters of the bishop to Wolsey on
this subject, one of 1526, and the other of 1528.
Ibid, iv (2), 2391, and 4796.

" Ibid. 3964.

" Ibid, xiv (2), 652. 'Thomas' occurs prior in
1531 and 1532. Ibid, v, 278 g. 17, 1285 vi.

'^ Ibid, xi, 567. ™ Ibid. X, 218.

I 16

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

sion of ;^I33 6s. 8d., and the monks amounts
varying from ^12 to 26s. 8d.^

The priory of Spalding was not liable to epis-
copal visitation until the fourteenth century, when
it was freed from all subjection to Angers. Until
this time the abbot of St. Nicholas had the right
of visitation, for the correction of the house, as
has been already seen : though during the French
wars it was impossible to exercise this right.
Before 1232, when the first agreement was made
for the partial exemption of the house, its con-
dition is said to have been somewhat unsatis-
factory, as the priors were liable to be recalled
at the abbot's pleasure, and had little interest
therefore in their charge. One of them, Her-
bert, who ruled from about 1 149 to 1156, is
said, however, to have taken pains to increase
the revenue of the priory, and obtained the
appropriation of the churches of Spalding, Pinch-
beck, Moulton, and Alkborough.^ At the death of
Ralf de Mansel in 1229, Bishop Hugh of Wells
interfered to settle a disputed election, when the
sub-prior and several monks appealed against the
candidate nominated by Ralf earl of Chester, as
patron of the house ; and Simon of Hautberg
was finally appointed.^ It was only three years
later that the convent gained the right of election,
so Simon became the first independent ruler of
the house. He was prior for more than twenty
years, and his name was long remembered at
Spalding. He came of a knightly family, and
from his earliest years was devoted to study ;
and the house flourished under his rule. - He was
one of the most magnificent prelates in England ;
on one occasion he invited the king to dinner
with him in London and entertained him so
royally that the bishops and abbots who heard of
it complained loudly, fearing some fresh taxation :
and the prior's own diocesan even threatened to
depose him. Nevertheless he did not get his
house into debt.*

John the Almoner, who ruled the priory from
1253 *^° '274, made himself very unpopular in
the neighbourhood : it was alleged in 1275 that
he had exceeded the bounds of his free warren,
had given shelter to felons in the priory, and had
maliciously detained certain persons until they
paid or granted him whatsoever he desired : he
had also let a bridge fall down, to the great loss
of the country-side.^ None of these accusations

' L. and P. Hen. VllI, xiv (2), 652.

» Add. MS. 5844, fol. 48.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Wells.

* Add. MS. 5844, fol. 48 ; and Lans. MS. 1049,
fol. I 12.

' Hund.R.\(^e.c. Com.), i, 271-6. The seneschal
of the prior, it is said, took Robert son of Reginald
and his two sisters, and had them maliciously detained
in the priory until they made a fine with the prior
in a cask of wine worth 40 shillings. ' Gilbert Fitz-
Stephen was unjustly accused of felony ' and detained
' until he swore that all his life long he would not
oppose the prior or any of his men in any assize,' &c.
A third case of the same kind is given.

were, however, made matter of inquisition,
because the prior was already dead : so they
cannot be considered as proved. William of
Littleport, the next prior, was a great builder.'
Clement of Hatfield, who died in 1308, left
behind him a good reputation for his government
of the house and management of its property.'

Bishop Burghersh issued a commission of
inquiry in 1333 as to the causes of discord at
the election of Thomas of Nassington.^ Regu-
lar visitations probably began after 1397, when
the priory was finally made independent. An
allusion is made in the visitation of 1438 to
certain injunctions lately delivered by Bishop
Gray, who had ordered the rebuilding of certain
parts of the monastery. The visitation of 1438
was conducted by Bishop Alnwick. The prior,
Robert Holland, allowed that he had not rebuilt
the hall or refectory, as directed by Bishop Gray,
and it was found by this time that other repairs
were needed also. The order of the house was
fairly good for the fifteenth century, when the
standard of life, secular and religious, was gener-
ally low : a certain number of monks always ate
in refectory, and there was no neglect of the
divine office ; a scholar seems to have been
maintained at each university.' Sixteen of the
brethren, indeed, answered omnia bene to the
bishop's questions. But the prior, some alleged,
was not careful of the interests of the house, and
did not show his accounts or consult the brethren
duly in the disposal of property ; ^° he was too
often away from the monastery." He had
allowed wine to be sold in the cloister, a practice
which brought in many seculars : he did not help
his brethren to maintain the dignity of the
religious life, for there was sometimes laughter
at the chapter of faults. A few individual com-
plaints about food, or the loss of pittances, or the
insolence of the prior's servants, or the neglect
of prayer and study, need not cause us much
surprise : such complaints may be found at all
times in the best regulated monasteries. More
serious was the accusation against two brethren
of being too familiar with women, of revealing
to them the private affairs of the monastery,
and of spreading ill-sounding opinions, through

^ Dugdale, Mon. iii, 209 (note) ; from the
chronicle of Robert of Boston — not a very good
authority when he stands alone ; but the same ac-
count is found in Lans. MS. 1040, fol. 112 (Bishop
Kennet's transcription of a register of Spalding).

' Add. MS. 5844, fol. 54; and Dugdale, Mok. iii,
209.

* Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Burghersh, 267 d.
' It was complained that the last monk who went
to Oxford took with him certain goods and silver
belonging to the monastery, and had returned without
them. Whence, perhaps, we may gather that the
career of a monastic scholar had some homely points
in common with that of seculars then and since.
'" Some of these accusations he denied.
" He said himself he was never away a whole week
at a time.

122

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

ignorance of holy scripture. One of the chap-
lains was accused of bringing women into the
house."^

In 1 5 19 Bishop Atwater found that the orna-
ments of the church needed repair. The prior
did not consult his brethren duly as to the dis-
posal of property, but placed more confidence in
the advice of certain seculars, who bore them-
selves nimis elate towards the monks in conse-
quence. The bishop enjoined that the seniors
should be consulted, and that an instructor in
grammar should be provided.' It is evident that
the house was on the whole in good order, and
the rule kept. A few years before the dissolution,
the monastery seems to have suffered some dis-
advantage from the personal character of the
prior, who was ' good and gentle,' wrote Bishop
Longlands, but unwilling to see his office pass to
more capable hands — an infirmity which other
heads of houses have shared with him before and
since.' It is not clear whether it was this prior
or his successor on whose behalf Cromwell wrote
to Bishop Longlands in 1536 ; most probably the
latter. The bishop seems to have designed a
visitation of the house, and was somewhat roughly
reminded that it belonged to Cromwell's cure
and not to his, ' being nouther founder nouther
benefactor of the same.' The priory had been
lately visited by the royal commissioners, who
had reformed all that was necessary : and the
prior and convent were to be left in peace.^ They
had to find, a few years later, that the king and
his vicar-general were harder patrons than the
bishop.

At the time of the dissolution a considerable
amount of money was distributed in alms
from this monastery, in fulfilment of various
bequests. On the five vigils of our Lady 42J.
was distributed to the poor : an annual dole of
5^. 2,'i. was given in memory of two benefactors,
and of 23J. ^d. in memory of five deceased priors,
as well as bos. on the anniversary of William
Littleport in particular : ^\ 1 8y. was paid out
in cloth and ' pardon beans ' for the soul of
Countess Lucy the foundress.'

The original endowment consisted of the ex-
tensive manor of Spalding with its appurtenances
and the church.* Ralf earl of Chester and
Lucy the countess gave in addition the churches

' Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), fol. 58.
There were some complaints of debt, but no one was
quite sure about them, since the accounts were not
shown. The prior was ordered to show them in
fiiture according to the rule.

' Visitations of Atwater (Alnwick Tower), 48 d.

' L. and P. Henry Fill, iv, 2391 and 4796.
He was still alive in 1555, so that he could not
have been so very old in 1528. His incapacity must
have had other causes. (Pension List in Add. MS.
8102.)

* Ibid. X, 218.

' Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 98.

« Add. MS. 35296, fol. 8.

of Belchford, Scamblesby, and Minting,' William
de Romara gave the church of Bolingbroke and
a moiety of East Keal,* Wido Laval the church
of Addlethorpe,' Roger de Trehamton the
churches of Gate Burton and Lea.^" When
King John confirmed the charters of Spalding
in 1 199 they had lordship in Spalding and Pinch-
beck, the manors of Alkborough, Langtoft, and
Wilbeton (Wyberton), with the above churches
(except Minting and Scamblesby) as well as
Weston, Moulton, Pinchbeck, Surfleet, Sibsey,
Stickney, Hautberg (Alkborough) with Walcote
chapel." By 1236 their lordship, with free
warren, extended over Weston and Moulton as
well as Spalding and Pinchbeck.^^ In 1294
the revenue of the priory was valued at
^^271 13J. "jd. in temporals and j^243 6i. in
spirituals.^' In 1284 the prior of Spalding held
the vills of Spalding, Weston and Pinchbeck,
with some exceptions, and sixteen and a half
bovates in Long Sutton and Lutton and eight
bovates in Moulton which Thomas son of
Lambert of Moulton held of him ^* : in 1303
one third of a knight's fee in Kirkby Laythorpe,
and Evedon, and one sixth in Wyberton : ^* in
1346 the same.^^ In 1534 the temporals of the
priory were valued at ^740 2s. ()d. including the
demesne land in Spalding and Weston, and the
granges of Halmer, Thornham, New Hall,
Ambreylathe, Sutton, Gtannock, Pinchbeck,
Pinchbecklathe, Graves, Moulton-cum-Golwell
and Goll, Weston-cum-Westonlathe, Caldbyche,
Wykeham, Wyberton, Alkborough, Wytham-
cum-Obthorpe, Kirkby, Stickney, Belchford,
Lincoln, Ludford, Donnington ; in spirituals at
;^I38 i\s. 6d., including the rectories of Spald-
ing, Pinchbeck, Moulton, Weston, Sibsey,
Alkborough, and the chapel of Cowbit.^' The
Ministers' Accounts amount to jQg^S 'O^- ^^-^^

Priors of Spalding
Nigel,^' occurs temp. Henry II
Herbert,^" occurs 1149 ^'^'^ 1 156
Reynold,'^ elected 1 1 76
Geoffrey '^

Warin,^' occurs 1 1 82
Jocelyn,'^ occurs 1 195 and 1 198

'Add. MS. 5844, fol. 218.

« Ibid. 214-215. Mbid. 216.

'" Ibid. 220; and Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts
of Final Concords, 4.

" Cartae Antiq. D. 5 & 6.

" Cal. of. Chart. R. i, 217.

"Add. MS. 5844, fol. 94.

" Feud. Aids, iii, 369-70.

" Ibid. 147, 159. 15 jj,jjj_ 203, 241.

" Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 97.

'* Dugdale, Mon. iii, 208.

" Add. MS. 5844, fol. 205.

'" Ibid. 35296, fol. 421 ; Harl. MS. 742, fol. 270.

" Ibid. fol. 421.

""Ibid. "Mbid. fol. 39.

** Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
4 ; Add. MSS. 5844, fol. 197, & 35296, fol. 39.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

John the Spaniard^
Nicholas,* occurs 1203-4
Ralf Mansel,' occurs 1224, died 1229
Simon of Hautberg,* elected 1229, died 1253
John the Almoner,* elected 1253, '^'^'^ 1274
William of Littleport,' elected 1274, died 1294
Clement of Hatfield,' elected 1294, died 131 8
Walter of Halton,^ elected 13 18, occurs till

1332
Thomas of Nassington,^ elected 1333, died

1353
John Esterfield,^° elected 1353, occurs till 1396

John of Moulton,^^ elected 1404, died 1 42 1

Robert Holland,^* elected 1421, occurs till

1438
William of Pinchbeck"
Thomas 11,^^ occurs 1462
Thomas III,^' elected 1475, occurs till 1492
Robert,^^ occurs 1504 and 1509
Robert Boston,^' occurs 1522
Thomas Spalding,^* occurs 1515 to 1534
Richard Elsyn^^ or Palmer, occurs 1540

The common seal of Spalding*" is thirteenth-
century style of work, the obverse representing
the Virgin with crown seated on a carved throne,
the Child on the left knee. In base, under a
pointed arch, slightly trefoiled with gables of
church-like structure at the sides, the prior half-
length to the left in prayer.

SIGIL .

ARIE : ET
SPAL . .

BEATI
. GIE.

. HOLAI

' Add. MS. 35296, fol. 39.

' Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
57, 61. There may have been an earlier Nicholas,
prior in 1 1 89, if Ingulf gives the name correcdy.
The priors dative seem to have been changed very
often.

' Ibid. 173.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Wells.

' Add. MS. 35296, fol. 421 ; Lansd. MS. 1040,
fol. 1 12.

^ Lans. MS. 1040, fol. 112. Called William le
Bedel, in Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), 1, 390.

'Add. MS. 5844, fol. 83.

® Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Dalderby, 75.

^ Ibid. Memo. Burghersh, 267 </.

■"Ibid. Inst. Gynvirell, 58.

" Ibid. Inst. Repingdon, 57.

" Ibid. Inst. Flemyng, I 5 </. ; Visitation of Alnwick,
1438 (Alnwick Tovifer.)

" Dugdale, Mon. iii, 208 (from Bibl. Top. Brit.).

" Pat. 2 Edw. IV, pt. iv, m. 29-30.

" Pat. 17 Edw. IV, pt. i, ra. $ d. : and Add. MS.
^5296, fol. 4431^. This is certainly not the same
person as Thomas II, for in 1 49 2 he is called expressly
Thomas III, and said to be in the seventeenth year of
his prelacy.

" Dugdale, Mon. iii, 208 ; L. and P. Hen. VIII,
i, 663.

" Lines. N. and Q. v, 3 6.

'» L. and P. Hen. Fill, iii, 695 ; and Fa/or Eccks.
iv, 97. Called Thomas White in the pension list.

" L. and P. Hen. VIIl, xlv (2), 652.

=° Add. Chart. 21 1 12.

The reverse represents St. Nicholas standing _-
a carved corbel, with mitre, pall, and pastoral
staff; the right hand is broken away.

SIGlL . . . PIt'lI : BEA . . . MARIE
ET BE . , . NGLE.

The borders are beaded.

10. THE PRIORY OF BELVOIR

According to the received tradition the priory
of Belvoir was intended at first to be an in-
dependent abbey. It was begun by Robert de
Todeni, lord of Belvoir, on land near his own
castle, in 1076 ; but, being hindered by secular
employments from completing the work, he was
advised by Archbishop Lanfranc to hand over the
unfinished buildings to the primate's old friend
and companion, Abbot Paul of St. Albans, for a
cell to that abbey. The abbot was to complete
the monastery and place four monks there to
pray for the soul of the founder, who was
received at the same time, with his wife, into
the fraternity of St. Albans.*^ The agreement
was carried out, and Robert de Todeni was
buried at his death in the chapter-house of the
priory.** It never became a very large or im-
portant cell, but it had many honourable names
amongst its benefactors, several of whom were
buried, like the founder, in its church or chapter-
house. The first William d'Albini was laid in
the chapter-house, and Oliver d'Eyncourt beside
him. The second William d'Albini, and the
fourth of that name, were buried in the priory
church, with their wives.*'

There is nothing very unusual or striking in
the history of the house. The church of Red-
mile, given to the priory by William d'Albini,**
was claimed in 1258 by Robert de Roos and his
wife,*^ and, though the dispute was settled in
favour of the prior, other members of the same
family seem to have been discontented with this
result, and were accused in 1295 of trespassing
on the property of the monks at Redmile and
Belvoir, of assaulting their men and carrying off
their corn.*^ William de Roos, however, in
1308 made his peace with the prior, and
granted him the advowson of the church of
Woolsthorpe.*'

The list of priors of this house is a very long
one. It seems that they were frequently
changed or transferred to other cells. A few of
them are worthy of special mention. Roger of
Wendover, prior in the early part of the thirteenth

" Sloane MS. 4936, fol. 44. Gesta Abbatum (Rolls
Ser.), i, 57.

*^ Dugdale, Mon. ii, 289, Charter ii. From a
register of the priory, containing a list of the bene-
factors and patrons of the house buried in the church
or chapter-house.

"' Ibid. " Sloane MS. 4936, fol. 46.

'' Ibid. fol. 82. =" Pat. 23 Edw. I, m. \o d.

*' Sloane MS. 4936, fol. 99.

124

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

century, was the first of the chroniclers of
St. Albans, but at Belvoir he certainly did not
distinguish himself, except by ' dissipating the
goods of the church in reckless prodigality, and
following in all things the footsteps of his pre-
decessor, Ranulf the Simple, whom all men hold
blameworthy for his scandalous dilapidations.'^
He was deprived of his office by William,
twenty-second abbot of St. Albans, in 1226.^
William of Belvoir, second prior of that name,
ruled the priory with great success during the
difficult period of the great pestilence, and, in
spite of the burden of debt which he inherited
from his predecessors, left the house in good
estate, having planted trees, repaired the con-
ventual buildings, and performed many other
good works.^ Simon Southrey, prior in 1396,
was recalled to the mother-house by Abbot John
Moot, and made claustral prior there.*

The monks of this house seem to have been
frequently in a state of poverty and debt.
Sometimes this may have been through the
mismanagement of the priors, as in the case of
Roger of Wendover ; and the career of William
of Belvoir, already noticed, shows how much
can be done or undone in this respect by one
man. But the revenues of the house were never
very large, and when Abbot John Moot was
collecting contributions from the cells to pay off
the debts of the abbey to the king and the pope,
Belvoir, like Wallingford, was only expected to
send 40J., while Tynemouth sent ^"j and Byn-
ham ;^4.° Every cell was expected to pay
something towards the expense of maintaining
at Oxford scholars from the abbey ,^ and a small
present had to be sent if possible to each newly
elected abbot.' During the few years imme-
diately preceding the dissolution of monasteries
this priory was not actually in debt or money
difficulty,* but it had ceased to be able to support
even four monks as at first. Richard Belvoir, a
monk of the house, who was examined in 1538
with reference to the advowson of an appendant
church, testified that for the last few years there
had been no one living at the priory except the
prior and himself, and that he did not remember

' Gesta Abbatum (Rolls Ser.), i, 270-4.

' Ibid, and Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Wells.

' Sloane MS. 4936, fol. 129. The debt is said to
have amounted to X733> ^"'^ Prior William contrived
to leave a balance of ^4° '° h'^ successor.

* Gesta Abbatum (Rolls Ser.), iii. 436.

" Ibid. 468.

' There are several records of penalties imposed on
priors for default of this payment (Ibid, ii, 312, 448).
Belvoir paid 32/. <)d. in the time of Whethamstede
(John de Amundesham, Ann. Mon. S. Albani (Rolls
Ser.), ii, 309).

' Gesta Abbatum, ii, 187 ; iii, 468.

° An account of receipts and expenditure for Bel-
voir in the year 1527, when Cardinal Wolsey was
abbot in commendam, shows that there were no debts at
that time (Dugdale, Mon. iii, 292).

having more than two or three companions at
any time, who were sent to and fro at the
discretion of the abbot of St. Albans.'

The cell of Belvoir was surrendered with
the parent abbey in 1539.^" Of its internal
history very little can be traced. The priors, as
in the case of all cells of St. Albans, were
presented by the abbot and instituted by the
diocesan, but the right of visitation was reserved
to the former." They took an oath of obedience
to the abbot, promising to maintain the privi-
leges of the mother-house, and not to alienate
any property of the cell, or grant any corrodies,
without leave.^ They had, however, full juris-
diction over the brethren under their charge,
presiding at their chapter, hearing their con-
fessions, and inflicting suitable punishments when
necessary.^' Apostates from the cell were at first
sent back to the abbey for their penance ; but
Abbot Thomas de la Mare, at the end of the four-
teenth century, ordered that in future they should
return to the house they had forsaken.^* Priors
of cells had to attend the yearly general chapter
of the abbey," and there is plenty of evidence
that the cells were regularly visited by the abbot
in person.^^ There are no records of any serious
troubles at Belvoir which called for the abbot's
notice, except the case of Roger of Wendover.
A prior was removed at the end of the thirteenth
century by Abbot John III, but the chronicler
especially remarks that it was done without any
sufficient cause. ^' During the fourteenth and fif-
teenth centuries there were several very good priors
in charge of Belvoir. We are especially told that
the house was in good estate just after the great
pestilence, when so many monasteries were in a
disorganized and unsettled condition. William
of Belvoir not only managed to clear off heavy
debts, but set an example of true piety and
devotion ; and after thirty-three years of active
life he resigned his oflSce that he might spend
the rest of his days like a true monk, in
prayer and contemplation in his own cell.^*
It was at his own desire, too, that Simon
Southrey, half a century later, was recalled to
the mother-house, ' wearied with worldly cares,'
and wishing for a more secluded life than he

" Sloane MS. 4936, fol. 138.

'" Gasquet, Hen. VIII and the Engl. Monasteries,
ii, 308 (date of surrender of St. Albans).

" Gesta Abbatum (Rolls Ser.), i, 275-7.

" Ibid, ii, 443. " Ibid. 95.

" Ibid. 415. » Ibid. 447.

'^ Notices of visitations are scattered through the
chronicles of St. Albans, and it is specially noticed of
Abbot William of Heyworth that he, being in debt
at his accession, lived for some years at Bynham,
Hatfield, and Belvoir, to lessen the expenses of his
household, but did not visit the cells capitulariter
(Ibid, iii, 494).

" He did the same to all the cells except Wymond-
ham (Ibid, ii, 51).

'' Sloane MS. 4936, fol. 129.

125

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

had perhaps found possible at Belvoir.^ A later
prior, Richard Hall, must have had a good
reputation for orthodoxy, for in 1453, when
heresy was so rife, he received a licence from
Bishop Chedworth to ' preach the word of God '
anywhere in the diocese.^ John Hatfield, prior
from 1465 to 1480, was also held in some esteem
at the mother-house, for he was deputed by the
abbot to settle certain disputes in the troublesome
cell of Tynemouth.^ John Guildford, during
the same century, had the privilege of burial in
St. Albans Abbey, ' on account of his merits.' *
The record of this house during the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries seems therefore to be good, so
far as we can judge. At the time of the disso-
lution alms were still distributed to the poor at
the priory gate every week to the value of
435. 4^. annually ; on Maundy Thursday,
6s. 8d. in addition, and on anniversaries of
different benefactors, 515. 4^.'

The original endowment of Robert de Todeni
included the vill of Horninghold (Leics.), and
4 carucates of land near the castle of Belvoir,
with tithes in divers places.^ William d'Albini
and other benefactors added the churches of
Horninghold, Barkestone, Redmile, Claxton,
Plungar, Swinford, Ashby, and Hose (Leics.),
with Tallington and Aubourn ' (Lines.). The
churches of Redmile, Swinford, and Ashby were
lost before 1277,* but the others were still held
by the priory in 1534.' No large benefactions
were made later, except a legacy of ^^55 i6s. Sd.
from John de Belvoir, canon of Lincoln, for
whom a chantry was undertaken by the monks.^"

' Gesta Abbatum, iii, 436. At the next election
Simon Southrey, being then prior, received four
votes, though he never became abbot (Ibid. 486-7).

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Chedworth, 5 d,

' Registrum Willelml Alton (Rolls Ser.), ii, 239.

^ John de Amundesham, Ann. Mon. S. Albon't
(Rolls Ser.), i. 437.

' Vahr Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 1 1 6.

^ Sloane MS. 4936, fol. 44.

' Ibid. 46. Vicarages -vi&ce. ordained for all these
Leicestershire churches under Belvoir in the time of
Hugh of WeUs (Line. Epis. Reg. RoUs of Wells).

* Archbishop Kilwardby inspected the charters of
the priory, and pronounced their title good in the
cases of Claxton, Hose, Plungar, Barkstone, Tallington,
Aubourn, and Horninghold ; the others are not men-
tioned (Sloane MS. 4936, fol. 86). The church of
Woolsthorpe was granted in 1 308 for a short time, and
that of (Hogges) Norton also ; but neither of these
gifts was in perpetuity (Ibid. fol. 99, 1 1 1).

' Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 1 1 6.

"Sloane MS.. 4936, fol. no. An interesting
benefaction of books from Sir Richard de Luton is
printed in Dugdale, Mon. ii, 292, and shows us what
was considered a valuable contribution to a monastic
library in the fourteenth century. Besides divers
service books, it comprised a tractate on grammar,
homilies for a year, .iEsop's Fables, a tractate on the
seven sacraments, a book of ' cases in which a priest
cannot absolve his own parishioner,' another on the
art of the serpent, another on the manner of mixing

The prior in 1303 held part of a knight's fe(
in Uffington, Tallington, and Caswick, and one-
eighth in Aubourn. In 1346 the former hold-
ing was said to be one-fourth of a fee." Ir
1534 the clear value of the priory was
^^98 19^. id. in temporals and spirituals.'^

Priors of Belvoir

Temmaer,'' occurs temp. Hen. I

Brientius," occurs temp. Stephen

John,'* occurs 1 169

Simon,'^ occurs between 11 74 and 1195

John,'' occurs between 11 83 and 11 95

Nicholas,'' occurs 1195

Simon," died 1204

Ranulf the Simple^"

Roger of Wendover,^' occurs 1224, deposed

1226
Martin of Bosham,^^ instituted 1226, occurs

1240
Geoffrey,^' occurs 1 25 1
Ralf of Wallington,^* occurs 1264 and 1269
William of Huntingdon,^' occurs 1270 and

1277
Reyner,^' instituted 1277, occurs 1285
Minion of Barton ^'
Roger of Hanred,^' occurs 1287, died 1295

and making colours, another on ' the virtues of simple
medicines ' with many antidotes of proved virtue, &c.,
for which gift the anniversary of the donor was to be
kept with Placebo, Birige, and Requiem, each priest
in the monastery saying one mass, and those in minoi
orders fifty psalms each.

" Feud. Aids, iii, 166, 167, 210, 211.

" Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 116.

" Rep. on MSS. of Duke of Rutland (Hist. MSS. Com.),
iv, 130.

" Ibid. 99.

" Madox, Formulare Angl. 251.

'^ Rep. on MSS. of Duke of Rutland, iv, 1 1 3, 146.

" Ibid. 43.

" Dugdale, Mon. iii, 287. The list in Dugdale
is from various sources, but where the names in ii
conflict with entries in the Line. Epis. Reg. or othei
reliable sources, they have been passed over.

" Ibid.

^ Gesta Abbatum (Rolls Ser.), i, 270.

" Rep. on MSS. of Duke of Rutland, iv, 143 ; and Line
Epis. Reg. Rolls of Wells.

" Ibid, where he is called ' Martin, brother 0
Winemer, formerly archdeacon of Northants ' {Rep. 01
MSS. of Duke of Rutland, iv, 131). He is called Martii
of Bosham in Gesta Abbatum (Rolls Ser.), i, 274.

"^ Dugdale, Mon. iii, 287.

" Ibid.

" Rep. on MSS. of Duke of Rutland, iv, 153 ; Sloan.
MS. 4936, fol. 87.

^° Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Gravesend ; and Rep. 0.
MSS. of Duke of Rutland, iv, 125.

^ Dugdale, Mon. iii, 287.

'* Rep. on MSS. of Duke of Rutland, iv, 133. Th
two following names in Dugdale's list are omitted, a
Roger's death is noted under the institution of Pete
of Maydenford.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Peter of Maydenford,^ instituted 1295, trans-
ferred 1299

John of Stakethorn,^ occurs 1303 to 13 17

William of Belvoir I,' instituted 1 3 1 9.

John of Kendal,* instituted 1320, occurs
1329

William of Belvoir II,' instituted 1333

William of Stenington,' occurs 1361 to 1367

Richard of Belvoir,' occurs 1367 to 1384

Stephen,* occurs 1386 to 1390

Simon Southrey,' occurs 1390 to 1396, re-
signed about 1397

John Savage,^" instituted 1397

William Hall,^^ instituted 1 400, occurs to
1414

John Guildford,'^ occurs from 1414 to 1423

John Wyteby," occurs 1430 to 144 1

Robert Ouresby,^* instituted 1433

William Alnvi^ick," instituted 1435

Richard Hall," occurs 1453

John of Banbury,^' occurs 1459

John Hatfield,^* occurs 1465 to 1480

Anthony Zouch," occurs 1485

John Thornton,^" occurs 1 498

Robert Ashby,^^ occurs 1498

John Clare,^^ occurs 15 16

Ralf Eyton,^' occurs 1520

Henry,^ occurs 1525

Thomas (Randyll ?),^^ occurs 1531

Thomas HamtylP^

' Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Sutton, 21. He was made
prior of Beaulieu 1299 (Ibid. 104).

' Cal. of Pop. Letters, i, 601 ; Rep. on MSS. of
Duke of Rutland, iv, 104, 121, 149.
' Line. Epis. Reg, Inst. Dalderby, 79.
' Ibid. 359 ; Rep. on MSS. ofDuie of Rutland, iv,
120.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Burghersh, 501^.
* Dugdale, Mon. iii, 287 ; William occurs also in
1346 {Rep. on MSS. of Duke of Rutland, iv, 146). This
may be either William of Belvoir or of Stenington.

' Ibid, ind Rep. on MSS. of Duke of Rutland, iv, 122
and 173. * Ibid.

' Ibid, and Gesta Abbatum, iii, 436. '° Ibid.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Beaufort, 1 3 d.; and Rep. on
MSS. of Duke of Rutland, iv. 173.
'' Ibid. " Sloane MS. 4936, fol. 137.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Gray, 10.
" Ibid. 13. '* Ibid. Memo. Chedworth, 5 d.

" Dugdale, Mon. iii, 287.

" Repstrum fVillelml .^/3«». (Rolls Ser.), ii, 30, 145,
239. " Dugdale, Mon. iii, 287.

»» Ibid. " Sloane MS. 4936, fol. 137.

" Dugdale, Mon. iii, 287.

" Ibid. He is also said to occur 1530 ; but the
deposition of Richard Belvoir in 1538 shows that
Priors Hamtyll and Randyll had been the last two in
office, and one had ruled the house nine years.
'' Rep. on MSS. of Duke of Rutland, iv, 112.
" ' Thomas ' is given in Dugdale Mon. iii, 287, under
1 5 3 1 ; it is uncertain whether his name was Randyll
or Hamtyll.

'* Sloane MS. 4936, fol. 138; Line. N. and Q.
V, 36. In a list of obits of priors of this house are
named also John Langley, Andreas, John Biwell, and

II. THE PRIORY OF ST. LEONARD,
STAMFORD

If the priory of St. Leonard, Stamford, was
indeed built upon the site of the monastery
founded by St. Wilfrid in 658, it might claim
to be the most ancient religious house in Lincoln-
shire, with the exception of Barrow. The
identification is, however, very uncertain, and
is supported only by documents of late date.
The same authority — a manuscript of the
fifteenth century, written under the direction
of a prior of Durham who died in 1446 —
states that the house, destroyed in the Danish
invasion, was refounded by William Carileph,
bishop of Durham, with the co-operation of the
Conqueror, in 1082, and by them bestowed upon
the prior and convent of Durham." The only
thing that can be said with certainty is that it
was from a very short time after the Conquest a
cell of Durham.

The priors of the house were presented by the
prior and convent of Durham, and instituted by
the bishop of Lincoln.^' They seem to have
been very frequently changed, and a visitation
of Bishop Alnwick, dated 1440, shows the reason
why. In this year there were only two monks
in the house. The prior, Robert Barton, stated
that the income of the house was so small in
proportion to its liabilities that it was difficult to
make ends meet, and that was why the priors
never wished to stay there. A former prior had
undertaken to pay a pension of ^^6 a year to
Crowland in exchange for the church of Eden-
ham, and this was now a heavy burden on the
house, and involved the loss of four small

John Revey ; as the date is only given by the month
and day, it is uncertain where they should be placed.
In the Rep. on MSS. of the Duke of Rutland, iv, 130,
137, and 146, Priors Eustace and Richard of St. Clare
occur also undated.

" Land for a monastery was certainly given to St.
Wilfrid by Alchfrid, son of King Oswy of Northumbria,
at a place called Stamford (Bede, Eccles. Hist. bk. v,
u. 19). The question is whether this was Stamford
on the borders of Lincolnshire, or another town farther
north. As Peck pointed out {Antiquarian Annals of
Stamford, ii, 7 et seq.), it is not historically impossible
that it may have been Stamford, Lincolnshire, because
the battle of Windwaedfield was past, and Oswy was
overlord of this district by 658. But there is no
clear proof. The only authority, as it is said above,
is the statement of Prior Wessington : ' In Stamforth
is a cell in honour of St. Leonard, founded first by
St. Wilfrid, afterwards by King William the Conqueror
and William bishop of Durham' (Ibid, iv, 7).

"' The bishop seems to have claimed the right of
visiting this cell at an early date. There is a memo-
randum of Bishop Sutton dated 1292 : 'Ingram de
Chaton, prior of St. Leonard's, to have time till he
can speak with the prior of Durham touching the
visitation of the bishop' (Line. Epis. Reg. Memo.
Sutton, 1 2 </.). No other notices of visitation are pre-
served, however, except that of Bishop Alnwick.

127

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

pensions due to it from other churches. The
other brother, John Hexham, simply stated
that they did not get up to mattins, being so
few.^

The prior and convent of Durham continued
to hold the cell until the dissolution. Its value
in 1291 waS;^28 ;^ in i534itw^aS;^25 is.2^d.,^
while in the Ministers' Accounts the total given
is only £'j 10s. ()\d.*

Priors of St. Leonard's

Walter,^ presented 1222

William Elvet,^ resigned 1 26 1

Geoffrey de Castro,' presented 1 261, died
1262

William of Wearmouth,' presented 1262

John of Burford,^ resigned 1272

William of Massam,^" presented 1272

Nicholas,^^ died 1277

William de Rybus,-'^ presented 1277

Peter of Seggefeud,'' resigned 1 221

GeoflFrey of St. Botulf," presented 1 29 1, re-
signed 1292

Ingram of Chaton,^' presented 1292, resigned
1293

Geoffrey of St. Botulf,^^ confirmed 1293, died
1302

Robert of Killingvirorth,^' presented 1302

John Fossum,^' resigned 1333

Robert de Cambehowe,-'^ presented 1333, re-
signed 1338

Nicholas of Lusby,^" presented 1338, resigned

1346
Robert of Halden^^ (or Hexham), presented

1346, resigned 1352
John of Langton,^^ presented 1352, resigned

1354
John de Castro Bernardi,^' presented 1354,

resigned 1366
Robert of Claxton,^ presented 1366, resigned

1373
John of Billesfield,^' presented 1373, resigned

1375
John of Hemingburgh,^^ presented 1375
John Swineshead," presented 141 9
Richard Barton,^^ S.T.B., presented 1440

' Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), 2i2d.

' Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.).

' Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 142.

■■ Dugdale, Man. iv, 472.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Wells.

* Ibid. Rolls of Gravesend.

' Ibid. ' Ibid. ' Ibid.

'» [bid. " Ibid. " Ibid.

" Ibid. Inst. Sutton, 2.
>^ Ibid. " Ibid. " Ibid.

" Ibid. Inst. Dalderby, \6 d.
''• Ibid. Inst. Burghersh, 52. " Ibid.

™ Ibid. 76. " Ibid. Inst. Bek, 23.

=» Ibid. Inst. Gynwell, 53- '' Ibid. 65.

-" Ibid. Inst. Bokyngham, it,d. ^* Ibid. 57 d.

-^ Ibid. 73. " Ibid. Inst. Repingdon, 102.

"' Ibid. Inst. Alnwick, 83.

John Garrard,^' resigned 1443

John Forman,^" presented 1443

John Manby,'' resigned 1494

William Yondall,'^ presented 1494, resigned

1496
Robert Beattes,'' presented 1496, died 1501
Henry Thevire,'^ S.T.B., presented 1501
Christopher Wyllie,'^ died 1530
Stephen Morley,'^ presented 1530
Richard Whelpdon," occurs 1534

12. THE PRIORY OF FREISTON

The priory of Freiston was probably founded
soon after the year 11 14. It was in that year
that Alan de Creoun presented to Crowland
Abbey the church of Freiston,'' and later on,
according to Peter of Blois, placed there a prior
and monks.^' A few years after the monastery
was built he increased the endowment by
further gifts.*"

The house has very little history apart from
Crowland. In 1283 a commission of oyer and
terminer was issued against certain persons who
broke through the doors of the monastery into
the church, stole the keys, and consumed the
victuals provided for the household, and for
some time maintained themselves in the priory
at the expense of their unwilling hosts.*^

The priors of this house were not presented
to the bishop for institution, and consequently
few of their names can be recovered. One of
them was cited before the bishop in 1 41 6 for
withholding altarage and oblations from the
vicar of Butterwick.*^ Not long after this.
Bishop Gray, visiting the abbey of Crowland in
1 43 1, discovered that the number of monks at
Freiston had dwindled to seven ; and these were
all aged and infirm, and unable to maintain the
divine office in a seemly manner day and night.
He gave orders that as soon as possible the
original number should be made up, and that
they should be young men, able to keep the
choir : at the same time enjoining that they
should be properly fed and provided for that
they might continue to serve God dutifully and
contentedly.*' In 1440, however, when Bishop

" Ibid. 91.

'" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Alnwick, 91.

" Ibid. Inst. Russell, -^^d.

'' Ibid. '' Ibid. Inst. Smith, 47.

^* Ibid. '* Ibid. Inst. Longlands, 29 d.

»« Ibid. '' Fa/or Eccles. (Rec Com.), iv, 142.

'^Foundation Charter, Dugdale, Mon. iv, 125.
The year is said to have been that of the refounding
of the new abbey church of Crowland, 1 1 14.

'' Petri Bles. Conttn. ad Hist. Ingulphi in Rerum
Angl. Script, (ed. Gale), i, 119, 125.

*° Charter ii, Dugdale, Mon. iv, 126.

" Pat. II Edw. I, m. \()d.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Repingdon, 156.

" Ibid. Memo. Gray, 128.

128

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Alnwick made inquiries, the number had not
yet been made up, and a monk of Crowland
said that the fall of the house was daily expected,
through the negligence and non-residence of the
prior.^ We may presume that a reform was
effected at this time, as the cell continued until
the dissolution of the mother house in December,

1539-

The original endowment of the cell included
the churches of Freiston, Butterwick, South
Warnborough, Stonesby, and Burton Pedwardine,
with divers parcels of land.^ In 1291 its revenue
amounted to about 5^32 gs. in temporals and spiri-
tuals.' In 1534 it was valued at £,i6j 8s. i\d.
clear annual income.^ The Ministers' Accounts
give a total of ;^I05 15X. c)d. exclusive of the rec-
tory of Freiston which was worth ,^44 i 8j. 3(/.
a year.'

Priors of Freiston

John,' occurs 1158
Nicholas,' occurs 1208
John Sutton,* occurs 1503
Richard Sleaford,' occurs 1534

13. THE PRIORY OF DEEPING

The priory of Deeping was founded and pre-
sented by Baldwin Fitz Gilbert to Thorney
Abbey in 1139.^" The gift was confirmed by
Robert de Chesney, bishop of Lincoln, and by
Pope Alexander III.^^

Like all small cells of the greater abbeys,
this house has very little independent history.
The priors were presented by the abbot without
reference to the diocesan, and the right of
visitation was reserved. Some trouble about
the tithes of the two churches of Deeping
brought the priory under the notice of the
diocesan about 1299. The tithes of the two
churches were said to be so confused that it
was not possible to collect them without damage
or discontent either on the part of the rector or
the monks. It was agreed that in future the
tithes from St. James's Church should go
entirely to the priory, and the tithes of
St. Guthlac's to the rector.^^

An inquisition taken in 1324 during a vacancy
at Thorney found that the priory had no tem-
poralities, and that from the time of King

' Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), 64 d.

' Foundation Charter.

' Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), iv.

* Valor Eccles. iv, 85-86.
' Dugdale, Mon. iv, 126.

* Lans. MS. 207, C, fol. 270.

' Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
i, 94.

* Dugdale, Mon. iv, 125. ' Ibid.
" Cott. MS. Nero, cvii, fol. 79.

" Dugdale, Mon. ii, 597.

"Harl. MS. 3658, fol. 20 (a chartulary of
Deeping).

Richard I its issues had not been seized by the
escheators during voidance of the parent abbey. ^'

The cell was dissolved at the final surrender
of Thorney Abbey in December, 1539. A
pension of ^^8 was reserved to the last prior of
Deeping.^*

The endowment of the priory consisted of
the two churches of Deeping, St. James and
St. Guthlac, with lands in the same vill." Its
temporalities mentioned in the Taxatio of
1291 only amount to^^i 15^. li." Novaluation
is given in the Ministers' Accounts at the dissolu-
tion, because the priory had been granted to the
Duke of Norfolk."

Priors of Deeping

Jocelyn,^* occurs in the twelfth century

James Nassington," occurs 1299

Thomas of Gosberkirk,^" occurs from 1329 to

1347
John de Charteris,^^ occurs 1358 and 1365
William Lee,^^ last prior.

14. THE PRIORY OF ST. MARY
MAGDALENE, LINCOLN

The priory of St. Mary Magdalene at Lincoln
was probably founded some time during the reign
of Henry 11,^' as a cell of St. Mary's Abbey at
York ; the name of the founder is unknown. It
was only intended to support a prior and one or
two monks, to look after the estates belonging to
the abbey ; and near the time of the dissolution
the abbot stated he was not bound by the foun-
dation to keep any monks there at all.^* As
might be expected, the history of the cell is un-
eventful.

In 1275 the abbot was accused of having
closed the king's highway and other common
land on his manor at Lincoln ; probably on
the land where this priory stood.^^ Not long
after this, the lands belonging to the abbey at
Sandtoft and Henes were annexed to those at
Lincoln.

In 13 12 the abbot had to complain that
certain men had assaulted one of his monks

" Close, 17 Edw. II, m. 23.

" L. and P. Hen. VllI, xiv (2), 621.

" Dugdale Mon. ii, 5 29.

'' Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 53^, 72^.

" Dugdale, Mon. ii, 597.

'"Karl. MS. 3658, fol. 17 d.

'' Ibid. fol. 20.

'"Ibid. fol. 52 a*, and Pat. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. i,
m. 20.

'' Harl. MS. 3658, fol. 21a'.

'' L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiy (2), 621.

*^ This is only a conjecture of Tanner's, there is no
charter extant to prove it. Picot, son of Colsuan gave
4 acres of land and the church of St. Peter, Lincoln,
to St. Mary's Abbey (Sympson, Lincoln, 363).

'*Z. and P. Hen. VIII, viii, 943.

'' Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), {,310.

129

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

in the cell of * La Maudeleyne without Lincoln.'^
In 1461 the church of St. Peter ad fontem was
appropriated to the priory.^ The episcopal
registers tell us nothing of the history of the
house, as the right of visitation and of appointing
priors was entirely in the hands of the abbot. In
1 53 1 King Henry VIII wrote to the abbot to
say that he considered this cell to be a ' mean to
provoke liberty and conversation not decent and
meet for religious persons ' ; and in replying the
abbot explained that he was not bound to keep
any monks there, and was quite willing to recall
the prior and brethren, and to support three
more students at the university from the revenues
of the house.' It is a little difficult to under-
stand the purpose of these two letters and the
events which followed. At any rate nothing
was done immediately, either by the king or the
abbot, for in 1533 the latter wrote to Cromwell,
acknowledging that the prior of St. Mary Mag-
dalene had managed his house ' so liberally ' that
he had brought the abbey into great expense and
trouble. It was not intended, however, as yet,
to put him * from his good governance,' but only
to admonish him 'to look the better to it.'*
Then there are two letters dated 1535 which
sound strangely contradictory. There is one
from the abbot to the king, almost identical with
that which is dated 1 531, only the persons are
changed. It is ' we,' the convent of York, who
now find the cell ' a mean to provoke liberty and
conversation not decent and meet for religious per-
sons ' ; and it is the king who is asked to call home
for ever the brethren resident at Lincoln, that the
revenues might be applied as before suggested.*
Yet in the same year the abbot writes to Crom-
well, speaking of the king's letter, and saying
that the brethren at York are much divided in
opinion as to the suppression of the cell.^ A
year later Sir Thomas Audley wrote to Cromwell
saying that there were no longer any monks in
St. Mary Magdalene's Priory.' Nevertheless, on
I March, 1539, the abbot wrote again to
Cromwell, acknowledging a letter in which it
had been complained that there were but one or
two monks, and sometimes none ; * no hospi-
tality kept, nor Almighty God served, nor any
religious order.' He protested that from time
out of memory there had been a prior and two
monks, and ' as at this day God well served,
religion kept, and poor folk relieved ' after the
ability of the brethren, as all the country could
testify, and especially at the last commotion (the

' Pat. 5 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 2 1 </.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Chedworth, 8 1.

^ L. and P. Hen. FIII,y, 313.

■* Ibid, vi, 747.

* Ibid, viii, 943.

* Ibid. 944.

' Ibid, xi, 10.

Lincoln rebellion). So he asked that the eel
might be spared.* There are other letters ir
March, May, and November which seem t(
show that the brethren were withdrawn, and th(
cell leased to a dependent of Cromwell.' A
the time of its suppression the priory was valuec
at ;£23 6s. 3^. clear, consisting mostly of smal
rents in and about the city of Lincoln, and a few
small pensions in divers churches.^"

The only name of a prior of this house ai
present known is that of John de Bryne,^' whc
occurs 1297.

15. THE CELL OF SANDTOFT

The island of Sandtoft, in Axholme, was
granted by Roger de Mowbray between 1147
and 1 186 to the abbot and convent of York foi
the support of one monk of their house only.
Thomas d'Arcy and Hamelin, earl of Warenne,
granted other small parcels of land, with the
churches of Nocton and Dunston.^^ These
churches, however, were, between 1203 and 1 206,
proved to belong to the prior of Nocton Park in
a suit with the abbot of York.^' Sandtoft appears
as a separate cell in 1291, when its temporalities
in Corringham deanery were valued at 1 5 j. i od. ; ^^
but probably soon after it was annexed to St. Marj
Magdalene's.^* Perhaps" there was never any
actual monastery in the island at all, but onlj
a house for the accommodation of the monk whc
lived there.

The Cell of 'Henes'

A charter of William, earl of Warenne, 01
the twelfth century, states that he has given tc
the brethren of St. Mary's, York, ' Henes ' anc
the moor and marsh about it, to do with as
they pleased." A charter of Roger de Mowbraj
mentions the gifts of Sandtoft and 'Henes' both.^'
There is no evidence that there was ever i
monastery built at Henes, except a notice o;
protection ' for the Prior of Henes ' on the Patent
Roll of 1322," which possibly may not refer tc
this place at all.

' L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiv (i), 415,

' Ibid. 591, 963, and xiv (2), 522.

" Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), v, 10.

" Pat. 25 Edw. I, pt. i, m. 131^.

" Dugdale, Mon. iii, 616-7.

" Plac. Abbrev. (Rec. Com.), 94.

" Dugdale, Mon. iii, 616-7.

" It was parcel of the cell of St. Mary Magdalen(
at the dissolution. Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), v, 10.

" Dugdale, Mon. iii, 617.

•' Ibid.

" Pat. IS Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 18. The calenda
conjectures Heynings for Henes in this place.

130

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

HOUSE OF BENEDICTINE NUNS

1 6. THE PRIORY OF STAIN-
FIELD 1

The priory of Stainfield was founded by
William or Henry de Percy, in or before the
reign of Henry II.'' It was the only Benedictine
nunnery in Lincolnshire ; but it was neither
large nor wealthy, and probably did not contain
more than about twenty nuns at any time.
Little is known of its history. A suit is
recorded in 1200 concerning the church of
Quadring, of which the prioress succeeded
in recovering a moiety from Walter de Roch-
ford, son-in-law of a benefactor of the house.'
About 1 31 9 the nuns, being poor, tried to
escape a burden which the king wished to lay
upon them, the maintenance for life of a
certain Mary Ridel ; but their excuses were
deemed insufficient. They were peremptorily
ordered to receive her, to supply her with
food, clothing, shoe-leather and other neces-
saries, and to draw out letters patent speci-
fying exactly what she ought to have, that the
king might be certified of their obedience to his
wishes.* In 1378 the prioress and convent
received permission to appropriate the church of
Quadring on account of their poverty.^ In 1392
Bishop Bokyngham forbade merchants to sell
their wares in the conventual church or church-
yard under pain of excommunication ; it seems
strange that such a prohibition should have been
necessary.^ There are no notices, however, of
any special laxity of the house. In 1440 Bishop
Alnwick found the priory in good estate ; the
prioress and all her nuns (eighteen in number)
answered omnia bene. One sister, however, said
that seculars were allowed to sleep in the
dormitory — an irregularity which seems to
have been very common at this time in monas-
teries where boarders were received. There

' The doubt expressed by Tanner and others as to
the order to which Stainfield belonged has been
removed by reference to the episcopal registers. In
the Institutions of Bishop Bokyngham it Is stated to
be ' Ordinis S. Benedicti.'

' There is no foundation charter to certify which
of the de Percys founded the monastery ; but the
land was of their fee from Domesday onwards. A
charter of exemption from suits of shires, hun-
dreds, &c., dated 1230, alludes to an earlier confirma-
tion of Hen. II, Cal. of Chart. R. \, 109.

' Abbrev. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 32.

* Close, 4 Edw. II, m. \()d.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham, 167.

'Ibid. 387 </.

were only three ' households ' in the monastery ;
one belonging to the prioress, another to the
cellaress, and another to the lay sisters ; so that
the nuns here seem to have avoided another
abuse which was very prevalent in the fifteenth
century.^

In 1 5 19 the report was not so good. Bishop
Atwater found the monastery in need of a proper
infirmary, the house used for this purpose not
being healthy or quiet enough. It was com-
plained that the nuns were not punctual in
coming to choir, and that half an hour sometimes
elapsed between the last stroke of the bell and
the beginning of the office. Some of the nuns,
when in choir, did not sing but dozed ; partly
because they had not candles enough to see their
breviaries by, and partly because they did not go
to bed promptly after compline.* Then on feast
days they did not stay in church and occupy them-
selves in devotion, between the hours of our Lady
and the high mass, but came out and wandered
about the garden and cloisters. Inclinations and
other ceremonies at office were omitted often or
negligently performed. The rules of the refec-
tory were not well kept ; instead of sitting in
rows, the nuns sat in little groups and talked
together over their meals. The prioress fre-
quently invited three young nuns to her table
and showed partiality to them.^

It was enjoined in consequence that all the
nuns should be diligent and punctual at the
canonical hours and careful in performing all due
ceremonies and ritual ; that all should go to bed

' Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), fol. 75.

* It is said that they ' sat drinking ' after compline ;
but a comparison with similar accusations against
other convents, and the injunctions of bishops on the
subject, is quite against the conclusion that any im-
moderate drinking is implied. It was a breach of
rule to take any food or drink, or to break the great
silence in any way after compline ; and the nuns
here are apparently rebuked only for a breach of rule,
not in itself a sin — i.e. instead of going straight to
the dormitory they sat idly talking over a cup of the
light ale which in those days took the place of tea and
coffee. The bishop's injunctions in this and similar cases
are : not that they should avoid moderate drinking,
but simply that they must go to bed directly after
compline.

' The names of these are given : Mary Missenden,
Paga Overton, and Katherine Ayer. Mary Missenden
lived to be prioress of the newly-founded Stixwould
Priory, and Paga Overton went there with her and
was pensioned at its final surrender ; so that they
must have been quite young in 1519. Mary
Missenden was still alive in 1553.

131

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

immediately after compline ; that sufficient
candles should be provided ; that silence
should be kept in the refectory, though the
bishop did not forbid them to sit there as they
had been wont to do ; and that no seculars
should be admitted to the monastery except
for a few days as guests. The prioress was to
invite all the senior sisters in order to her
table, and to see that a proper infirmary was
built.^

It seems probable that these injunctions were
obeyed, and that the convent soon recovered its
credit, for in 1 536, after the passing of the first
Act of Suppression, this house at first received a
licence to continue.^ The king, however, on
second thoughts, foresaw 'certain inconveniences'
that would arise if the priory were allowed to
stand, and ordered its dissolution. The nuns
were not, however, to suffer on account of his
change of purpose. They were to enter the
dissolved priory of Stixwould, after it had been
emptied of its original inhabitants.^ The prioress,
however, Elizabeth Bursby, appears to have been
pensioned at this time,'' and probably did not go
to Stixwould with the rest. Twelve of the Stix-
would nuns were paid arrears of wages, and 20^.
apiece besides to buy secular apparel, from the
revenues of Stainfield.'' When Stixwould was
refounded later, as a Premonstratensian priory,
one of the Stainfield nuns, Mary Missenden, be-
came prioress.^

The original endowment of the house cannot
be precisely stated. It seems at any rate to have
included the two churches of Quadring and
Gisburn, Yorks.^ The prioress had the advow-
son of Somerby and of Maidenwell.^ In 1428
the prioress held with others half a fee in Marton
and in Sturton.' The temporalities of Stain-
field in 1 29 1 were valued at £(>() 3^. T^d}"
In 1534 its clear value was ^^98 8f. i^.^^
The Ministers' Accounts give a total of only
;^6i 11^. 2d. including the manor of Maidenwell
and the rectories of Quadring, Gisburn, Apley
and Kingthorp.i^

' Visitations of Atwater (Alnwick Tower), fol. 5 1 <^.

' See Dugdale, Mon. iv, 308 (quotation from
Pension Book) and L. and P. Hen. Fill, xi,
App. 4.

' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xi, App. 4.

* Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 166.

' Ibid.

" Pat. 29 Hen. VIII, pt. I, m. 29.

' Dugdale, Mo«. iv, 308, Charters ii and iii.

" Lines. N. and Q. vi, 1 70 ; and Bishops' Institu-
tions.

^ Feudal Aids, iii.
" Dugdale, Mon. iv, 308.
" Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 82.
" Dugdale, Mon. iv, 308.

Prioresses of Stainfield

Parnel,^' died before 1223

Constance," elected before 1223

Agnes of Thornton," elected 1244

Maud,i« died 1258

Eufemia Constable," elected 1258, died 125

Katherine of Dunham,^* elected 1258, occu

1272
Isolt,''' resigned 1297

Christine le Vavassour,'" elected 1297, "^'^
1309

Agnes de Longvilles,^^ elected 1309

Margaret Lisieux,^^ occurs 1378, died 1393

Alice de St. Quintin,^' elected 1393

Margery Hall,^ occurs 1440

Katherine Bland,^* occurs 1491

Elizabeth Bainsfield^^

Elizabeth Bursby,^' occurs 1521 to 1536

The twelfth-century pointed oval seaF^ (
Stainfield represents the Virgin, crowned, seate
on a carved throne, with finials of peculiar shape
the Child, with a nimbus, on the left knee, i
the right hand a sceptre fleury.

IGILLVM CAPITVL
STEINFELD .

ARIE. DE.

A thirteenth-century seal,^' also pointed ova
shows the Virgin seated on a throne, the Chile
with nimbus, on the left knee, in the right hand
sceptre fleur-de-liz6.

LVM CAPITVII

RIE. D

" A letter to H. bishop of Lincoln announcing he
death and the election of Constance points to th
time of St. Hugh, or else Hugh of Wells : but anothe
letter which names Constance as a contemporary c
Walter archbishop of York, and R. master of Stainfielc
makes it almost certain that Hugh of Wells is meani
as he was a contemporary of Archbishop Walter Gray
and Robert de Saumer was made master in 1223
Dugdale, Mon. iv, 308, and Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls c
Wells.

" Dugdale, Mon. iv, 308.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Grosteste. There vra
an election also in 1237, but the name is left blan
(ibid.).

" Ibid. Rolls of Gravesend.

" Ibid. " Ibid, and Dugdale, Mon. iv, 308.

" Ibid. Inst. Sutton, 221^.

*» Ibid.

*' Ibid. Inst. Dalderby, 32.

^' Ibid. Inst. Bokyngham, 167 d. and in 1393.

'^ Ibid.

^* Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower).

" D. & C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1479-92, fol. 63.

'^ Dugdale, Mon. iv, 308.

" Mins. Accts. 27-28 Henry VIII, No. 166.

^ Harl. Chart, 44 A, 23.

^ B.M. Seals, xvii, 34.

132

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

HOUSE OF BENEDICTINE MONKS OF THE
ORDER OF TIRON

17. THE ABBEY OF HUMBERSTON

The abbey of Humberston was founded prob-
ably during the reign of Henry II by ' William
son of Ralf, son of Drogo, son of Hermer ; ' ^ a
son, that is, of one of the farmers of the crown
lands in this part of Lincolnshire, and a descen-
dant of the Domesday tenant of Humberston, who
held under Ivo Tailbois in 1086.^

This abbey was distinctly stated to be ' of the
Order of Tiron,' in the fifteenth century,' but
the records of Tiron do not name it among the
daughter-houses existing in 15 16 or earlier.^
Nor is there any evidence in the documents re-
lating to Humberston itself that it was in any
way dependent upon a foreign superior, as were
the abbeys of St. Dogmael and Selkirk, of this
order/ The bishop of Lincoln in 1422 said
that the monks of Humberston took their origin
from St. Mary's, Hamby (diocese of Coutances),'
but implies at the same time that they wore a
different habit from other Benedictines, as the
monks of Tiron are indeed said to have done for
some time.^ The abbey was never taken into the
king's hands as an alien cell.

The monastery was never a rich one, and
probably could not at any time support more than
about a dozen monks ; in the fifteenth century
there were only ten, and at the dissolution four.
There are but a few scattered notices referring to
its external history. In 1203 the abbot secured
the advowson of the church of Waithe in a suit
with Ingram and Robert sons of Simon.* In 1305
the monastic buildings were reduced to ashes by
a great fire, and the brethren were obliged to beg
alms before they could rebuild them,' and had to
sell the advowson of one of their churches to the
prior of Holy Trinity, Norwich.-"' The last
abbot, Robert Coningsby, signed the acknowledge-
ment of supremacy in 1534, with four monks and

■ Assize Roll Lines. 29 Hen. III. No. 12.

' The descent of William Fitz-Ralf was kindly
supplied by Mr. Round.

' Cal. of Pap. Letters, 7,^^^ ; Visitations of Alnwick
(Alnwick Tower), 6^.

* Lucien Merlet, Cartulaire de I'Abbaye de Tiron,
i, 234-7, and elsewhere.

' Ibid.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Flemyng, 234. Hamby
is given as Benedictine in Round. Cal. Doc. France.

' Dugdale says that the monks of Tiron originally
wore a light grey habit (Afw. iv, 128, note a from
Tanner).

° Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
i, 52.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 84 d.
'"Pat. 8 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 21.

a lay brother.^^ In 1536 he received an annual
pension of £'^,^^ and three monks had 53^. 4^.
divided between them, to provide them with
secular clothing, besides their arrears of ' wages,'
amounting to 3 31. ^d.^^

The abbey was regularly visited by the bishops
of Lincoln, and seems to have been more than
once in an unsatisfactory condition. Early in his
episcopate. Bishop Gynwell ordered a visitation,
and ordered the prior of Markby to conduct it ;
the difficulty at this time seems to have been
caused by one monk, Gilbert, of whom the abbot
complained that he was rebellious and disobedient
and given to wandering out of the monastery
without leave. The prior of Markby was to
swear all the monks separately and find out
exactly what was wrong, and if necessary he
might visit Gilbert with ecclesiastical censure.'^*
The visitation seems to have brought other
troubles to light, for in 1358 a new commission
was issued for the correction of the house, on
account of the ' crimes, excesses, and other in-
solences ' daily committed there.^* After this
there was apparently a distinct improvement,^^ for
Bishop Flemyng in 1422 remarked that the prior,
William Swynhopp, was discreet and circumspect.
It was enjoined that the clothing of the monks
should be on the model of that used at St. Mary's,
Hamby.i^

In 1440 Bishop Alnwick visited the abbey.
The abbot complained that five of his brethren
had become apostates in his time, of whom one
was now dead, and another had entered a mendi-
cant order. Those who remained were disobedient
and unruly, and two of them had been guilty of
conspiracy ; but one had repented when he heard
of the coming visitation. In chapter they were
so quarrelsome and noisy and rebellious that even
seculars could hear them from the road without
the monastery, and mocked at the unseemly din.
The abbot also complained that the monks would
give him no account of how they spent their
allowances (i6j. id. yearly), and he feared that
they had more personal property than they ought,

" L. and P. Hen. Fill, vii, 1 121 (30).

" Ibid, xiii (i), 576.

" Mins. Accts. 27 & 28 Henry VIII, No. 166.
Only a pension of 100/. annually is here assigned
to the abbot ; it was perhaps augmented later.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Gynwell, zc^d.

" Ibid. Memo. Gynwell, 1 24 d.

" The request of one monk in 1402 to transfer him-
self to a stricter house {Cal. of Pap. Letters,-^, 495)
and the apostasy of another in 1408 (Dugdale, Mon.
iv, 430) prove nothing as to the state of the monastery.
Such cases might occur anywhere at any time.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Flemyng, 234.

133

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

especially the unrepentant conspirator. One
monk, alas, often went to bed again after he was
called !

For their part the brethren complained that the
abbot did not sleep in the dormitory, did not show
any accounts or consult them in the disposal of
property, pledged the jewels of the house, did not
visit the sick, revealed to strangers things which
had been corrected in the chapter of faults. He
did not preside in chapter himself, nor appoint any
one else to do so ; and naturally, in consequence,
every man declaimed according to his own desire.
The rule was not read in chapter, and the obits
of founders and benefactors were not kept ; and
the abbot only celebrated mass once a fortnight.
One monk remained an acolyte because the
abbot would not prepare him for higher orders.
One was suspected of immorality. The house
was gravely burdened with debt.^

The bishop enjoined in consequence that the
rule should be read at least four times a year, in
any language that the monks best understood.
The brother who remained an acolyte because
he was unlearned must be instructed at once and
prepared for the higher grades of the ministry.
Mass and the canonical hours were to be duly
celebrated and attended. On fast days the
brethren must eat in the refectory ; on other
days elsewhere if they would ; the blessing of
the table was to be properly said. Accounts
were to be shown annually ; no corrodies were
to be granted or anything of importance done
without consulting the bishop.

Four years later, brother William Wainfleet of
Bardney was sent to visit the house again, for its
reformation ; it was described as in 'a state of
collapse, spiritual and temporal.' ^

In 15 19 Bishop Atwater visited the abbey.
There were then four monks besides the abbot.
It was alleged that the brethren did not rise
to mattins, and sometimes slept outside the
monastery ; that the abbot showed no accounts ;
that the anniversary of the founder was not
kept ; and that a gentlewoman called Fleming
was allowed to lodge in the infirmary. The
buildings of the monastery were in good repair,
and there was no debt ; all the furniture of the
church and altar too was good and sufficient.'

There are no later accounts of the house.
The original endowment of the abbey cannot be
exactly given, as there are no foundation charters
extant. The temporalities of the house were
valued in 1291 at £i() 15;. i^d.* and the
brethren at that time probably held four rectories,
Humberston, Holton le Clay, Waithe, and West-
hall, Suffolk : the last was alienated in 1 3 1 5 to the

' Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), 67.
' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Alnwick, 56.
' Visitations of Atwater (Alnwick Tower), 56.
* Dugdale, Mon. iv, 430.

prior of Holy Trinity, Norwich." In 1346 thi
abbot held part of a knight's fee in Clee, ane
the same in 1428.' In 1534 the income of th(
house was valued at £2^ is. 2,d. clear, including
the rectories of Humberston, Holton, anc
Waithe.' At the dissolution the bells, leads, &c..
of the monastery only fetched ;^5I, less than
any other house surrendered at this time, except
Newstead by Stamford.*

Abbots of Humberston

Simon,' occurs 1203 and 1224

William of Kirkweld,^" elected 1226, died

1261
Geoffrey ,^^ elected 1261
William,^^ died 1339
John of Horkstow,^' elected 1339
Henry of Brinbrooke,^* elected 1355
Ranulf,^' occurs 1380
William West," occurs 1440
William Swynhopp,^' occurs 1422
Nicholas Derby,^* occurs 1456
Thomas,^' resigned before 15 19
William Connyby,^" occurs 1522
Stephen,^' occurs 1529
Robert Coningsby,^^ last abbot, occurs 1534

The pointed oval thirteenth-century seal ^^ of
Humberston represents the Virgin seated on a
throne with trefoiled canopy, over which is a
turret, the Child on the left knee.

IL SVENTV

d'hvmberstan

' Pat. 8 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 21.
^ Feud. Aids, iii, 230, 256, 292.
' Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 68.
' Mins. Accts. 27 & 28 Hen. VIII, No. 166.
The inventory given in Bishop Atwater's visitations
points to a small house. They had in 1 5 1 1 two
chalices, vestments for priests, a pastoral staff ' valde
sumptuosus,' sufficient books and a ' ciphus argenteus ' ;
their stock comprised only fourteen sheep, sixteen
oxen, thirteen cows, and three pigs.

° Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
i, 52, 168.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Wells.

" Ibid. Rolls of Gravesend.

" Ibid. Inst. Burghersh, 80. " Ibid.

" Ibid. Inst. Gynwell, 6-] d.

" Pat. 3 Ric. II, pt. iii, m. 6.

'° Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower).

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Fleming, 234.

" Lans. MS. 207, B. fol. 204.

" Visitations of Atwater (Alnwick Tower). He
is called ' late abbot.'

'" Lines. N. and Q. v, 36.

"L. and P. Hen. nil, iv (3), p. 2698.

" Ibid, vll, 1 1 2 1 (3o)and xlii (l), p. 576. Browne
Willis calls ' Thomas Harphan ' last abbot ; but
Robert Conlngsby appears on the pension list as well
as In Mins. Accts. (27 & 28 Hen. VIII), No. 166.

" B.M. Seals, Ixvli, 6.

13+

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

HOUSES OF CISTERCIAN MONKS

1 8. THE ABBEY OF KIRKSTEAD

The abbey of Kirkstead was founded in
1 1 39 by Hugh Brito (otherwise Hugh son of
Eudo), lord of Tattershall. It is related that
the founder, being desirous to build a monastery,
visited the abbey of Fountains, and greatly
admiring the manner of life which he saw there,
humbly besought and finally obtained a colony
of monks from thence, which he established
at first in a ' place of horror like a vast solitude,'
a level plain surrounded by brushwood and marsh
at Kirkstead.^ This original site was not,
however, found to be large enough, and proved
unsuitable in other ways; therefore in 1 1 87
Robert the son of Hugh granted leave to the
monks to move a little distance ofij still, however,
remaining on his lands.' The patronage of the
house remained for four or five generations in
the family of Hugh Brito, and nearly all his
successors added something to his benefactions.
Conan Duke of Brittany, Robert Marmion,
Ralf FitzGilbert, Walter Leydet, William de
Cantelow, Robert d'Arcy, Philip of Kyme, and
members of the families of Mattel, Scotney,
Malet, Driby, Bek, d'Eyncourt, Willoughby,
were all numbered amongst the benefactors of this
monastery.' Its revenues during the thirteenth
century would have supported a large number
of monks ; but like all the Cistercian abbeys of
this country it suffered heavy losses during the
century which followed, and its revenue was
actually less in 1534 than it had been in 1291.*
In spite of these misfortunes, however, it was
reckoned until the last among the greater mon-
asteries of Lincolnshire.

The lordship over Wildmore was acquired by
Kirkstead through grants from the lords of
Bolingbroke, Scrivelsby, and Horncastle, who,
however, retained common rights of pasture and
turbary in the marsh for themselves and their
tenants. These valuable rights were the cause
of several disputes in the thirteenth century.'

About 1275 the abbot was accused of claiming
the right to erect a gallows at Thimbleby, and
to have the assize of bread and ale there, without
charters sufficient to prove it ; he had also en-

' Cott. MS. Tib. E. viii, fol. 49 a'. ; Ibid. Vesp.
E. xviii, fol. 2.

' Cott. MS. Tib. E. 52, and Dodsworth MS. Ixxv
(a transcript of a chartulary of Kirkstead) for that
date.

' See Dodsworth MSS. bai, 25 ; xxx, 12 ; Cott.
MS. Vesp. E. xviii.

' The reverse is usually the case with Cistercian
abbeys ; but all those in the county of Lincoln seem
to have grown poorer after the thirteenth century.

' Boyd and Massingberd, Fina/ Concords, 162, 163,
302 ; Lines. N. and Q. vii, 137; and Weir, Horncastle,
116, quoting Harl. MS. 4127.

croached on the king's highway at Roughton,
by raising a dike. In common with other
Cistercians, he was also accused of buying wool
throughout the county and selling it to Flemish
merchants and others, to the loss of the city of
Lincoln." It was just after this that the monks
of Kirkstead began to be impoverished through
the failure of their sheep. In 1285 the abbot
had to buy wool to satisfy the merchants to
whom he had pledged himself, because his flocks
had failed through murrain.' In 13 15 he had
to buy corn in the counties of Cambridge and
Huntingdon, not having enough of his own.^
In 1 32 1 there were suits with the prior of
St. Catherine's, Lincoln, about lands at Can-
wick and fisheries at Thornton and Marton.'
The abbot of Kirkstead, like others of his order,
had also a little later to supply King Edward III
with wool, on a vague promise of future payment ;
and these and other losses had by 1 341 brought
the house into such a depressed condition that
the monks were obliged to petition for the
appropriation of the church of Woodhall.^* In
1365 John de Wodehall quit-claimed to the
abbot and convent all right in the manor of
Woodhall.^^ But the manor seems to have been
acquired in 1332.^* In 1401 the church of Wis-
pington, with lands in the same town, was
granted to them by Sir Philip le Despenser to
assist them in the maintenance of the abbey.^'
After this very little is known of the fortunes of
the house, except that in 147 1 Abbot Roger
was arrested with many others for some distur-
bance of the peace."

After the rising of 1536 the abbot of Kirk-
stead, with three of his monks, was arrested and
tried at Lincoln by the commission under Sir
William Parr. The monks when examined
told their share in the rebellion quite simply.
The day after the ringing of the alarm bell at
Louth news of the disturbance was brought to
the abbey by John Parker, the abbot's servant.
On the same day sixty persons came and carried
off all the serving-men attached to the monastery.
On Wednesday John Parker returned with a
message that if the monks themselves did not go
forth at once to the host their house should be

° All these accusations are found in Hund. R.
(Rec. Com.), i, 299, 317.

' Pat. 13 Edw. I, m. 23.

' Ibid. 9 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 10. There are some
complaints by the abbot and against the abbot at this
time of trespasses of divers kinds. Ibid. 3 Edw. II,
m. 6d. ; 7 Edw. II, m. 15a'.

' Ibid. 1 7 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 19^. 1 8 </.

"• Ibid. 14 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 36.

" Harl. Chart. 58 C. 2.

" Cal. of Pat. 1330-4, p. 282.

" Pat. 2 Hen. IV, pt. iii, m. 22.

" Ibid. 1 1 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. 24 d.

135

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

burned over their heads. Accordingly all those
who were not too infirm went forth, the
cellarer and bursar being horsed and carrying
battle-axes. The abbot himself was too ill to
go, but he gave the bursar 20s. and a horse laden
wfith victuals. The monks remained with the
insurgents until the following Tuesday,
10 October, when the abbot received them
again gladly, and ' thanked God there was no
business.' ^ They all told the same story quite
straightforwardly, and there seems no reason to
question its truth.

The abbot and the other monks arrested
with him were at first put to bail,^ and it seems
that they had at first some hope of pardon, for
on 29 January, 1537, the abbot thanked Crom-
well for his comforting letter, and begged
continuance of his favour.' On 6 March,
however, all four were condemned to death,*
and the whole monastery was attainted. The
buildings were defaced and the leads melted
down for the king's use.' The remaining
monks apparently received a trifle to buy secular
clothing, and were then turned adrift.® Sir
William Parr complained that he found very
little of value in the house, the plate and ready
money were scarce worth 20s., ' through the late
abbot's unthriftiness, for which he would have
deserved punishment had he not transgressed the
laws.' ' The poverty of the monastery at this
time may have been a partial cause of the abbot's
failure to obtain a pardon.

It is always difficult to find out very much
about the interior history of a Cistercian abbey,
unless it happens to possess a chronicle ; we are
dependent upon stray notices, and have no regular
visitation reports to go by. Some facts, however,
stand out clearly in the early history of Kirk-
stead. The first and second abbots were both
members * of that heroic band which went forth
from St. Mary's, York, in 1 1 32,' in search of a
more perfect life ; they could remember the
hardships of that first winter under the scanty
shelter of a roof of boughs in the wild solitude
where the abbey of Fountains was afterwards
built. They would bring to the new foundation
in Lincolnshire the best traditions of the order ;

' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xi, 828 (viii).
'Ibid. 827 (ii).
= Ibid, xii (i), 278.

* Controlment Roll, 30 Hen. VIII, m. 6
(dated Lincoln, Tuesday in third week of Lent,
z8 Hen. VIII). Marginal note that they were
drawn and hanged.

' L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii (i), 676.

* Ibid. 700. Sir William Parr wrote that he took
^20 with him to pay monks, canons, and servants of
Kirkstead and Barlings. As there were twelve monks
left at Kirkstead, and about the same number at
Barlings, to say nothing of the servants, they could
not have had the usual 20/. each.

' Ibid. 677.

^Lans. MS. 207,0. fol. I32</.

* Ibid. 404, fol. 4.

and the monks of Kirkstead must have known in
those early days something of the joy which
accompanies the first fervour of a great reforma-
tion. In course of time, as we know, that first
fervour cooled, but the records do not show us
any evidence of serious laxity in this abbey. A
league of brotherhood, into which the monasteries
of Kirkstead and Revesby entered in the year
1257, suggests that there had been some difficul-
ties between them as to their rights on Wildmoor
Common, and that the quarrel had been taken
up a little too eagerly by the lay brethren and
servants of the two houses. They agreed that
in future each should perform for the deceased
brethren of the other house the same services as
for their own, and that if either house should
need counsel or help from the other, on account
of diminished numbers or resources, it should be
gladly given. The lay brethren and servants
were especially enjoined not to carry arms, or
take large dogs about with them, for fear of
damage being done to the men or animals
belonging to either convent ; any lay brother
who offended in this respect should go on foot to
the house he had injured, and undergo severe
penances for three days ; a secular servant should
be flogged at the door of the offended monastery,
and fast for three days on bread and water.^"

Occasional cases of apostasy have to be
recorded of every monastery now and again.
We hear of one at Kirkstead in 1341, Ivo le
Taylour, a lay brother ; ^^ and another in 1 390 was
absolved by order of the pope for going off to
Rome on a pretended pilgrimage, and laying
aside his habit on the way whenever he felt
inclined.^' Both of these repented and desired to
return to the abbey. In 1429 another lay
brother of Kirkstead was roaming about in
secular garb ; the warden of the Cinque Ports
was ordered to arrest him.^'

In 1404 an unruly monk caused a good deal
of trouble by opposing the election of a new
abbot, Thomas hy name. The election had
been made in all due form ; the late abbot had
tendered his resignation, according to the custom
of the order, to the abbot of Fountains ; the new
abbot was confirmed and canonically instituted j
but a certain William of Louth managed to
work up an opposition party against Thomas,
and actually ejected him for a time. The case
was referred, as usual, to the pope ; Thomas was
restored, and William condemned to perpetual
silence and payment of costs. He appealed
twice again to Rome, but only to have the
sentence twice confirmed, and at last orders had
to be given to invoke the secular arm if
necessary.^*

•" Lans. MS. 207, E. fol. 301.
" Cal. of Pap. Letters, ii, 552.
■' Ibid, iv, 328.

" Pat. 7 Hen. VI, pt. i, m. 5 a'.
" Cal. of Pap. Letters, v, 610.

136

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

In 1 44 1, when measures were being taken for
the reform of the whole Cistercian order, the
abbot of Kirkstead was appointed, with the
abbots of Furness, Byland, Sawley, Hayles, and
Morgan, to carry out the work in England.^
We may surely infer that these houses were at
this time in a more satisfactory condition than
the rest, or their abbots would scarcely have
been singled out for this purpose.

Nothing is alleged against the abbey at the
last except its poverty, because of the * unthrifti-
ness ' of the abbot. He had not been in office
for more than ten years, so that he cannot justly
be made responsible for the losses of the house.
Nor was he accused, like the abbot of Barlings,
of hiding or making away with the plate and
jewels of the monastery ; his poverty was prob-
ably inherited. As to the complicity of the
monks of Kirkstead in the Lincoln rebellion,
their case was very much the same as that of
Bardney, and their guilt or innocence must be
inferred from similar data.

The original endowment of Kirkstead Abbey
by Hugh Brito consisted of the site of the abbey
in Kirkstead. Benefactors of the twelfth
century added the granges or manors of
Daw-wood, Great Sturton, Snelland, Gayton,
Dunholm, Benniworth, Ulccby, Scampton,
Sheepwash, Branston, Aneheythe, Linwood,
Thimbleby, Scrane, Langton, Langworth, Wild-
more, Braken, Torrington, in Lincolnshire, and
Sunnolclif and Penistone, Yorks,^ with the
churches of Gayton,' Thimbleby,* Woodhall,'
and Covenham,' to which was added later
that of Wispington.' The temporalities of the
abbey were valued in 1 29 1 at £2fi<) y. <)d.^
The abbot was returned in 1303 as holding one
knight's fee in Scampton, one-quarter and one-
sixth inMetheringham, one-quarter and one-eighth
in Sturton, one-quarter in Covenham, FuUetby and
Oxcombe, Gayton and Nocton, one-third in Grim-
blethorpe, and various fractions from one-sixth
to one-fortieth in Scampton^ Dunston, Blankney,
Timbcrland, Tathwcll, Keddington, Billinghay,
Walcot, Thimbleby, Hainton, Langton, Coleby,
Canwick, Kirkby-on-Bain, Dunholme, and Scop-
wick.' The assessment is very nearly the same
in 1346 and 1428. The valuation of the abbey
in 1534 was ;f286 2s. ']\d. clear.^" At the
attainder of the abbot in 15373 survey of the lands
of the monastery was taken ; they included the
manors of Kirkstead, Scampton, Waddingworth,
Ludney, Woodhall, Covenham, Thimbleby,

' Jets of P. C. (Rec. Com.), v, 151.

* Ca!. of Chart. R. i, 383 and 394.

' Gale, Repstrum Honoris de Richmond, 103.

* Cal. of Pap. Letters, \, 324.

' Pat. 14 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 36.
" Ibid. 10 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 12.
' Ibid. 2 Hen. IV, pt. iii, m. 22.
' Dugdale, Mon. v, 416.
' Teud. Aids, iii, 131-305.
" Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 34 et seq.

Gayton, Kirkby-on-Bain, Wildmore, Marton,
Benniworth, and the granges of Dunholm, Sheep-
wash, Westlaby, Snelland, Great Sturton, Lin-
wood, Roughton, Boston, Wrangle, and rents
in many other places ; as well as the profits of
the rectories of Woodhall, Wispington, Thim-
bleby, Gayton and Covenham churches. The
house was burdened with six corrodies.^^

Abbots of Kirkstead
Robert of Sutholme or Southwell, ^^ elected

"39
Walter,^' occurs about 1156

Richard," occurs 1 190

Thomas," occurs from 1202 to 1206

William,^^ occurs 1208 and 12 lO

Henry," occurs from 1 219 to 1234

Hugh," occurs from 1239 *° ^245

Henry ^^

Simon,^" occurs 1250

William,^^ occurs 1253 *° 1260

John,^' occurs 1266

Simon,^' occurs 1275 to 1279

Robert of Withcall,^* occurs 1303 to 13 10

Thomas,^' elected 1312

John ^' (of Louth), elected 1315, occurs 1331

John^' (of Lincoln), elected 1336, occurs

1339
William,^^ occurs 1347

Thomas of NafFcrton,^' occurs 1367 and 1372

Richard of Upton ^

Thomas,'-' elected before 1404

" Harl. MS. 144.

" Lans. MS. 207 C, fol. 132 </.

" Ibid, and Cott. MS. Vesp. E.xx, fol. 38. Dug-
dale's list sets ' Gcofiey, occurs 11 54,' between
Robert and Walter, who are called, however, first and
second abbots in Lans. MS. 207 C, 132 </,

" Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xviii, fol. 97 d.

" Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
41,57,69.

'« Ibid. 88, and Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xviii, fol. 207 d.

" Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xviii, 106 d, 207 ^, and Lans.
MS. 207 C, fols. 126, 156.

'' Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
301 ; Lans. MS. 207 C, fol. 153.

" Mentioned as predecessor of Simon in Cott.
MS. Vesp. E. xviii, fol. 1 90 ; but may not be the
immediate predecessor.

"» Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xviii, fol. 190.

" Ibid. 190, 191 d. ; Lans. MS. 207 C, fol. 114.

" Harl. Chart. 44, F I.

" Ibid. F 3, and Pat. 9 Edw. I, m. 7.

'* Lans. MS. 207 B, fol. 143.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 241.

" Ibid. 314^. and Harl. Chart. 44, F 7.

" Lans. MS. 207 B, fol. 143, and Line. Epis. Reg.
Memo. Burghersh, 337.

" Cal of Pap. Letters, iii, 246.

^ Lans. MS. 207 B, fol. 143 ; Harl. Chart. 44, F 9.

"• Mentioned as predecessor of Thomas, next in
order.

" Cal. of Pap. Letters, v, 610.

137

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Richard Wainfleet,^ occurs 1433
Richard Herbotyl,' occurs 1469
Roger,' occurs 147 1
Ralf,^ occurs 147 1
Thomas/ occurs 1504
John Rawlinson,* occurs 1510 to 1521
John Tadcaster/ occurs 1522
Richard Harrison,* last abbot, occurs from
1529

The pointed oval seal ' of the thirteenth
century represents the Virgin seated on a throne
in a niche with trefoiled arch, crocketed and
pinnacled, with crown, the Child on her left
knee. At each side a shield of arms : on the
left chequy a chief ermine Tattershall, and over
it the letter S with a wavy sprig of foliage and
flowers ; on the- right a cross moline, and over it
the letter K and a wavy sprig. In base, under
a carved arcade of three round-headed arches, the
abbot kneeling in prayer to the right, with
pastoral staff, and two monks, half-length, in
prayer. In the field, over the head of the
Virgin, an estoile ; on the carved canopy on the
right a bird.

SIGILLV • COMVNE ' ABBATIS * ET ' COVENTVS "
SCE • MARIE • DE " KYRKESTEDE •

The thirteenth-century seal of Abbot Simon ^°
is a pointed oval, showing the abbot standing on
a corbel, in the right hand a pastoral staff, and
in the left hand a book.

SIGILLVM • ABBATIS * DE ' KI[rk]esTEDE

19. THE ABBEY OF LOUTH PARK

The abbey of Louth Park was founded in 1 1 39
by Alexander, bishop of Lincoln." The founder
at first offered to Fountains Abbey a site on the
Isle of Haverholme, but when the monks arrived
they asked leave to settle themselves in the
bishop's park at Louth instead. Alexander ac-
cordingly issued a new charter, announcing his
desire, ' since it is very profitable and necessary,
considering the wickedness of these days ... to
provide some deed of justice and purity in this
most miserable life,' to found an abbey, affiliated
to Fountains, on the south side of the town of
Louth. ^^ The reasons for the exchange of place
have been variously presented ; but it is scarcely

' Lans. MS. Z07 B, fol. 143.

' Karl. MS. 6952, fol. 88 (from Line. Epis. Reg.).

' Pat. 1 1 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. 2^1^.

* Comm. of Peace, 49 Hen. VI, m. 24 d.

' Dugdale, Mo». v, 416.

^ Harl. MS. 6953, fol. 14 (from Line. Epis. Reg.) ;
L. and P. Hen. Fill, i, 663, and iii, 1379 {^^)-

' Line. N. and Q. v, 36.

^ L. and P. Henry nil, iv (3), p. 2698.

=■ B. M. Seals, Ixii, 92.
" Harl. Chart. 44, F 3.

" Chronkon Abbat. de Parco Ludae (Line. Rec. See),
under 1139.
" Ibid. Introd. xxvi.

likely that a colony led by Gervase, one of tho!
who had been through all the hardships of tl;
first foundation of Fountains,^' would have bee
influenced by any unworthy motives ; and th
Cistercians of that day were not much moved b
thoughts of comfort or convenience. It seerr
most probable, as Canon Venables suggested, ths
the transference was made because the park a
Louth was more suitable for agriculture (the mai:
occupation of the first Cistercians) than th
swamps of Haverholme.^*

The first endowment received considerable ad
ditions from other benefactors — notably, Rail
earl of Chester, Hugh and Lambert de Scotney
and Hugh of Bayeux.^" At the end of the thir
teenth century the temporalities of the abbe^
were worth more than ;^200 a year.^^ Its pro
sperity had not, however, been uninterrupte(
during this time, for the chronicler of the housi
tells us that Richard of Dunholm, who becami
abbot in 1246, raised his house 'from dust an<
ashes.' ^' It is said that the extortions of Kinj
John from this abbey alone amounted to 1, 68c
marks.^* Towards the end of the century th(
abbot had to maintain a long suit to secure thi
profits of his wool — the most important source o
revenue at this time for the houses of his order.^
In another suit with William of Ghent he hac
to complain of the loss of 100 sheep whicl
William's servants had destroyed by rougl
handling, in what he called ' his usual quarterlj
scrutiny,' to see if the right number and no more
were being pastured on his lands at Binbrooke.^'
In 1279 the abbot was accused of harbouring e
felon,^^ and about the same time of encroaching
on the king's highway.^^ Like many other houses,
this abbey had occasionally to provide mainten-
ance for the king's servants who were past work,^'
or a horse to carry the rolls of chancery.^'
During the time of Walter of Louth (1332 tc
1349) there vi^ere some heavy losses. A com-
plaint was made in 1336 that a certain Thomsa
of Lissington had carried off 20 horses, 30 oxen,
and 300 sheep belonging to the monks of Louth ;

" Lans. MS. 207 f. 132 </. He had been sub-prioi
of St. Mary's York.

" Chron. Abhat. de Parco Ludae (Line. Rec. Soc),
xxiv. Lans. MS. 404, fol. 1 9, simply says the place
' displeased ' the monks. Tanner said that they pre-
tended not to like the situation and the bishop easily
found others to accept it — namely, the ' new and
strict order of St. Gilbert.' The Gilbertines at this
time could not have been much stricter than the
Cistercians.

'^ Chron. Abbat. de Parco Ludae, App. ix, and Dugdale,
Mon. v, 413.

'« Pope Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 67.

" Chron. Abbat. de Parco Ludae, under 1 246.

'« Ibid. A" 1 2 10. " Close, 4 Edw. L

*" Chron. Abbat. de Parco Ludae, App. xii.

" Pat. 7 Edw. I, m. 12 d.

'' Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 295.

^ Close, 9, II, and 17 Edw. II.

" Ibid. I Edw. Ill, m. 17 a'.

'38

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

he had hunted in the abbot's free warren, set
cattle to depasture his grass, and assaulted his
servants.'^ In 1338 it was shown that the valua-
tion of the house made in 1291 no longer repre-
sented its income fairly. The abbot, on appeal
to the pope, had it reduced to ;^io6, after a
careful scrutiny by the archbishop of York.^ It
seems that the house was never quite so well
ofF again as it had been during the thirteenth
century.

In 1333 a suit concerning the repair of a
causeway at Flixburgh was lost by the abbot,
but in 1 34 1 the sentence was reversed.^ In 1344
the depressed condition of the abbey was reported
to Parliament, and it was in consequence taken
under the king's protection and placed in the
hands of Thomas Wake, that he might assist the
abbot in discharging his debts.* The gift of
the manor of Cockerington in the same year,
instead of proving a relief to the monks in their
embarrassments, only brought about further litiga-
tion. The case has considerable human interest,
and is worth giving in some detail. Sir Henry
le Vavasour, a knight belonging to a family
well known in Lincolnshire, was taken ill, and
was advised by his physician to go and stay in
the monastery of Louth Park ; in the hope (as his
wife afterwards naively explained) that he might
get well there more quickly than at his own
home, which was perhaps not a very peaceful
one. But he did not recover his health, and
finally died in the monastery. On the day
before his death he sent for a certain John de
Brinkhill, and there, sitting up in his bed in a
dark coloured tunic, he showed a deed by which
he conveyed his manor of Cockerington to the
abbot and convent, on condition that they should
admit ten more monks to the monastery, and
celebrate divine service for his soul for ever.
John de Brinkhill and others were made exe-
cutors of the deed, and charged to carry it into
effect at once. The dying knight had not, how-
ever, quite sufficient courage to confide his pur-
pose to his wife. Dame Constance. She was,
indeed, sent for to be present at the signing of
the deeds ; but their contents were not read to
her, and she imagined that they were being
made for her advantage. Her husband meanwhile
sat silent in his bed and watched the pro-
ceedings. He died the next day, and to her
dismay Constance found his executors already
in possession of the manor.' She was not in-
clined to take her losses quietly. It was soon
rumoured abroad that the abbot had forged the
conveyance ; and not long afterwards he had

' Pat. 10 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 42 d.

' Cal. of Pap. Letters, ii, 395, 528, 542; Pat.
2 Edvsr. Ill, pt. i, m. 36.

' Pat. 15 Edvir. Ill, pt. i, m. 37.

• Ibid. 18 Edvir. Ill, pt. ii, m. 30 and 28.

' The story may be gathered from the depositions
made at the inquisition of 1345. Ibid. 19 Edv/. Ill,
m. 14, 15.

to complain that Constance and others had
broken his closes and carried away some of his
goods, especially a box containing deeds and
muniments.* Constance retaliated by a counter-
charge of violence done to herself.' In conse-
quence of these disturbances of the peace an
inquisition was held in 1345, and the witnesses
who were called proved beyond doubt that the
deeds were genuine and that Henry le Vavasour
had acted of his own free will. An exemplifica-
tion of the results was made in the following
November : the manor was to remain in the
possession of the abbot, but he was to pay
Constance and her son Roger 100 marks yearly,
and to Roger after his mother's death 20 marks,
out of its profits. The abbot had to give a bond
of ;^i,000 as security that he would fulfil this
agreement.^ Later the Vavasours were still in
possession of the manor of Cockerington, the
abbot holding lands there.'

A few years later the great pestilence carried
ofiF the abbot and many of his monks,^" and
brought fresh losses to the house. In 1404 the
church of Fulstow was appropriated on account
of the poverty to which the abbey was reduced.^^
It is said that in the thirteenth century there
were 66 monks and 150 lay brethren,^^ but
in 1536, when the house surrendered, there
were only ten besides the abbot.^' Being of less
value than ;^200 a year it was dissolved under
the first Act of Suppression on 8 September,
1536." George Walker, the last abbot, received
a pension of ^26 13^. i^d. ; his monks had
£^\ 6s. Sd. divided among them as ' wages due,'
with 20s. apiece to buy them secular apparel, and
' capacities ' to serve as secular priests — if, indeed,
they could find an altar anywhere to serve.^^
One of the monks thus disbanded played an active
part in the rising of the following October. In
his depositions at the trial he gives a picture of
those unquiet days which is full of lifelike
touches. He tells how he and his brethren re-
ceived 'capacities,' with scanty hope of ever
finding opportunity to use them ; and how they
lived for a while as near as they might to their
old monastery, only going out to hear mass in the
parish church, and once or twice to meet and

= Pat. 19 Edw. Ill, m. 3i</.

'Ibid. m. igd.

^ Ibid. m. 14-15. The chronicler of the abbey
remarks that the abbot ' underwent a very great
persecution on account of the manor of Cocker-
ington ; and was buried ' (when he died in the great
pestilence) ' before the high altar near Sir Henry
Vavassour, Kt.'

' Ingoldmells Ct. R. xxv.

" CAron. /iiiat. de Parco Ludae, A° 1 349.

" Cal. of Pap. Letters, v, 61 1.

" Chron. Abbat. de Parco Ludae, A° 1 246.

" Mins. Accts. 28-29 Henry VIII, No. 166.

" The date is given in the course of the depositions
of a monk after the Lincoln Rebellion. Chapter House
Book 119, fols. 91-129,

" Ibid.

139

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

speak with one another. On the Monday of
the outbreak at Louth, when he was at breakfast
with Robert Hert, one of his late brethren, at the
house of a butcher, he heard the alarm bell rung
for the first time. The history of the events
which followed does not belong to this place.
It only needs here to note that this monk,
William Moreland or Borrowby, made his de-
position with frankness and simplicity, and no
attempt to save himself at the expense of others.
He was swept into the mob at Louth whether
he would or not, but afterwards seems to have
played his part willingly enough. He did what
he could to prevent acts of violence, saving the
life of John Heneage, the chancellor's proctor,
under the market cross, and thrusting through
the crowd a little later to shrive and help the
fallen servant of Lord Burgh. He owned that
he had for a while worn sword and buckler ;
at another time a ' breastplate and sleeves of mail
with a gorget. ' ^ It is scarcely wonderful that
when conspicuous examples were selected for
execution his name could not be passed over.
He was condemned to a traitor's death in March,
1537, with the abbot of Barlings and others.'

There are no episcopal visitations from which
to gather materials for the history of this monas-
tery on the interior side. It must have begun
happily with Gervase of Fountains as its first
abbot. In the thirteenth century it had an
honourable reputation when Richard of Dun-
holm 'appeared in the sight of his people as it
were a second Moses, lovable and exceeding
meek,' and by his good governance greatly in-
creased the resources of the house, adding to its
buildings, and supplying it with books and vest-
ments.^ At the time of the dissolution no com-
plaint is recorded against the monks of Louth,
nor do they seem to have been overjoyed at
their release from conventual discipline.

The original endowment of the abbey by
Bishop Alexander seems to have consisted simply
of the demesne land with some pasturage and a
mill.* The long list of benefactors in the con-
firmation charter of Henry III^ shows how
many gifts were added soon after, mostly in the
county of Lincoln. Hasculf Musard gave the
manor of Brampton, Derbyshire." The churches
of Fulstow ^ and Harpswell * also belonged to the
abbey at a later date. The temporalities of the
abbey in 1291 amounted to ^li^i) gs. 3^.° In
1303 the abbot held a quarter of a knight's fee

' The whole story is set out in detail in Gasquet,
Henry FIJI and the English Monasteries, ii, 55-61.

' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii (i), 734 ; he is here called
William Burreby of Louth, ii, 83.

^ Ciron. Abbat. deParco Ludae, A° 1246.

* Ibid. xxvi.

'Dugdale, Mon. v, 413.

^ Chron. Abbat. de Parco Ludae, xxvii.

'Pat. 7 Rich. II, pt. i, m. 3.

°Ibid. 10 Hen. IV, pt. I, m. 9.

^Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 67.

in Gayton, one-quarter in Newton, three-quarters
in East Ravendale, one-third in Lissington, one-
sixth in Croxby and in Keddington, as well as
smaller fractions in Thorganby, Ormsby and
Ketby, Keddington, Wold Newton, Cockering-
ton, Lissington, Tathwell, Croxby, Fulstow, Bin-
brooke, Covenham, and Messingham.^" In 1346
he held the same, except for the lands in Gayton,
and one twenty-sixth in Croxby.^"^ In 1428 he
shared one fee with the prioress of Legbourne
in Legbourne and Cawthorpe ; he held with
others half a fee in Farlesthorpe and Thurlby,
and had fractions of fees in Alvingham, Ked-
dington, Cockerington, Saltfleetby, Aby, Strubby,
Legbourne, and Skidbrooke.^' The clear value of
the abbey in 1534 was only ^^147 14J. 6J^."
At the dissolution in 1536 the churches of
Fulstow and Harpswell belonged still to the
abbey, with the manors of Grimoldby, Fulstow,
Croxby, Alvingham, Huttoft, Thurlby (Lines.),
Burley (Derbyshire), and Hoke (Yorks), as well
as several granges : valued by the crown bailiff
at ;^267 5/. 2d. in all."

Abbots of Louth Park

Gervase,^^ first abbot, 1139

Ralf," occurs 1155

John,^' occurs 1197 and 1202

Warin,^* occurs 1207

Richard"

Bernard 2"

Richard of Dunholm,^^ elected 1227, died

1246
John of Louth,^' died 1261
Walter Pylath,'' elected 1 261, resigned 1273
Alan of Ake,^* elected 1273, occurs 1281
Gilbert Peacock,^' elected 1294, resigned 1308

^'' Feud. Aids, iii, 133-73.

"Ibid. 217-39. ''Ibid. 256-302.

^FalorEccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 58.

"Mins. Accts. (27-28 Hen. VIII), No. 91. The
valuation of the bells and lead of this monastery
at the large sum of ^^598 13/. (ibid. No. 166), twice
as much as any of the other houses dissolved at this
time, shows how very extensive and handsome the
monastic buildings must have been in earlier and
more prosperous days. The vestments and other
movable property are also said to have realized
another large sum. Gasquet, Hen. Fill and the
English Monasteries, ii, 47.

"Lans. MS. 207 C, fol. 1321/.

"Ibid. fol. 163.

" Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
8, 30.

''Ibid. 75. "Lans. MS. 207 E, fol. 219.

^o Ibid. fol. 522.

'' Chron. Abbat. de Parco Ludae.

" Ibid. »' Ibid.

"Ibid. The occurrence 1 28 1 is Pat. 9 Edw. I,

'" Ibid. His election is also found in Line. Epis. Reg.
Memo. Sutton, 109 ; and another abbot (unnamed)
received the episcopal benediction in 1 29 1 (ibid. 34),
possibly at the resignation of Alan, who did not die
till 1304.

140

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Hobert of Algarkirk,^ elected 1308, resigned

1312
Adam of Louth,^ elected 1312, resigned 1320
Gilbert Peacock,' re-elected 1320, died 1332
Walter of Louth/ elected 1332, died 1349
Richard of Lincoln,^ elected 1349, occurs

1355
Robert,* occurs 1380
William,'' occurs 1391 and 1405
Thomas Wale,* died 1467
George Walker,' last abbot, occurs 1529

The thirteenth-century pointed oval seal of
Louth Park ^^ shows a dexter hand and vested
arm issuing from the right, holding a pastoral
staff. In the field two small estoiles.

contrasigilVm d' parcolvde

Abbot Warin's thirteenth - century pointed
oval seal ^^ shows the abbot standing on a corbel
■or bracket, in the right hand a pastoral staff; in
the left hand a book,

SIGILLVM ABBATIS DE PARCO LVDE

20. THE ABBEY OF REVESBY

The abbey of Revesby was founded in 1 142
by William de Romara, lord of Bolingbroke,
and son of Lucy countess of Chester by a former
husband.^^ William de Romara himself ended
his days as a monk, and was buried in the house
of his foundation.^' The first monks of Revesby
■were sent from Rievaulx by St. Ailred.^* The
benefactions of the founder were confirmed and
increased by his grandson and by Ranulf earl of
■Chester.^'

The house was fairly well endowed, and even
at the last did not come under the first Act of
Suppression : but it has not a very eventful
history. In 1216a certain brother of Revesby
■was arrested for having taken part in the war
against King John : but he was released when
it was found that he had taken the habit before
the war began.^^ There are entries on the Close
Rolls relating to this house which serve to show
some of the burdens of royal patronage. Here,

' Chron. Abhat. de Parco Ludae and Line. Epis.
Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 123 </.

'Ibid. 241. 'Ibid.

' Ibid.

'Ibid, and Lans. MS. 207 C, fol. 253.
°Pat. 14 Rich. II, pt. ii, m. 37./.
'Ibid, and Cal. of Pap. Letters, vi, 10.
*Harl. MS. 6952, fol. 88</. (from Line. Epis.
Reg.).

^L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (3), 2698.

'» Harl. Chart. 45 H, 19. " Ibid. 44 H, 49.

" Dugdale, Mon. v, 45 3 ; from the Chron. of Peterb.

The house was dedicated in honour of St. Mary and

St. Laurence, and is frequently called by the latter

name only. Cistercian abbeys were nearly always

dedicated to the honour of our Lady.

" G. E. C. Peerage.

" Dugdale, Mon. v, 45 3. " Ibid.

"Pat. I Hen. Ill, m. 16.

as elsewhere, the second and third Edwards were
wont to send their old servants to be maintained
in the monastery. In 1322, when another of
these unwelcome pensioners appeared, the abbot
and convent ventured to send him back, and to
plead with the king that their house was in great
need and poverty by reason of the prolonged barren-
ness of their lands and the death of nearly all their
stock ; but Edward II considered the excuse insuflS-
cient, and returned the man again to the abbey to
be kept for at least two years." Another duty of
the abbot was to provide a strong horse to carry
the roll of chancery. In 1322 the one sent for
this purpose was found ' insufficient and useless
for the said work, on account of various infirmi-
ties in his limbs.' He was therefore sent back
to the abbey, with orders to provide another.^*

In 1335 the escheator seized certain lands
acquired in mortmain without licence, but was
ordered to release them, as the abbot and convent
had already been pardoned on this account.^'
The monks had a further cause of distress in
1340. Wool had been bought of the abbot by
the king to the value of ;^ii5, with a promise
of payment in the course of the year : but time
passed and the debt still remained standing. In
1340 the abbot besought the king to advance at
least a part of the money, as his house was much
depressed by the loss of so much wool without
recompense. The slender sum of ^i/^ i^s. "jd.
was paid by the tithe-collector in answer to this
petition,^" and perhaps the rest may have come
in later ; but as the Cistercians depended aknost
entirely on their wool for their sustenance, it
may be understood that the loss was a serious
one at the time. In 1382 the abbot received a
licence to acquire the manor of Mareham in
mortmain,^^ as a help to repair the fallen fortunes
of the house at this time.

Nothing further is known of the history of
Revesby until 1527, when the inhabitants of
Sibsey and Stickney brought a suit against the
abbot for not repairing the causeway and bridge
of Northdyke. They stated that for time out
of mind the abbot's predecessors had been liable
to repair this bridge, over which all their trade
passed to Boston, and that lands had been granted
to the abbey for this very purpose by William de
Romara in the time of King Henry II. The
jurors found that the claim of the people was
just, and that the abbot had a free tenement
' where the hermitage stands by the bridge ; ' and
here he used to place a hermit or ' some other
sufficient man ' to see to the repairs.^^ This
suit certainly provides us with a curious insight
into the possible uses of a hermit.

"Close, 15 Edw. II, m. 3 a'.
"Ibid. 6 Edw. Ill, m. 31.
"Ibid. 9 Edw. Ill, m. I.
'"Ibid. 14 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 39.
" Pat. 6 Rich, n, pt. i, m. 10. They had suffered
recently from severe storms.
^ Star Chamber Proc. bdle. 151, No. 31.

141

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

It was asserted by one of the witnesses after
the Lincoln Rebellion that monks ofRevesby,
as well as those of Bardney and Kirkstead, were
seen in the field among the insurgents ; ^ but
none of them was brought to trial.

The last notice of the house that we possess
is in 1538, when the Duke of Norfolk wrote to
Cromwell that it was in great ruin and decay.
' The father of the house,' he said, ' is a good
fatherly man, but no husband,' and it would be
better to advance the cellarer, a kinsman of Sir
Thomas Russhe, to be abbot ; Dr. London
was of the same opinion.^ This last notice is
the only one which touches on the interior his-
tory of the house. We may infer from it that
there was no fault to find with its moral con-
dition, but its revenues had been latterly some-
what mismanaged.

The date of surrender cannot be exactly given,
and there are no pension lists extant for this
monastery.

The original endowment of Revesby included
the lands of Revesby, Thoresby, and Scithesby,
with the church of the last place and that of
Hagnaby.' In 1291 the abbot had temporalities
in the deaneries of Horncastle, Hill, Boling-
broke, Candleshoe, Grimsby, Walshcroft, Hol-
land, Gartree, Aslackhoe, Corringham and
Lawres, valued at ;^294 11^. 8^.* In 1303 the
abbot held one knight's fee in Claxby, one-third
in Fillingham and two-thirds at Tetford, three-
quarters in Salmonby, Scrafield and Hamering-
ham, and smaller fractions in Walesby,
Hagworthingham, and Otby.* In 1346 and
1428 the returns are almost the same as in
1303.* In 1384 the king confirmed, at the
^request of the abbot and convent, who had ac-
quired the manor of Mareham, the grant of
20 Edward I to Robert de Bavent of a weekly
market and a yearly fair there.' The yearly
revenue of the abbey was valued in 1534 at
£,28 J 2s. 4.^d. clear, including the rectories
of Frodingham and Theddlethorpe, and the
chapels of St. Laurence and St. Osyth, as well as
the manors of Mareham-le-Fen, Stickney, Sibney,
Hameringham, Hagnaby, East Keal, Toynton,
Claxby, and Marvis Enderby.'

There are no Ministers' Accounts for this
house. At the time of dissolution alms were
distributed annually to the value of 23^. for the
soul of Master Edward Heven ; 4^. were given
annually to the poor of Frodingham, and to two

' L. and P. Hen. VIII, xi, 828.

' Ibid, xiii (l), 1209.

' Dugdale, Mon. v, 453, and Hist. MSS. Cm. Ref>.
vi, 235-

* PopeNkh. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 6t, and Pat. 16
Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 10.

' Feud. Aids, iii, 134-72.

' Ibid. 214-63, and 276-306.

' Cal.ofPat. 1381-5, p. 383.

^ Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 44 ; and L. and P.
Hen. VIII, xW(i), 651 (58).

poor persons also by the will of a former arch
deacon of Lincoln.

Abbots of Revesby

William,' first abbot, 1142

Walo,^" occurs 1 1 5 5

Hugh," occurs 11 76 and 1200

Ralf,^^ occurs 1208

Elias,^' occurs 121 6 and 1231

Matthew "

William,^' occurs 1255

Walter,^* occurs 1257 ^""^ 1263

Robert,^' occurs 1275

Henry,^* occurs 1291

Walter," elected 1294

Philip,^" occurs 1294

Henry ,^^ elected 1 30 1, occurs 13 14

Henry,^^ occurs 1385

John de Toft,^' occurs 1390

Thomas,^^ (Stickney) occurs 1504—32

Robert Styk or Banbury,^' occurs 1536

John,^^ occurs 1537

The pointed oval common seal of Revesby ^'
represents the Virgin with crown standing in a
carved niche, with pinnacled canopy and taber-
nacle work at the sides, the Child on the left
arm. Outside in the field on each side a wavy
branch. In base, under a carved arch, St.
Laurence kneeling to the left holding a gridiron.
The seal is of the style of the fourteenth cen-
tury.

s' coMVNE : abbatis : et : cSventvs : de :

REVESBY

A pointed oval twelfth-century^^ seal of an
abbot represents a dexter hand and vested arm

'Dugdale, Mon. v, 454 (Charter I).
"Lans. MS. 207 C. fol. 163.
" Harl. Chart. 44, i, 3 ; Boyd and Massingberd,
Abstracts of Final Concords, 14.

'^ Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,

93-

"Close, 9 Edw. Ill, m. i ; ibid. 14 Henry III,
m. I4<^.; Boyd and yi^sixa^txi.. Abstracts of Finat
Concords, 229.

"Dugdale, Mon. v, 453, assigns to the thirteenth
century without exact date.

'* Close, 9 Edw. Ill, m. i.

"Dugdale, Mon. v, 453 ; and Close, 9 Edw. Ill,
m. I.

"Close, 9 Edw. Ill, m. i.

" Abbrev. Rot. Orig. (Rec. Com.), i, 67.

'' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton, 1 09 d.

'"Ibid. 124 a'.

" Ibid. Memo. Dalderby, 42 ; Dugdale, Mon. v,

453-

" Pat. 9 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 9.

" Dugdale, Mon. v, 453.

'* L. and P. Hen. VIII, i, 663 ; Star Chambei
Proc. bdle. 151, No. 31.

" Dugdale, Mon. v, 453.

»« Harl. Chart. 44 I, i, 2.

'' Harl. Chart. 44 I, 2.

'' B.M. Seals, Ixvii, 26,

142

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

issuing from the right and grasping a pastoral
staff, between four estoiles.

SIGILLVM : ABBATIS : d' : SCO : LAVRENTIO

A pointed oval seal of Abbot Henry ^ shows
the Virgin with crown, seated in a canopied niche
with tabernacle work at the sides, the Child on
the right arm, in the left hand a sceptre. A
corbel of masonry in base.

SIGILLVM • HENRICI ' ABB'tIS • MONASTERII • DE
REVESBY

The borders are cabled.

21. THE ABBEY OF VAUDEY

The abbey of Vaudey, or Vallis Dei, was
founded in 1 147 by William earl of Albemarle;
like Kirkstead and Louth Park, it was a daughter
house of Fountains Abbey.^ The chronicler of
Fountains relates that the first settlement was
made at Bytham ; but the monks finding the place
in some ways unsuitable moved to a new site in
the parish of Edenham, with the permission of
Geoffrey de Brachecourt, a tenant of Gilbert of
Ghent, whose land it was.' Geoffrey gave them
all his lands and goods in exchange for corrodies
for himself, his wife, and two servants : he and
his wife were to have such food as the monks
had, and his servants were to fare as their ser-
vants.'' Gilbert of Ghent granted to the monks
certain woods and pastures : Robert of Ghent,
Adam de Amundeville, Baldwin Fitz Gilbert,
Hugh Wake and other benefactors added further
gifts.6 The profits of their wool for a while
brought to the monks of Vaudey a considerable
income, which in 1 291 was over j^200,^ and
the house seems in the thirteenth century to
have been of some importance : an abbot of
Vaudey was sent in 1229 in the king's name to
bear messages to Llewellyn, prince of Wales.'
The monastery was at this time also involved in
an interesting suit with Maurice of Ghent as to
a right of way. It was found in an inquisition
taken in 1 230 that the abbot used habitually to
send horses and carts to Irnham through a wood
and headland which had belonged to Richard of
Langton ; sometimes they were seized and some-
times not. The wood had now passed to
Maurice of Ghent, who objected to the abbot's
■carts driving through. It was decided, however,
that the abbot had established his right of way
before Maurice came into possession, and he was
consequently allowed to retain it.* He had,

' B.M. Seals, Ixvii, 28.

' Lans. MS. 404, fol. 25. ' Ibid.

* Geoffrey and his wife were to receive clothes
from the monastery — his to be of ' griseng vel hal-
berget,' and hers of ' ad carino bluet ' ; both to be
lined with lambskins. The servants were to have
food only, not clothes. Dugdale, Mon. v, 490.

' Ibid, and Ca/. of Chart. R. i, 3, 50.

* Dugdale, Mon. v, 489.

' Pat. 1 3 Hen. Ill, m. 6.

* Bracton's NoU Book, case 4 1 4.

however, to forfeit through default 140 acres in
Irnham, to which Maurice had laid claim : he
did not appear on the day appointed to try the
case — possibly because he knew he could not
maintain his position.'

The prosperity of the house seems to have
declined rapidly in the thirteenth century. As
early as 1292 it was taken under the king's
protection in terms that suggest that its creditors
were becoming importunate : ^"and between 1321
and 1338 the Close Rolls contain a great many
acknowledgements of debt to certain merchants
of Genoa, Lucca, and Florence, as well as to the
bishop of Ely and others." In 1323 the abbot
was obliged to demise his manor of Sewstern
(Leics.) to the chaplains of Kirkby Bellers for a
term of eighty years, and for the sake of getting
a little ready money accepted a fixed sum in
commutation of the rent for the entire period. ^^
In 1 33 1 he acknowledged debts to the value of
{/i'2.2^^ others in 1335 amounting to ;^i6o,^^ in
1336 to ;^i5o,"and in 1338 to ^260." In
1347 he was accused of yielding to the very
natural temptation of concealing and appro-
priating buried treasure, which the monks had
found in the fields of Vaudey." Nevertheless in
the same year he received a remission of tenths
for two years, granted by the king out of com-
passion for the state of the abbey, which ' by
unwonted adversities ' was brought so low that
its goods scarcely sufficed for the sustenance of
the monks.^' The king also promised to repay a
small sum of money lent him for the French
war.^' The great pestilence following immedi-
ately must have added to the difficulties of the
house: and in 1382 it was for a while seized
into the king's hands as an alien abbey, and lost
the right of presentation to its appropriate
churches.^" The revenue of the monastery in
1534 was considerably lower than it had been
in 1 29 1. It was dissolved under the first Act
of Suppression in 1536, the last abbot receiving
a pension of ;^20, and his ten monks, after
arrears of 'wages' were paid, 20x. apiece to
provide for all future necessities.^^

In the days of its prosperity during the thir-
teenth century the abbey of Vaudey seems to
have been in good standing in the order. One
of its abbots in 1280 was empowered to arrest

° Bracton's 'Note Book, case 1737.

"Pat. 20 Edw. I, m. 12.

" Close, 14 Edw. II to 12 Edw. III.

"Pat. 17 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 8.

"Close, 5 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. lid.; ibid.
6 Edw. Ill, m. 39(/.

" Ibid. 9 Edw. Ill, m. 3 1 </.

''Ibid. 10 Edw. Ill, m. \id.

"Ibid 12 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. \Qd.\ pt. ii, m. zd.\
pt. iii, m. 17 a'.

'' Pat. 2 1 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 3 1 d.

"Ibid. pt. iii, m. 36.

" Ibid. pt. ii, m. 24.

"Ibid. 6 Rich. II, pt. i, m. 21.

"Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 166.

143

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

all vagabond Cistercians, monks or lay brethren,
by the help of the secular arm, and to inflict
punishment upon them according to the needs of
the case.^ Nothing further is known of the
interior history of the house until the sixteenth
century, though it was doubtless visited regularly
by the abbot of Fountains. An important visi-
tation is recorded in 1532. Abbot Henry Saxton
had been accused of neglect of divine service and
other ' misgovernances,' and a joint visitation was
made by the abbots of Fountains, Woburn, and
Pipewell. At its close he was requested to resign,
with a suitable pension ; whereupon he wrote to
Cromwell (whose friendship for him is not
necessarily an evidence in his favour), and
begged him to use his influence to reverse the
sentence. He stated that he had found his
house ;^48o in debt, and had paid off every
penny, increasing its income by ;^I3 6s. 8d., in
spite of the falling down of the nave of his church
and the loss of 1,000 sheep by the rot ; and he
hinted at the same time that the real reason for
his deposition was the desire of the abbot of
Woburn to promote his own cellarer to the
vacant post. A ' poor token ' was sent with
this letter to speed it on its way.^ Cromwell in
consequence wrote to the abbot of Woburn and
accused him of * inward grudge ' against the
abbot of Vaudey, and of desire to promote his
own cellarer. ' I pray you,' he proceeded, ' use
yourself to my friend according to your religion,
for he is a good religious man, and has got his
house out of great debt,' further suggesting that a
certain monk of Vaudey, then at Woburn,
should be instructed ' so fruitfully that he shall
not need to be further reconciled to amend his
living.' ^ The answer of the abbot of Woburn
was quiet and dignified. He was sorry that
Cromwell had such an ill opinion of him ; but
he had only done his duty. Accusations had
been fully proved against the abbot of Vaudey as
to misgovernance of himself and his brethren,
and neglect of divine service, which there was no
need to describe in detail ; they were sufficient
to justify the sentence passed. However, in
consideration of Cromwell's letter, and others
who had interceded on behalf of the offending
abbot, the visitors were ready to abate somewhat
of the rigour of justice, and had urged him to
avoid the disgrace of deposition by resigning of
his own accord on a pension of ;^20 a year. He
had indeed already offered to resign, and was * not
only well content, but had reason to be so.' *

" Pat. 8 Edw. I, m. 4.

» L. and P. Hen. Fill, v, 1477.

' Ibid, vi, 778.

* Ibid. 779. For the character of this abbot, which
adds to the value of his evidence, see F. C. H. Beds, i,
396-70. The resignation was evidently, as arranged,
about Michaelmas ; Henry Saxton's name occurs for
the last time in 1 5 32. William Stile was abbot in
August, 1533. Whether he had been previously
cellarer at Woburn does not appear.

The last abbot's term of office was short,
the house was dissolved in 1536. Three
least of the monks of Vaudey were glad to ta
refuge at Kirkstead Abbey rather than return
the world, and these were singled out for exec
tion when that abbey was attainted, after t
rising in which they had willingly or unwilling
played a part."

The original endowment of the abbey
Vaudey consisted of the site, with twelve car
cates and seven bovates of land given by Gilb(
of Ghent.' Ralf de Bruer granted his demes
land in the manor of Edenham.' In 1227 t
abbot had several granges — North and Sou
Grange, Ropsley, Lavington, Burton, Saltl:
Sewstern, Thorpe, with mills and small
parcels of land in the counties of Lincoln aj
Leicester.* In 1291 his temporalities we
assessed at ;^23i 14^. jd.^ In 1303 the abb
held half a fee in Edenham and in Swinstea
one-quarter in Broughton, one-quarter and on
third in Heydor and Oisby. In 1428 he he
in addition one fee in Welby, one-eighth
Ingoldsby, Corby and Easton, and smaller po
tions in Londonthorpe, Scottlethorpe and Hai
beck.^" In 1534 the clear revenue of the abbi
was only ^^124 5^. ii^i." The Ministers' A
counts give a total of £i<)^ 3^. i\d., includii
the manors '.of Swinstead, Edenham, Scottl
thorpe, Morton, Ingoldsby, Burton Lazars, Dall
and Saltby, Welby, Creton and Cowthorp
Manthorpe and Burton.^^

Abbots of Vaudey

Warin,^' first abbot, 1147
Richard,^* occurs 1204
William,^" occurs 1219
Nicholas,^' occurs 1227 to 1232
Godfrey," occurs 1245
Henry,^* occurs 1254
Simon,^' elected 1 3 13
Walter,^** occurs 1323 and 1325

' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xi, 828, viii ; and Centre
ment Roll, 30 Henry VIII, m. 6.

" Dugdale, Mon. v, 489 ; Hund. R. (Rec. Com.),
260.

' Cal. of Chart. R. i, 50. ' Ibid i,

° Dugdale, Mon. v, 489.

'" Feud. Jids, iii.

" FalorEccles. (Rec. Com.), iv. 98.

" Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 91. T)
bells and lead were worth ;^202 7/. Ibid. No. 16

" Lans. MS. 207 E, fol. 596. 'A' occurs in tl
twelfth century, ibid. 210.

" Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concert
63.

" Lans. MS. 207 C, fol. 206.

'° Pat. 1 1 Hen. Ill, m. z d.; Boyd and Massin:
herd, Abstracts of Final Concords, 248-9.

" Lines. N. and Q. vii, 1 2.

" Lans. MS. 207 C, fol. 98.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 263 d.

"' Pat. 17 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 8 ; ibid. 19 Edw. 1
pt. i, m. 21 d.

144

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

John,^ occurs 1 33 1 to 1338

Thomas Cleseby,^ elected 1459

Henry Saxton,^ occurs 1529, resigned 1532

William Stile,* last abbot, elected 1532

A thirteenth-century seal ^ shows an orna-
mental tree of three branches, on each side
branch a bird regardant, and in its beak a sprig
of foliage. At the side of the trunk two small
birds.

SIG

A pointed oval seal of a thirteenth-century
abbot ^ shows the abbot standing on a platform,
in the right hand a pastoral staff, in the left hand
a book.

SIG ... M • ABBAT . . . DE • VA

DEI.

22. THE ABBEY OF SWINESHEAD

The abbey of Swineshead was founded by
Robert de Gresley about the year 11 48.' The
monks who first settled there were a colony from
Furness Abbey.* The founder and his son
Albert endowed the monastery with 240 acres
of demesne land ' and other gifts. Other bene-
factors were Stephen earl of Brittany, Robert
d'Arcy, Alan de Croun, Gilbert of Ghent,
Henry de Longchamp, Simon earl of Montfort,
and many of less note.'^" Extremely little is
known of the history of this house, and yet it
must have been a fairly large and important one
in early days, as even at the dissolution the bells
and lead were worth ^^274 35." King John
spent a short time there after that disastrous pass-
age of the Wash when he lost the crown jewels.*^
A late tradition also represents him as dying
within the precincts of the monastery." There
are but few suits recorded of this house, and none
of them are important. In 1338 Henry de
Beaumont, earl of Bohun, complained that the
abbot and others had committed divers trespasses

'Close, 5 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 18 .j".; ibid. 12
Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 2 d.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Chedworth, 54.
' L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv (3), 2698, and ibid, vi,
778-9.

* Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 166 ; he
occurs under 1533, and also in 1536 receives pension.
' B.M. Seals, Ixvii, 50.
" Harl. Chart. 45 A, 25.

' The Chron. of Peterb. gives the year 1 1 34, but
the Book of Furness, which gives 1148, is more
likely to be correct, as it was from Furness that the
monks of Swineshead came. Furness Coucher (Cheet-
ham Soc), ix (i), 1 1.

' Cal. of Pap. Letters, v, 346.

' Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 306 ; Cart. Antiq. Y, I 3.
'« Ibid.

" Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 166.
" Matt. Paris, Chon. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 667.
" Chron. of the Reign ofStephen{^o\\s Ser.), &c., vol. ii,
A" 1 2 1 6. The words ' veneno extinctus apud
Swineshead,' &c., are not in the older MS. of this
chronicle.

on his free warren, fisheries, and pastures, at
Folkingham and elsewhere.'*

The revenue of Swineshead Abbey in 1534
was less than ;^200 ; it therefore fell under the
first Act of Suppression. The abbot, John
Haddingham, received a pension of ;^24 a year.
The monks, ten in number, were paid off in the
usual way, with 20s. apiece and * capacities.' ^*

The interior history of Swineshead is as
difiicult to recover as the exterior. One of its
earliest abbots attained considerable literary fame ;
this was Gilbert of Hoyland, who had evidently
been an intimate friend and disciple of St.
Bernard. He had the honour of continuing (not
unworthily, as they say who are best able to
judge) his master's beautiful commentary on the
Song of Songs. St. Bernard carried the work
nearly to the end of the second chapter. Gilbert
went on with it till he also was interrupted by
death, before he had reached the end of the
fourth chapter.^* Under his rule we may well be-
lieve that the primitive simplicity of the Cistercian
ideal was maintained at Swineshead, and his
good influence extended beyond the walls of his
own monastery.^' We know that the standard
of the whole order became lower afterwards
with the increase of its wealth ; but there is no
evidence that it was conspicuously low in this
abbey. The absence of records tells rather in
the opposite direction. There were three monks
who left the house in 1329,^* and carried away
some of its goods, and another apostate was
absolved in 1 341 : ^' such cases prove very little.
The monastery was doubtless visited from time
to time, according to the custom of the order, by
the abbot of Furness ; we hear of one such
visitation in 1401. A certain Ralf de Byker
was at that time accused of having laid violent
hands upon a former abbot, and of having stolen
goods belonging to the monastery ; as he failed
to clear himself the visitor ordered him to be
imprisoned. The discipline of the order seems
to have been severe at the time, for Ralf de Byker
was so afraid of it that he fled' the house early
the next morning ; but a little later, wearying of
the secular habit, he entered the abbey of St.
Mary Graces in London, went through a new
novitiate there, and was professed a second time.
When the facts came to light a little later, he

" Pat. 1 2 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 9 d.

" Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 166.

" Dr. S. Eales, Works of St. Bernard (Engl, trans.),
vol. iv, introd. Dr. Littledale also says the ser-
mons of Gilbert ' approach more nearly than any
others to the beauty and fervour' of St. Bernard's
style (Commentary on the Song of Songs, introd. xxxvi).
His spiritual letters, and a few treatises on mystical
theology ascribed to him, may be found in Migne's
Patroloffa at the end of St. Bernard's works.

" Some of the sermons which form the commentary
were obviously addressed to Cistercian nuns ; perhaps
in some of the Lincolnshire houses.

'* Pat. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 21.

" Cal. of Pap. Letters, ii, 552.

145

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

had to get a dispensation from the pope to stay-
in London instead of returning, as he ought to
have done, to the house of his original profession.
He was then formally absolved and released from
his obedience by the abbot of Swineshead.^

No complaint is recorded against the house at
the time of suppression. It was dissolved simply
because its revenue was less than ;^200 a year.

The original endowment of Swineshead Abbey
consisted of 240 acres in the same vill, with certain
mills and fisheries, and a moiety of the church of
Cotgrave, Nottinghamshire.^ The temporalities
of the house were worth ^i2i i6f. lod. per
annum in 1291.' The abbot was returned
in 1303 and 1346 as holding half a knight's
fee of William son of Robert in Casthorpe.*
In 1534 the income of Swineshead Abbey
was £16"] i$s. 2,^d. clear.' At the dissolution
the crown bailiff's report gives a total of
j£i84 i']s. 8ji., including the rectory of Cot-
grave and the manors of Gosberton and
Quadryng, Great and Little Hale, Cotgrave, and
Hardwick Grange.*

Abbots of Swineshead

Gilbert of Hoyland,' occurs before 1202
William,^ occurs 1202 and 1208

Robert Denton," occurs 1203
GeofFrey,^^ occurs 1240
Lambert,^' occurs 1298
John," elected 1308, occurs 1338
William,^' occurs 1 40 1
John Haddingham^' (or Addingham), last abbe
occurs 1529.

The pointed oval fourteenth-century seal
represents an abbot full length, in the right har
a pastoral staff, in the left hand a book, wit
three monks on each side, under a carved cinqu(
foiled arch or canopy, crocketed. Above a
embattled parapet, in a niche with carved og(
arch, having a flying buttress at each side, tl
Virgin, with crown, seated, the Child on tl
left knee. In the field, three estoiles ; in basi
a boar's head.

. . . BATIS ET CONVENTUS DE LOCO BEATE
MARIE DE SWYNESHEVED IN HOLAND

The seal of Abbot Jordan ^* is also pointe
oval, representing the abbot standing on a corbe
in the right hand a pastoral staflF, in the left han
a book.

SIGILLI ABBATIS DE SWINESHEVED

HOUSES OF CISTERCIAN NUNS

23. THE PRIORY OF STIXWOULD

The seven Cistercian nunneries ' of Lincoln-
shire were all founded in the twelfth century,
and all but one during the first half of it ; but it
is hard to say which was actually the earliest, as
none can be exactly dated. Perhaps the priory
of Stixwould has as good a claim as any ; it was
founded by Lucy countess of Chester,^" who
could not possibly have lived far into the reign of
Stephen, and may have endowed this house even
under Henry I. Her son Ranulf, who died
1 153, was also a benefactor of Stixwould, and so
was Ralf FitzGilbert, the founder of Markby.

The revenue of this house from the first shows
that it was never intended to contain a very large

' Cal. of Pap. Letters, v, 346.
" Cart. Antlq. Y 13. Hun J. R. (Rec. Com.), i,
306, 242.

' Cal. of Pop. Letters, \, 356.

* Teud. Aids, iii, 162, 209.

' Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 96.

* Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 91.
' Dugdale, Mon. y, 336.

" Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
19, 86.

' A careful inspection of the episcopal registers and
visitations has made it quite certain that all these
were really of the Cistercian order, though Dugdale
and Tanner could not speak certainly.

'" See account of the priory of Spalding. Ranulf
de Meschines, her last husband, died 1 1 29.

number of nuns ; in the fifteenth century thei
were usually from twelve to sixteen, but at tl
foundation there may have been perhaps tweni
or thirty. The priory was involved in sever
lawsuits during the thirteenth century, t
early as 1 1 94 there was a suit concerning
knight's fee in Bucknall with Ralf de Lindsey,
another about the same time as to advowson 1
the church of Willoughby.^" A dispute with tl
abbot of Kirkstead as to common of pasture w;
settled in 1202*^; Guy son of Simon quit-claimc
to the priory in 1205 the advowson of Wainflei
church.^^ From 1207 to 1209 a suit was goir
forward as to the church of Lavington and i
chapels, which had been granted originally b
Ralf FitzGilbert, and were now reclaimed by h

" Dugdale, Mon. v, 336. There may have be<
Williams, with Robert intervening.
Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concon

Pat. 26 Edw. I, m. 26.

Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 121; ar
12 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 9 d.
Cal. of Pap. Letters, v, 346.
L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv (3), 2698.
B.M. Seals, Ixxiv, 6j.
Add. Chart. 26205
Abbrev. Placit. (Rec. Com.), 3.
Curia Reg. R. (Rec. Com.), 308.
Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concert

two

306
13

Pat.

15
16
17
18
19
30

41.

« Ibid. 62.

146

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

grandson. The charters, when produced, con-
firmed the claim of the nuns, and Hugh Fitz-
Ralf was ordered not to vex them further.^

In 1308 the prioress complained that in the
time of the late king certain men had impounded
some of her cattle, and committed other trespasses
on her property, assaulting a canon and a lay
brother of her house and several of her servants.^
The offenders were imprisoned for a time.'
There were similar complaints of trespass in
1317,* 1327,* 1328,^ and 1365.' In 1419 the
nuns were released from payment of a subsidy on
account of their poverty.^

As the revenue of the priory was less than
5^200, it was dissolved under the first Act of
Suppression before Michaelmas, 1536'; but
the king ordered that after the nuns had been
dismissed the house should remain standing, to
provide a refuge for the nuns of Stainfield, who
had been promised a licence to continue, and for
others besides.^" It was apparently on this account
that the ' rewards ' of the dismissed nuns of
Stixwould, twelve in number, were paid out of
the proceeds of the dissolved priory of Stainfield ;
each received the usual sum of 20s}^ The
nuns of Stainfield then took their places, but
with a much diminished revenue, for the king
had ordered Sir Richard Rich to take a fine of
900 marks from the property of Stixwould, and to

' Abbrev. Placit. (Rec. Com.), 46, 58.

' Pat. 2 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. zz d.

' Close, 2 Edw. II, m. 16.

" Pat. 10 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 30 a'.

' Ibid. I Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. zz d.

" Ibid. 2 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 33 a'.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham, 28 </.

' Ibid. Memo. Flemyng, 248.

' The ' wages ' and ' rewards ' of the nuns of Stix-
would and their chaplains are entered on John Free-
man's accounts of dissolved houses, dated Michaelmas,
1536 (Mins. Accts. 27-28 Henry VIII, No. 166);
and this is entirely borne out by the king's letter
to Sir Richard Rich, dated August, 1536 {L. and P.
Hen. Fill, xi, App. 4). Abbot Gasquet states that
a fine was paid for the continuance of Stixwould in
1536 or 1537 {Hen. Fill and the English Monasteries,
ii, 23, 30 : 9 July, 1536, on the one page, and
9 July, 1537, on the other). If this is correct (the
reference to Pat. 29 Hen. VIII, pt. i, m. 29, is obvi-
ously a mistake, as that is the charter of re-foundation),
and if the name of Stixwould really appears on the list
of such fines, it may be a mistake for Stainfield, to
which the king says plainly he had promised continu-
ance, speaking at the same time of the fate of Stix-
would as in no way uncertain.

" L. and P. Hen. Fill, App. 4 ; see Stainfield
Priory.

" Under the heading of ' wages ' is given — ' Steinjield,
for twelve nuns oi Stixzcold, £6 ; two priests, 23/. ^d.' ;
and under ' Money paid in regard,' again — ' Steinjield,
eleven Tvans o£ Stixwold, zos. ; sub-prioress, 30/.' The
prioress only of Stainfield received anything from the
revenues of that house. The nuns were not paid
anything, as they were to go to Stixwould (Mins.
Accts, 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 166).

reserve for him besides a pension of ^^34 los. "](!.,
and the collection of this sum seems to have
involved the sale of nearly all the stock of the
priory." The result was that in January, i537j"
the new occupants of Stixwould were obliged to
write to John Heneage and beg him to intercede
for them with the king," at least to remit the
pension ; for they were so much impoverished
that unless they had some such help they would
have to give up the priory, ' which were great
pity, if it pleased God and the king other wise.'
The letter is signed, 'Your poor bedeswomen,
the whole convent of Stixwould,' and has been
printed in full more than once," though the cir-
cumstances under which it was written have not
been clearly understood. No answer to the
letter is preserved, but six months later, 9 July,
1537, the king issued letters patent for the re-
foundation of the house under the Premonstra-
tensian rule,^' with Mary Missenden (probably
one of the Benedictine nuns of Stainfield) ^^ as
prioress. They were to hold the site and all
the original possessions of Stixwould as the late
prioress held them before the suppression, at a
yearly rent of ;^I5 5/. id., payable to the king.

From this charter of re-foundation one of two
conclusions may be drawn. Either the king was
deaf to the entreaties of the nuns, and they were
compelled to surrender soon after their letter of
January, whereupon Henry founded his nevsr
monastery at Stixwould, now for the second time
emptied of its inhabitants ; or, as seems far more
probable, the new foundation was his answer to
their petition,^' involving only a change in the
tenure of the house, which was to be held by the
nuns (i.e. those originally of Stainfield), under
new conditions, and for a lower rent.^" The king's

" L. and P. Hen. Fill, xi, App. 4.

" So the nuns state in their letter.

" This letter is dated only 8 January, but the refer-
ence in it to the payment of the same fine and
pension as that named by the king in August, 1536,
shows that it is rightly placed in the calendar under
January, 1537 ; halfway between the transference of
the nuns and the re-foundation on 9 July, 1537.

" Or rather with ' my lord privy seal ' to use his
influence with the king.

'° In Wright's Suppression of Monasteries ; Strype's
Eccles. Memorials ; Gasquet's Hen. Fill and the Eng-
lish Monasteries; and an abstract in L. and P.
Hen. FIII,y\\ (i), 22.

" Pat. 29 Henry VII, pt. i, m. 29.

'' The name is not an uncommon one, and if it
stood quite alone the identification would be pre-
carious ; but on the pension list of the refounded
Stixwould is found another name less common, ' Paga
Overton,' who, with Mary Missenden, is named in
Bishop Atwater's visitation of Stainfield in I 5 1 9.

" The fact that the king had all along intended to
let the nuns of Stainfield continue, as stated in his
letter, makes his tenderness of heart on this occasion
easier to understand.

"" They had been paying a yearly pension of ^^34,
and their letter had implied that if this only were
excused they could still contrive to maintain themselves.

147

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

reason for placing the house under the Premon-
stratensian rule is hard even to guess at ; it
cannot be that he had a number of dismissed
nuns of that order to provide for, as they were
extremely rare at all times in England, and their
only house in Lincolnshire (Irford) was still
standing.

The ' new monastery of King Henry VIII '
was of short duration. On 29 September, 1539)
Mary Missenden and her sisters surrendered
their priory with all its possessions ; the prioress
receiving in compensation a pension of ;^i5) 2nd
fourteen nuns annuities varying from 66s. to
40i.^ Eleven of these were still living in 1553,
of whom only one, Agnes Bonner, had married.^

The constitution of the smaller Cistercian
nunneries is difficult to understand without a
more special study than is possible within the
limits of such an article as this. Three, at least,
of those in Lincolnshire — Stixwould, Heynings,
and Legbourne — appear to have been double
foundations ; they had not merely the usual lay
brethren, who were often attached to nunneries
for the sake of the field work and other labours
which women could not well undertake or
superintend,^ but also a few monks or canons
who held the temporalities jointly with the nuns.*
They had in early days a prior who ruled jointly
with the prioress. A similar arrangement may
be occasionally found in Augustinian ' and Pre-
monstratehsian houses ° ; it seems, indeed, that
several experiments were made in double founda-
tions during the twelfth century, the most
notable being, of course, the order of Sempring-
ham. These small Cistercian nunneries of
Lincolnshire were all founded about the same
time as the Gilbertines ; but it is hard to say
whether they followed the model of the Gilber-
tines, or whether St. Gilbert adopted and made
general in his order an institution he had observed
amongst the Cistercians, to whom we know he
looked very largely for inspiration.

The priory of Stixwould had canons and a
prior all through the thirteenth century. The
last mention we find of them is in 1308.' It
was liable to episcopal visitation throughout

> L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv (2), 235.

' Exch. Accts. bdle. jS, No. z6.

' A form of profession for the chaplain and lay
brethren attached to Cistercian nunneries may be
found in the Cistercian statutes of the thirteenth cen-
tury. J. T. Fowler, Cistercian Statutes, 107.

* These cannot be quite on the same footing as the
chaplains mentioned in the Cistercian statutes, as the
latter were wholly under obedience to the abbess.
The arrangement in the Cistercian nunneries of
Lincolnshire is much more like that of the Gilbertines.

' See Harrold Priory, F.C.H. Beds., i, 387, note 9.

' Gasquet, Collectanea Anglo-Premonstratensia, Pre-
(ace, vii.

' Pat. 2 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 2 2 <^. The prior is
once or twice called ' master ' even before this ; and
after this date a secular priest was made master in the
usual way (Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 4021^.).

its history ; indeed, none of the small Cistercij
priories shared the exemption which all abbe
of the order claimed and kept until the dissoli
tion. As will be seen later, St. Hugh, or Bishc
Hugh of Wells, arranged the constitution (
Nuncotham ; and a commission for the visitatic
of Stixwould is found in the Memoranda (
Bishop Dalderby, under the year 1 31 1.* .
mandate of Bishop Burghersh, issued in 132:
was disregarded by certain of the nuns here, wh
were excommunicated in consequence ; aft(
salutary penance, they received absolution.'

When Bishop Flemyng visited the hous
between 1420 and 1431 it was noticed that th
annual allowances of 6s. 'id. due to the nuns fc
clothing had not been regularly paid '•" ; and i
Bishop Alnwick's visitation of 1440 this was sti
a cause of complaint. The bishop had to note
good many irregularities at this time,' similar t
those which he had observed at Nuncotham jus
before. The nuns (about sixteen in numbei
had in many cases separate households, and som
of them kept secular boarders on their owi
account, and when they ate together in the refec
tory they did not all fare alike.-'^ The childrei
of the convent school and the servants of th
nuns slept in the dormitory. The boarder
kept by the cellaress were said to be of suspiciou
character, especially one Janet Barton. Th
house was eighty marks in debt. One old siste
who could not walk complained that she scarcel'
ever heard mass except on the principal feasts, a
she could find no one to carry her.

The bishop ordered that the sums due fo
clothing should be paid regularly ; all secular
were to be removed from the house within thre^
months, and none were to spend the night withii
the cloister except honest and necessary servants
Janet Barton was to be at once dismissed, and n(
boarders received in future without special licence
from the bishop, save two widows, Elizabetl
Dymoke and Margaret Tylney, ' by whose abid
ing as we trust no grief but rather avail ' was pro
cured to the monastery. Certain irregularitie
of ritual were to be corrected.^^

In 1 5 1 9 Bishop Atwater found about the sami
number of nuns in the priory. The sick were no
well provided for, and the prioress was accusec
of spending the night outside the cloister too oftei
with secular friends. He ordered that in futun
she should sleep in the monastery, but might kee]
a private house within the cloister for her greate
refreshment and for receiving her friends. Thi
nuns were to be redistributed in the differen

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 201 d.

' Ibid. Memo. Burghersh, zSd.

" Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), fol. 73 <!

*' Ibid. At one table there was fish, and at anothe
flesh, on the same day. The ordinary allowance ii
food for the nuns at this time was a loaf, an egg, an(
a portion of flesh and cheese ; in Advent and Len
herrings and stockfish took the place of flesh.

" Ibid.

[48

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

houses of the priory, so that some should board
with the prioress and some with the sub-prioress.^
No other complaint was brought against any of
them, either at this time or just before the dis-
solution of the house in 1536. The nuns of the
new foundation clung to the religious life as long
as they possibly could, and were ready to endure
poverty and distress rather than forsake it.

The original endowment probably included
the demesne land at Stixwould with other lands
in Honington, Barkston, and Bassingthorpe,^ and
the rectories of Wainfleet, Hundleby, Honing-
ton, and Lavington.' The temporalities of the
nuns in 129 1 were assessed at ;^I2.* In 1303
they held a quarter of a knight's fee in Honing-
ton, half a fee in Stoke, and one-third in Bassing-
thorpe, with a small fraction beside ' ; the same
return was made in 1346.^ In 1 534 the revenue
of the priory was valued at ;^ii4 5^- 2^^.
clear ; ' at the new foundation it was placed at
jf 152 lOs. id., and included the profits of the
four rectories of Wainfleet, Honington, Hun-
dleby, and Lavington, and the manors of Stix-
would, Horsington, Hundleby, Hallmat and
Hundleby-Grange, and Bassingthorpe.^ The
Ministers' Accounts give a total of j^ 1 65 "js. '^\d?

Priors of Stixwould

Hugh,^" occurs 1202 and 1205
Geoffrey," occurs 1227 and 1228
Gilbert of Eton,^^ occurs 1308

Prioresses of Stixwould

Margaret Gobaud,^' elected 1274

Eva," died 1304

Isabel de Dugby,^' elected 1304, occurs 131 7

Elizabeth," occurs 1327 and 1328

Elizabeth de Sw^ylington,^' elected 1346

' Visitations of Atwater (Alnwick Tower).

' Dugdale, Mon. v, 725.

' These four are all mentioned in early suits : the
nuns once claimed Willoughby also, but it is uncertain
by what right.

* Pope Nkh. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 59.

^ Feud. Aids, iii, 127, 132, 152, 168.

* Ibid. 192, 196, 208, 211.

' Valor Ecel. (Rec. Com.), iv, 37.

^ Pat. 29 Hen. VIII, pt. i, m. 29.

' Dugdale, Mon. v, 725.

'° Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
41, 62.

" Ibid. 221 ; and Pat. 1 1 Hen. Ill, m. 2 d.

■' Close, 2 Edw. II, m. 16.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Gravesend. The death
of another prioress unnamed is recorded in 1236
(Rolls of Grosteste), showing that priors and prioresses
existed together.

" Ibid. Inst. Dalderby, 10.

" Ibid, and Pat. 10 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. '^o d.

'* Pat. I Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 22 a'. ; and 2 Edw. Ill,
pt. I, m. 7,7,d.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Burghersh, 17.

Isabel Mallet,!* jjgj j^yS

Eustace Ravenser," occurs 1393, died 1403

Katharine Roose,^" elected 1403

Eleanor Welby,^! occurs 1440

Helen Key,22 before 1536

Mary Missenden,^' last prioress, appointed

1537

24. THE PRIORY OF HEYNINGS

The priory of Heynings or Heveninges was
founded by Rayner de Evermue, probably early
in the reign of Stephen,^ and the patronage of
the house remained with the lords of Knaith
through most of its history.

The endowment of the priory was meagre —
'notoriously insufficient,' it was alleged in 1348
— on account of the death of the founder before
its completion ^' ; and the scanty notices of it
which occur from time to time usually refer to
its poverty. In 1 331 the nuns were discharged
of part of the tithe due to the king, because their
house was ' impoverished by divers misfortunes,' ^^
and again in 1347.^' In this latter year Master
Simon of Islip and Nicholas of Buckland granted
them an acre of land and the advowson of Wo-
mersley church for the relief of their necessities,^*
and in 1 349 Sir John Darcy, then patron of the
house, gave them the advowson of Knaith.^' The
land of Leadenha'm Braylond was also granted to
them in 1377,'° and in 1397 they were again
absolved from payment of tenths.*^ But in 1401
a petition to the pope repeated the complaint
made in 1348 of poverty caused by barrenness
of lands, multiplication of guests and corrodies,
and burdens laid on all religious houses, which
had compelled them to mortgage all their pos-
sessions for a long time.^^

Being small and poor, the priory of Heynings
might have been dissolved in 1536, but for some
reason it was spared, and continued until 1 1 July,
1 539) when it was surrendered by the prioress,
Jane Sanford, and eleven nuns.^^ The prioress

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham, 141 <^.

" Cal. of Pap. Letters, iv, 482; and Line. Epis. Reg.
Inst. Repingdon, 42.

^^ Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Repingdon, 42.

*' Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower).

^ Pat. 29 Hen. VIII, pt. i, m. 29.

" Ibid.

" The name of Rayner de Evermue occurs in the
Great Roll of the Pipe (Rec. Com.), 6, 102, 121,
probably 1129-30, but not later, and he may possibly
be the same as Rainold de Envremou who occurs
about u 1 5 in Round, CaL of Doc. France, i, 133.

^' CaL of Pap. Letters, v, 347.

^' Close, 5 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 8.

"Pat. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 6.

^' Ibid. pt. ii, m. 6.

^ Ibid. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 37.

'" Ibid. 50 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 13.

'' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham, 4561/.

'^ CaL of Pap. Letters, v, 347.

^ L. and P. Hen. VIll, xiv (i), 1251.

149

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

received a pension of £6 13X. 4^., two aged nuns
33;. 4^., and nine ' young women ' 30J. a year.^

Heynings, like Stixwould, was founded for
' brethren and sisters,' ^ but the brethren are only
mentioned in the foundation charter. By the
end of the thirteenth century it was ruled by a
prioress alone, with a warden or master who
might be a secular priest or a religious of some
other order.^ The earliest recorded visitation is
one of Bishop Gynwell in 1347. He drew
attention to certain matters requiring reform,
and said the 'rule of St. Benedict with the
observances of St. Bernard,' in which they were
founded, was not well kept. The divine office
had not been carefully attended, and there had
been negligence as to rules of silence, as to the
visits of friends, and the admission of children
and seculars to the cloister and dormitory. A
special injunction was added, that Dame Mar-
garet Darcy was not on any account to pass
beyond the cloistral precincts or to speak to any
stranger ; her offence, however, is not men-
tioned.*

Later in the same century we meet the
common difficulty which arose from the admis-
sion of lady boarders to the monasteries. A few
were allowed by special licence of the bishop,^
but the practice was generally to be avoided ; an
injunction continually repeated, but almost always
evaded under the pressure of poverty. In 1393
Bishop Bokyngham held a visitation at Hey-
nings. He ordered that any sister absent from
the divine office should be deprived of food the
next day ; all breaches of discipline were to be
punished by fasting on bread and water for
periods varying from a day to a week. The
children of the convent school were not to sleep
in the dormitory, accounts were to be duly
rendered, and the common seal carefully kept.
The sisters were exhorted to behave with affec-
tion one towards the other. These injunctions
were repeated constantly in visitations of all
nunneries, and are usually considered to be a
matter of formal routine when there was no-
thing special to correct. No nun was to have a
room to herself except Dame Margaret Darcy,
on account of her nobility ; and she was to have
no further privilege beyond the rest.'

Bishop Alnwick visited in 1440. There were
no serious complaints, and nearly all answered

' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv (i), 1280.

' Foundation Charter, Dugdale, Mon. v, 723. It
seems probable that these brethren were monks and
not mere lay brethren, or they would not have held
the property of the convent with the nuns, and would
scarcely have been mentioned first.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton.

* Ibid. Memo. Gynwell, 34.

* Eleanor Francke received such a licence in 1 387.
Ibid. Memo Bokyngham, 341 d.

^ Ibid. 397. This can scarcely be the same person
as the one put to penance in I 3 5 1 . The Darcys
were patrons of the house, and members of their
family would be frequently found among the nuns.

omnia bene. The house was in debt, but thei
it had been recently repaired at great cost. On
nun complained that the prioress was not impar
tial in her dealings with the sisters, and that sh^
spoiled her servants. A lay sister complaine(
that secular boarders occupied the infirmary, si
that the sisters had nowhere to go when thei
were bled, and that servants of the house slep
in the dormitory.

The bishop ordered that the number of nun
was not to be increased without his permission
the rest of his injunctions were merely formal
and he had the good sense not to make mucl
of complaints that seemed dictated by mer(
discontent.'

Bishop Atwater visited in 15 19, but left nc
injunctions j there can have been nothing mucl
to notice.*

At the time of surrender Dr. London alleged o
this house, as well as of Irford, Fosse, and others
that many of the nuns had been professed verj
young and had since lived in imperfect chastity
so that now they were delighted to think tha
they might return to the world and marry. O:
Heynings in particular he only stated that ther(
had been ' much waste in the woods.' ' Th(
value of this report is lessened by the fact thai
there were at this time twelve nuns and a priores:
in this house, living on an income of less that
;^50, which could not have supported them ir
great luxury ; and they might have surrenderee
three years before under the first Act of Sup-
pression, if they had really been so weary of theii
habit. Moreover six of them lived on till 1553
and were then still unmarried.'"

The original endowment of the priory con-
sisted mainly of the demesne land, with thi
church of Upton.'' In 1348 the church o
Womersley, Yorks., was appropriated to th(
nuns,'^ and in 1349 they were granted the ad-
vowson of Knaith''; in 1377 the manor o
Lerdenham Braylond was added to their posses
sions." In 1303 the prioress was returned a
holding part of half a knight's fee in Ingleby.'
The income of the priory in 1534 wa

' Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), fol. 22
The lay sister mentioned above also alleged that thi
nuns went secretly after compline to drink in thi
guest-house with the guests. The bishop ordere(
that after compline they should go without tarryinj
to the dormitory. As to the drinking, the sam
remarks which were made on this point as to Stain fiel(
Priory will be equally applicable here ; the matte
needing correction was a breach of rule, not the sii
of immoderate drinking.

* Visitations of Atwater (Alnwick Tower).

" L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv (i), 1321.

"Add. MS. 8102; and Exch. Accts. bdle. -jt
No. 26.

" Dugdale, Mon. v, 723.

" Cal. of Pap. Letters, v, 347.

" Pat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 37

" Ibid. 50 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 13.

" Feud. Jids, iii, 136.

150

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

;^49 5^. 2d. clear ^ ; at the surrender the
Ministers' Accounts show a total of ^74 1 1;. yd.,^
including the manor of Heynings and the farm
of the rectories of Upton in Lincolnshire and
Womersley in Yorkshire.

Prioresses of Heynings

Margery Pocklington,' resigned 1300
Margery of Marton,* elected 1300
Margaret SwalecliiFe,* resigned 1 3 1 5
Joan of Cottingham,* elected 131 5, resigned

1319
Margaret Cause/ elected 13 19, resigned

1347
Eleanor Joyce/ elected 1347, resigned 1352

Alice of Cuxwold/ elected 1352

Joan Humberstone/" occurs 141 9

Joan Stanford/^ last prioress, surrendered i539

The thirteenth -century common seaP^ is
pointed oval, representing the Virgin seated upon
a carved and trefoiled canopy supported on slender
shafts, with a crown, in the left hand the Child
with nimbus ; her feet rest on a carved corbel.
In the field below the canopy, a sun, a crescent
enclosing an estoile, two cinquefoils, a quatrefoil,
and a crescent. Above the canopy, two angels
holding censers.

s' : sancte : marie : et ! co : uentus :
d'heyninge

Letters a : R of Marie and E : n of Conventus
are conjoined.

25. THE PRIORY OF NUNCOTHAM

The priory of Nuncotham in Brocklesby parish
was founded, probably in Stephen's reign, by Alan
de Moncels,^' in whose family the patronage
long continued. The possessions of the nuns
were confirmed to them by Henry II and John.^^
They were probably never very extensive, for

' Fa/or Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 132.

' Dugdale, Mon. v, 723.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Sutton, 42.

* Ibid.

' Ibid. Inst. Dalderby, 96. ^ Ibid.

' Ibid. 100.

* Ibid. Inst. Gynwell, 104.

' Ibid. 1 1 6. The election of another prioress
(unnamed) occurs Ibid. Memo. Bokyngham, 75.

'"Ibid. Inst. Repingdon, 135 <s'. The register
seems to say Joan ' Hebberston ' resigned and Joan
* Humberstone ' was elected ; it is probable that the
same name has been put into both places by a slip of
the pen, and so it is hard to say whether it is the
name of the one who resigned or the one elected.

" L. and P. Hen. xiv (i), 1251.

" Add. Chart. 29698.

" Dugdale, Mow. v, 675. Alan de Moncels' name
is found on the great Roll of the Pipe (Rec. Com.),
28> Z9> 34j ^'^-j *5 holding property in Yorks. and
Lines.

" Chart. R. (Rec. Com.), 85.

at the end of the twelfth century the bishop
thought them only sufficient to support thirty
nuns." By the fifteenth century there were
only fourteen, and about the same number at
the end. The income of the house at the last
was under ^^50, so that it might have been
dissolved under the first Act of Suppression. As
a matter of fact, however, it stood till 9 July,
1539." The prioress then received a pension of
£(> ; her twelve sisters annuities varying from
£2 to 30J."

The priory was from the first under the juris-
diction of the bishops of Lincoln, and either
St. Hugh himself, or Hugh of Wells, drew up
a constitution for the nuns at a time when they
had apparently been living a little beyond their
means. After consultation with the master and
the prioress and convent he decided that hence-
forth the number of nuns should not be more
than thirty, with twelve lay brethren for the out-
door works connected with the priory. There
were to be two chaplains, besides the master,
attached to the house. The customs as to the
keeping of the convent seal and the showing of
accounts were to be the same as were usual in all
religious orders. The nuns, the chaplains, the
lay brethren, and lay sisters, as well as their
guests, were all to fare alike as to food ; only
the sick were to have anything diflFerent from the
rest. No secular guest was to be admitted for
more than one night at a time. No nun might
talk alone with a stranger, and not even the lay
sisters might live at the granges of the priory, and
away from the monastery. Visits to friends
were only to be allowed under special licence,
and in case of real necessity. No nun or sister
was to have anything of her own, or to receive
money or any other temporal property for herself
by way of contract.^*

It is important to note the exact terms of this
constitution, partly because it was probably the
same for all Cistercian nunneries at the time, and
partly that it may be seen exactly where, as time
went on, it was less well kept. It was evidently
intended at the beginning of the thirteenth cen-
tury that the nuns should be, as far as possible,
withdrawn from seculars and secular affairs ; it
was also intended that their individual poverty
should be real and absolute.

As to seclusion from the world, Nuncotham
Priory was beset by the same difficulty as almost
all small nunneries at the end of the fourteenth
century. The nuns were poor ; it seemed a
matter almost of necessity that they should seek
some way of increasing their income ; it was
not enough merely to keep a school ; and so the
common practice of receiving lady boarders was
adopted here as elsewhere. The ladies who
came to board in convents wanted to live

" Dugdale, v, 675.

'' L. and P. Hen. nil, xix (i), 1242.

" Ibid. 1280. " Dugdale, Mon. v, 675.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

economically, and doubtless also to have a devo-
tional atmosphere about them ; but they did not
want actually to be nuns, nor to leave the world
quite behind them. As a natural consequence
they brought the world with them into the
cloister ; and hence the frequent complaints of
bishops in visitations of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, that 'the conversation of seculars
disturbed the contemplation of religion.' In
1382 Bishop Bokyngham ordered nuns of this
priory, as he had done in so many other cases,
to 'amove all secular persons from their pre-
cincts'— especially Dame Joan Mounceys, who
had taken up her abode permanently in the guest-
house.-' His injunctions were apparently not of
much avail. When Bishop Alnwick came in
1440 the priory had become in many ways
secularized. The nuns were living innocently
indeed. There were no conspicuous breaches
of rule, nor any signs of luxury or extravagance.
The choir office was not omitted or seriously
neglected, though some of the obedientiaries were
occasionally too busy to attend it. But the nuns
paid long visits to their friends, and travelled
quite a distance sometimes for this purpose.
Many of them had private rooms and gardens in
the monastery, and servants of their own to wait
upon them,^ and occasionally in the evening one
or other would be absent from compline, because
she was so busy looking after her flowers.
Servants slept in the dormitory, and many secu-
lars boarded in the monastery. The allowance
for clothing to each nun, however, had been
lately reduced, through the poverty of the house ;
the bread and beer provided for all was of very
poor quality ; and the monastic buildings were
in need of repair.

The bishop gave such injunctions as might
have been expected. Secular servants were to
be banished from the dormitories ; the choir and
refectory to be regularly attended ; visits to
friends were limited to three days, unless there
were great and reasonable cause for a longer
stay ; corrodies were not to be granted without
leave of the bishop.'

Bishop Atwater's visitation in 15 19 revealed
the same old difficulty. His only injunction,
however, to the nuns was to admit no seculars to
eat and drink with them, save in one public
place appointed by the prioress, and in the pre-
sence of several sisters.*

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham, 325.

* This, of course, was an abuse, and an almost
complete defeat of the rule of poverty ; but it should
be noted that in monasteries of all orders in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the original ideal of
individual poverty had been modified by actual dis-
pensation, rather than by laxity ; and it was not a
breach of poverty, but the common custom of the
time, for all monks and nuns to have a definite yearly
allowance for clothing.

' Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), 69-75.

' Visitations of Atwater (Alnwick Tower), 54.

The visitation of Bishop Longlands in 1531
of greater interest. He evidently found tl
prioress, Joan Thompson, living just as if th
house was her own property, and forgetting th;
it was only under her charge for the benefit (
the community. She had been for some time i
the habit of keeping her own kinsfolk at th
expense of the convent. She had bestowed ii
goods liberally on her brother and his childrer
and granted corrodies far too freely. There ha
been gaieties and Christmas sports allowed, quit
unbecoming to the dignity of a religious house
The sisters, as of old, had been too fond c
paying visits to their friends, sometimes o
pretext of making pilgrimages. The childre:
brought up in the monastery were not properl
taught, and the divine office had evidently beei
neglected or hurried through.

The bishop ordered the office to be properl
attended, and ' honourably and treatably sung,
without 'haste and festination.' The priores
was to use herself ' as a good mother, lovingly
charitably, and indifferently to all the sisters,' am
' not to give too light credence to every tale.
She was to keep about her none but her owi
mother, and one or two others of her ' saddes
kinsfolk.' The cloister doors were to be duh
fastened at night time, children banished fron
the dormitory, no ' lord of misrule ' was ti
be allowed in the house, nor any ' disguising
in nun's apparel, nor otherwise.' The disciplin<
of the order was to be revived generally, an(
friars and secular clergy were not to be toi
freely admitted to the monastery. A confesso
was to be appointed for the convent, approvei
by the bishop's commissary. All the ladies weri
charged truly to observe their religion, and to bi
obedient to the prioress, leaving all dissensions
and 'uniting themselves to God by clean
chaste, and religious living ' ; to occupy them
selves when the divine service was done witl
useful employments, and to flee all ill company
These injunctions were to be read once a montl
in chapter.*

When Dr. London took the surrender of thi
house in 1539, with those of Fosse, Irford, am
Heynings, he remarked that they were wonder
fully glad that they might marry, if professei
under the age of twenty-one, by the new Act
of Parliament.^ It is highly probable that som
of the ladies of Nuncotham were eligible for thi
privilege, for ten of them lived on till iS53i
and the visitation of 1531 seems to suggest tha
they and their prioress were nearly all young
Only one of them was, however, married at th
beginning of Mary's reign.^

' These injunctions have been printed in full i
Archaeologta, xlvii, 55 ; and in the Lincoln diocesa
magazine. They are, therefore, only summarize
here.

« L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiv (i), 1321.

' Add. MS. 8102 (Pension Lists).

' Exch. Accts. bdle. 76, No. z6.

152

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

The original endowment by Alan and Ingram
de Moncels included the vill of (Nun) Gotham
and divers small parcels of land, with the church
of Cuxwold.i During the twelfth century the
churches of Keelby, Burgh-on-Bain, and Crox-
ton were given by other benefactors.^ The
temporalities of the priory in 1 291 were worth
;^35 iiJ. loi., and the spiritualities £12 13;. ^d.
at least.' In 1 303 the prior held half a knight's
fee in Burgh and Girsby and part of a fee in
Swallow;^ in 1 346 a fraction also in Habrough
and Killingholme ; ' in 1428 ° in addition por-
tions of fees in Croxton, Brocklesby, and Little
Limber. In 1534 the clear income of the priory
was ^^46 1"]$. 7^., including the rectories of
Keelby, Croxton, Great Limber, Burgh-on-
Bain, and Cuxwold.' The total given in the
Ministers' Accounts is ^^59 16s. id?

Prioresses of Nuncotham

Maud,' occurs about 1 1 70

Alice,'" occurs 1218

Emma," elected 1 231, occurs 1234

Amy of Barrow,'^ died 1 3 10

Christine Cotty," elected 13 10, died 131 9

Isabel of Bonnington,-'* elected 13 19

Cecily Hanlay,'* died 1381

Alice Beaupas," elected 138 1

Elizabeth Skipwith,'' occurs 1440

Joan Thompson,'* last prioress, occurs 1 531

26. THE PRIORY OF LEGBOURNE

The priory of Legbourne was founded by
Robert FitzGilbert '^ of Tathwell somewhere
about 1 150 ; it seems to have been built for the

' Dugdale, v, 675.

* Keelby and Burgh occur in the confirmation
bull of Pope Alexander III. Ibid. Croxton is
named in the Taxatio.

' Pope Nich. Tax. 57, 58, 73^.

* Teud. Aids, iii, 137.
' Ibid. 214, 217.

* Ibid. 270, 271, 278, 279, 282, 285.
' Vahr Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 75.

' Dugdale, Mon. v, 675.

' Ibid, in charter of Pope Alexander III.

'" Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
131, 144.

" Ibid, ii, 277 ; and Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of
Wells.

'* Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Dalderby, 32.

" Ibid. " Ibid. 356.

'* Ibid. Inst. Bokyngham, 1 15. '* Ibid.

" Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower).

" Arch, xlvii, 55. The name of the prioress is not
mentioned, but that of her brother, George Thomp-
son, shows that she was the same Joan Thompson
who surrendered in 1539.

" It is uncertain whether this Robert was brother
of Ralf FitzGilbert, founder of Markby ; but it seems
fairly clear that neither was connected in any way
with Baldwin FitzGilbert, the founder of Bourne.

reception of some Cistercian nuns already formed
into a convent at Carledale,^" elsewhere called
the ' nuns of Keddington ' ^' or of Hallington.^^
Whether these earlier nuns had separate foun-
dations, or whether one convent is spoken of
under different names, it is difficult now to de-
cide ; but at any rate the nuns of Legbourne
inherited the possessions of all their predecessors.

The nuns had some difficulty during the early
part of the thirteenth century in securing their
appropriate churches. Alice Constable, daughter
of the founder, impleaded the prioress in 1204
and claimed the advowson of Saltfleetby church,
which she said was made part of her marriage
portion before the priory was built. Her nephew
Robert, however, when called to warrant, sup-
ported the prioress's claim.^' Alice afterwards
impleaded Robert and induced him to say that
her charter was made out before the church was
given to the nuns ; his evidence, however, can-
not have been very valuable, as the prior of
Legbourne summoned him just after to prove
the contrary.^* For the time being the dispute
was settled in favour of A^ice, and Robert
granted the prior certain lands in exchange for a
moiety of the church,^' but it afterwards returned
to the nuns. There were other suits in 1205
and 1226 in connexion with the churches of
Hallington and Farlesthorpe.^^

Having an income of less than ;^200 a year,
this priory was dissolved before Michaelmas,
1536 ; the prioress received a pension of £■] a
year, and the nine nuns who remained 10s.
each to buy secular apparel.^ The house
was not, however, entirely dismantled at the
time of the outbreak of the Lincoln rebel-
lion ; the king's commissioners, Millicent and
Bellow, were still in the priory and busy
at their work, when they were dragged out
of it by the excited mob.^* During the
course of the rising a gentleman of Lincoln
wrote to Cromwell and informed him that the
insurgents had ' made a nun ' in the ' abbey of
Legbourne.' It is just possible that they may
have made an attempt to restore the ejected
religious to this house, as we know the Pilgrims
of Grace did in some cases in Yorkshire ; but
the statement may be based on a mere rumour.^'

'° Dugdale, Mon. v, 634 ; and Dodsworth MS.
Ixxv (Chartulary of Legbourne), fol. 2?.
■°' Ibid.

" Dodsworth MS. Ixxv, 26.
"^ Abbrev. Placit. (Rec. Com.), 4.0.
^* Ibid. 73. ^

" Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,

''Ibid, i, 61, ii, 216-17; and Curia Reg. R.
(Rec. Com.), i, 273.

" Mins. Accts. (27-28 Hen. VIII), No. 166.

'» Gasquet, Hen. VIII and the Engftsh Monasteries,
u, 47. The value of the bells, lead, &c. is not given
in the accounts dated Michaelmas, 15 36, which shows
the dissolution was not quite completed.

"^ L.and P. Hen. VIII, xi, 2 2 5 .

153

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

The priory^ was visited probably all through
its history by the bishops of Lincoln, but there
is no report preserved earlier than that of
Bishop Alnvirick in 1440.* At this time certain
irregularities required correction, but the bishop
found most fault with the prioress. She had
indeed greatly reduced the debts of the house —
they had amounted at her election to ^^63 and
now stood at £1^ — but she had been too fond of
entertaining her own relations, and had partly
supported them from the revenues of the monas-
tery. She had once admitted a chaplain, not
duly licensed, to preach in the conventual
church ; and when notice of the visitation came
she had called the sisters into chapter and
counselled them not to report anything that was
amiss. There does not seem to have been any-
thing very much amiss except her own conduct.
The commemorations of St. Benedict and
St. Bernard were not regularly made at mattins,
mass, and vespers ; a secular boarder slept in the
dormitory and disturbed the nuns by the noise
she made, and certain servants were also allowed
there. The nuns did not wear scapularies at
their work as the rule enjoined. There were
also one or two complaints, as usual, of a merely
personal character.'

The injunctions which followed were much
the same as those delivered to other nunneries at
this time. The omitted memorials must be
said ; the dormitory must be cleared of seculars ;
scapularies must be worn at work ; the prioress
must not support her own kinsfolk, and must
rule with impartiality. Her punishment, how-
ever, for admitting an unlicensed chaplain and
for desiring to conceal faults at the visitation
was a more serious matter, and was reserved to
the bishop.*

Bishop Atwater in 15 19 found nothing to
correct, except that the infirmary was out of
repair. It was stated at the same time that the
nuns often worked at haymaking, but only in
the presence of the prioress.^

When in 1536 the news came to Legbourne
of the passing of the Act of Suppression, it

' There was a prior here as well as a prioress at the
end of the thirteenth century. Boyd and Massing-
berd, Abstracts of Final Concords, i, 61, 69 ; axidi Abbrev.
Plac. (Rec. Com.), 52. Later, the Lincoln Registers
record the appointment of several masters from 1294
to 1343, and in 1366 the same official apparently is
called ' yconomus ' of Legbourne : Line. Epis. Reg.
Memo. Bokyngham, 33(/.

* Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), fol. 66.
' One nun said she had not been allowed to visit

her aged parents when they were dying.

* It was mentioned in the course of the visitation
that the nuns here were allowed, as in most nunneries
of the time, a loaf daily and a pottle of beer, with a
portion of flesh, replaced in Advent and Lent by two
herrings. Sometimes in summer they had a little
butter ; two stone of cheese and one pig were allowed
to each lady annually.

' Visitations of Atwater (Alnwick Tower), fol. 5 ib.

caused great distress and consternation to th
nuns. As Cromwell himself happened to b^
patron of their house at this time, they though
perhaps he might be able to use his influence 01
their behalf.

' Please yt your goodnes,' wrote the prioress t<
him, ' to understonde that whereas almyghty Goc
hath indued you with just title of Founder . . . t(
the great comfort of me and all my systers, we doc
and shall alweyes submit oure selfes to youre mos
rightuouse commaundement and ordre, oonly puttynj
oure comfort in your goodnesse. And whereas w{
doo here that a grete nombre of abbyes shalb(
punysshid, subprest and put downe, bicause of theii
myslyvyng, and that all abbyes and pryoryes undei
the value of cc" be at oure moste noble prynces plea-
sure to subpresse and put downe, yet if it may pleai
your goodness we trust in God ye shall here nc
complayntes agaynst us nother in oure lyvyng noi
hospitalitie kepyng.'

She promises him, if he will be a suitor for his
own poor priory, * you shalbe a more highei
Founder to us than he that first foundid oui
howse.' ° It was an unhappy thing for the pooi
ladies of Legbourne that they had 'noon othii
comfort nor refuge but oonly unto ' Cromwell's
goodness, for that was likely to help them little,
Their petition was unheeded, and their house
dissolved.

The original endowment of the priory con-
sisted of certain lands of Robert Fitz Gilbert's
fee in Tathwell, Legbourne, Hallington, with
mills, crofts, &c., and the churches of Farles-
thorpe, St. Peter Saltfleetby, Raithby (Robert the
prior and the convent of Legbourne quit-claimec
all right to the advowson of Raithby church tc
Robert son of William de Lekeburn in 1 205 ')
Hallington, Somercotes, Conisholme, and half thai
of Legbourne.* In]i 29 1 the nuns had temporalitiei
valued at ;^20 19J. ii%d.^ In 1395 the value
of the priory was reckoned at about 60 marks.^'
In 1428 the prioress held a knight's fee ir
Legbourne and elsewhere jointly with the abboi
of Louth Park.^^ In 1534 the value of th<
revenues was given as ^^38 8j. ^d. clear.^^ Th(
Ministers' Accounts give a total of jTj^ ' 7^- 9*'^-
including the profits of the rectories of Hailing
ton. North Somercotes, Farlesthorpe, with hal
those of Saltfleetby and Legbourne.^'

•Wright, Suppression of Monasteries, 116. Th
letter is signed by the prioress Joan Missenden, *an(
systers of the pryory of Legborne.'

' Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords
61.

' Dugdale, Mon. v. 634-5 ; Dodsworth MS. Ixxv

23-7-

'Dugdale, Mon. v. 634.

'°Ca/. of Pap. Letters, iv, 521. In this year
moiety of the church of Legbourne was appropriate
to the prioress and convent, on the ground of heav
losses through pestilence and dearth of labourers.

" Feud. Aids, iii, 302.

'^' Valor Eccles. iv, 52.

"Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 91.

154

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Prioresses of Legbourne

Mabel,' occurs 12 19

Beatrice,' occurs 1226, resigned 1247

Alice of Hoyland,' elected 1247

Alice of Conisholme,'' elected 1274

Parnel of Saltfleetby,' resigned 1296

Joan Chamberlain,' elected 1296, resigned

1315
Beatrice of Dunholm,' elected 1315
Denise of Selby,* resigned 1326
Julian or Joan of Ashby,' elected 1326, re-
signed 1336
Margaret de Wythern,'" elected 1336
Elizabeth Chamberlain,^' resigned 1368
Julian of Retford,'' elected 1368
Isabel Wrangel,'' died 1408
Maud Louth," elected 1408
Joan Polvertest,'* occurs 1440
Agnes Otteby,'' occurs 151 3, died 1529
Joan Gudband," elected 1529, occurs 1534
Joan Missenden," last prioress, occurs 1536

27. THE PRIORY OF GREENFIELD

The priory of Greenfield must have been
founded before the year 1 1 5 3 by Eudo of
Grainsby and Ralf of Aby, his son : Ranulf earl of
Chester was also a benefactor of the house.'' It
has very little history. A number of small and
unimportant suits and charters have preserved
for us the names of several prioresses, without
giving us very much idea of the fortunes of the
house. There are also a few notices relating to
the priory in the episcopal registers. In 1298 a
nun from Nuncotham was sent here to do pen-
ance. It appears that she was of a quarrelsome dis-
position, for Bishop Sutton ordered that as long
as she should continue incorrigible she should be
kept in solitary confinement, ' until according to
the discipline of the order she should know how
to live in community.' ^ Four years earlier the
bishop had visited the priory and given the
prioress an opportunity of resigning if she would,

' Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,

133-

' Ibid, and Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Grosseteste.
' Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Grosseteste.
' Ibid. Rolls of Gravesend.
'Ibid. Inst. Sutton, 22. * Ibid.

'Ibid. Memo. Sutton, 322.
« Ibid. Inst. Burghersh, 16 a'. ' Ibid.

'" Ibid. 75. Margaret was provided by the bishop,
Denise being re-elected uncanonically by the nuns.
" Ibid. Inst. Bokyngham, 26 d. " Ibid.

" Ibid. Inst. Repingdon, 35. "Ibid.

" Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower).
'* Dugdale, Mon. v, 634 ; and Line. Epis. Reg.
Inst. Longland, 25.

" Ibid, and Fa/or Eccles.
^* Wright, Suppression of Monasteries, 116.
" The death of Ranulf earl of Chester in 1 1 5 3
limits the date of foundation by this year. Dugdale,
Mon. V, 579.

'" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton, 207.

to avoid the disgrace of deprivation." Her suc-
cessor was not much more satisfactory, for in
1303 Bishop Dalderby heard that she had been
absent from her house for two years, and that it
was in danger of serious loss.'' She probably
resigned in consequence of the visitation which
followed." In 13 12 the nuns received a remis-
sion of tithes from the same bishop in considera-
tion of their poverty.'^ No other visitation is
recorded until that of Bishop Atwater in 1 5 19.
There was very little at this time to complain
of : one nun was accused of being disobedient
to her superiors, and the prioress did not invite
all the sisters to her table in due order.'^

The priory was dissolved in 1536, before
Michaelmas. Its income was at this time small,
but the ten nuns who lived there on £6^ a year
were better ofiF than their sisters at Nuncotham,
Legbourne, or Fosse. The prioress received a
pension of ^10 a year, the rest were paid ofF as
usual with 2 Of. apiece.'^

The endowment included the demesne land
with the churches of Aby, Cumberworth, and
Beesby." Greenfield church belonged to the
priory in the time of Hugh of Wells.'' In 1 29 1
the prioress was not taxed for any temporalities.
In 1428 she held fractions of a knight's fee in
Aby and East Rasen." In 1534 the nuns had an
income of £6^ 4.5. id. clear. ^^ The Ministers'
Accounts of 1536 give a total of j^62 6s. 4^.,
including the manors of East Rasen and Moorby,
Coningsby and Wilksby.^' The bells, lead, &c.,
of the monastery were worth ;^I35 8j.''

Prioresses of Greenfield

Agnes,^^ occurs 1230

Mabel,'* occurs 1237 and 1240

Maud,'* occurs 1260

Joan Hey worth,'' elected 1274

Christine," resigned 1293

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton, 8 1 d.

"Ibid. Memo. Dalderby, s6d.

" See list of prioresses.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 220.

''Visitations of Atwater (Alnwick Tower), fol. 52.

>«Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 166.

" The priory had a pension in the moiety of Beesby
church (Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Wells).

'' Gibbons, Liier jintiquus, 5 1 .

"Feud. Aids, iii, 257, 267.

"^ Valor Eccks. (Rcc. Com.), iv, 53.

'•Mins. Accts. (27-28 Hen. VIII), No. 91.

"Ibid. No. 166.

="Pat. 14 Hen. Ill, m. ■] d.

" Dugdale, Mon. v, 579. The names in Dugdale's
list are mostly from Harleian charters, and probably
quite correct. Two names, Sara and Alice, cannot
be dated. Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final
Concords, ii, 320.

'^Dugdale, Mon. v, 579.

'^ Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Gravesend.

" Ibid. Memo. Sutton, 8 1 d.

155

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Elizabeth or Isabel of Harrington,^ elected

1293, resigned 1301
Cecily de Parys,^ elected 1301, resigned

1305
Agnes of Langholm,' elected 1305, resigned

1313
Ivetta of Ormsby,* elected 1313, occurs till

1327

Margaret of Wells,^ elected 1330, occurs to

1349
Isabel,* occurs 1371
Joan,^ occurs 1398
Margaret,* occurs 1401 and 14 18
Joan,' occurs 1436
Elizabeth," occurs 1485
Joan Skypwith,^^ occurs 1509, died 15 18
Elizabeth Billesby,^^ elected 1518, died 152 1
Isabel Smyth,^' elected 1521, died 1530
Agnes or Anne Guderyk,^* last prioress, elected

1530

The pointed oval seaP° shows the Virgin,
seated, with crown and nimbus, the Child, also
with nimbus, on the right knee, her left hand
lifted up.

SIGILLVM SANCTE [mAR]iE DE GRENEFELD

28, THE PRIORY OF GOKEWELL

The small priory of Gokewell now in Broughton
was founded by William de Alta Ripa during the
reign of Henry II ; ^* and received other bene-
factions from Roger of St. Martin, Adam Paynel,
and William de Romara.^' The revenue of the
house was probably never more than sufficient
for ten or twelve nuns : in 1440 there were
eight, and at the dissolution seven. In the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries there was a
master or warden appointed to take charge of
the temporalities, as in other small nunneries :
and even in the fifteenth century a secular priest
acted as their steward.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Sutton, l(jd.

* Ibid. Inst. Dalderby, 3.
' Ibid. i^d.

* Ibid, and Dugdale, Mon. v, 579.

' Ibid. Memo. Burghersh, 217 ; Harl. Chart.
44 E, 7, 8. The episcopal registers record a
vacancy in 1349; Margaret probably died of the
pestilence.

* Harl. Chart. 44 E, 9.
' Ibid. 10.

* Dugdale, Mon. v, 579.

= Ibid. "Ibid.

" Ibid, and Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Atwater, 9,

" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Atwater, 9.

" Ibid. Inst. Longlands, 2 d.

" Ibid. 28, where she is called Agnes ; but in the
pension list the name is Anne.

•* Harl. Chart. 44 D, 59.

" Ca/. of Chart. R. i, ^j6, refers to a confirmation
charter of Hen. II, and the name of William de
Romara points to a date early in the reign.

" Ibid.

In 1302 Bishop Dalderby excommunicatec
certain persons who laid violent hands on the goods
of this monastery.^' No regular visitation is
recorded before that of Bishop Alnwick in 1 440,
He found the house very poor, but in good
order. The prioress told him that the nuns had
but two ' households,' in which they took turns
to entertain their friends. The revenues of the
house only amounted to ;^io a year, and were
not sufficient to supply the sisters with anything
but their food ; their clothing was probably paid
for by their relations. No dowry was exacted
at the reception of a nun ; the prioress only
accepted what their friends willingly offered.
No girls over ten or boys over eight were
admitted to the convent school. The house was
much in debt to the rector of Flixborough, who
was its steward.

The other sisters answered omnia bene : one,
however, remarked that the prioress was multum
simplex and remiss in correction, and that the
younger nuns paid little heed to her.^'

In 1 5 1 9 Bishop Atwater visited, but made no
corrections : there were then eight nuns in the
priory.^" It was dissolved before Michaelmas,
1536, the prioress receiving an annual pension
of ;^4, and the nuns 20s. each for apparel : a lay
sister only received 13J. j^d.^^ The prioress was
still living in 1553.^^

The endowment of the priory consisted only
of some small parcels of land in the neighbour-
hood."' The revenue in 1440 was said to be
only £10.^* In 1534 it was only £i(} 12s. lod.^^
The Ministers' Accounts amount to j^20 i;. 4^.^'

Prioresses of Gokewell

Avice,^' occurs 1234
Isabel of Thornton,^* died 1300
Maud of Saperton,^' elected 1300
Maud of Newode,'" resigned 1343
Elizabeth Dantry,'^ elected 1348
Alice of Layfield,'^ resigned 1375
Alice of Egermorton,'' elected 137S

" Line. Epis. Re^. Memo. Dalderby, 54<j'.

" Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), fol. 86.

"» Ibid. 45^.

" Mins. Acets. (27-28 Hen. VIII), No. 166.

'^ Add. MS. 8102 (Pension List).

»' Cal. of Chart. R. i, 476.

" Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), fol. 86.

" Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 140.

*° Dugdale, Mon. v, 721.

" Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
ii, 257.

'"Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton, 183. She re-
signed in 1297, but was restored till her death in
130G.

=' Ibid. Inst. Dalderby, 83.

^^ Ibid. Inst. Gynwell, 106.

'' Ibid. She was provided by the bishop.

'^ Ibid. Inst. Bokyngham, 1 30.

" Ibid.

156

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Joan Thorp,^ occurs 1440

Sibyl Thorney,^ occurs 15 19

Anne Castleford,' last prioress, occurs 1536

29. THE PRIORY OF FOSSE

The priory of Fosse, now in Torksey, appears
to have been founded by the men of Torksey
before the reign of John.* It was always a
•small and poor house. The nuns were never
assessed for any tenths or subsidies until 1 341 :
and when an attempt was made to tax their
wool in that year, they received a special ex-
■emption from the king, on the ground that
their endowment was so slender that they could
not maintain themselves without the alms of
the faithful.*

In 1297 a commission was issued by Bishop
Sutton for the visitation of the priory, ' certain
things having come to the bishop's ears ' con-
cerning the nuns.° He probably found nothing
amiss but poverty, for an indulgence was granted
three years after.' In 1440 Bishop Alnwick
found a prioress and five nuns here. They all
answered omnia bene : there was no complaint
of anything but the difKculty of getting the house
repaired. One of the nuns mentioned the fact
that they had always had a struggle with poverty ;
she and her sisters had nothing from the house
but board and lodging : as at Gokewell, they were
probably dependent on their friends for some
allowance for clothing. It is noteworthy, how-
-ever, that none complained of any personal dis-
•comfort, or of the quality of the food, which
must have been poor indeed.*

When Dr. London took the surrender of the
priory on II July, 1539, he found eight nuns
still living there on an income of ;^8 a year.
He might well call it ' a beggarly poor house.' '

It may be said that it was left so long standing
simply because the Royal Commissioners had so
little to gain by suppressing it : but on the other
Jiand, if the ladies had found their religious life
and their poverty so very irksome, they might
have surrendered earlier of their own accord.
This house is classed by Dr. London with
Irford, Nuncotham, and Heynings as one of those
■where the nuns had been living in imperfect
•chastity : ^^ but the statement is too vague and

' Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), fol. 86.
The prior is clearly called ' Cistercian ' at this
■visitation.

' Visitations of Atwater (Alnwick Tower), fol.
4S«'.

' Mins. Accts. (27-28 Hen. VIII), No. 166.

' Dugdale, Mm. iv, 292.

' Close, 15 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 13.

* Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton, 1 70.

' Ibid. Memo. Dalderby, 21.

° Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), fol. 18.

' L. and P. Hen. nil, xiv (i), 1321.
'» Ibid.

general to be worth much. The prioress re-
ceived a pension of 1 33 J. 4^., and the others
165. 8^. each." Five were still drawing these
little pensions in 1553,^^ and remained un-
married.^'

The original endowment of the priory con-
sisted of about 120 acres in Torksey," with a
few small rents and the church of South Kelsey."
In 1303 and 1346 the nuns held one-sixteenth
of a knight's fee in Bassingham." The revenue
of the house in 1534 was ;^7 y. 6d. clear, in-
cluding the church of Cherry Willingham.^'^ The
Ministers' Accounts amount to £1$ 15/. jd.^^

Prioresses of Fosse

Beatrice,^' occurs 1226

Agnes of Scothorn,^" died 1 3 1 2

Joan of Kettlesthorpe,^^ elected 13 1 2, died

1349
Beatrice of Ludington,^^ elected 1349, died

1380

Agnes of Grantham,^' elected 1380

Alice Radnor," resigned 1410

Margaret Barn by ,^' elected 141 0

Margery Redynges,^^ occurs 1440

Elizabeth Kirkby,^' died 1498

Joan Watson,^* elected 1498

Agnes Marr,^' last prioress

The fifteenth-century seal ^^ is pointed oval,
representing the Virgin, seated in a [canopied]
niche with tabernacle work at the sides, with
crown, the Child standing on the right knee. In
base under a round-headed arch St. Nicholas,
three-quarter length, with mitre and pastoral
staff, praying.

DOMUS - BEATE - MARIE - ET

- SCI - NICHOLAI - DE — F

" Aug. OS. Misc. Book, 245, fol. 23.

"Add. MS. 8102.

" Exch. Mins. Accts. bdle. 76, No. 26.

" Dugdale, Mon. iv, 292 ; and vi, 425.

" Pat. 12 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 23. But apparently
the nuns never presented to a church in Kelsey.

" Feud. Aids, iii, 168, 212.

" Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 132.

" Dugdale, Mm. iv, 292.

" Close Rolls (Rec. Com.).

'" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Dalderby, 95.

" Ibid.

*^ Ibid. Inst. Gynwell, 109.

" Ibid. Inst. Bokyngham, 146.

"* Ibid. Inst. Repingdon, II 9 </.

" Ibid.

'* Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), fol. 18.
The order of the house is given here as Cistercian.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Smith, 163. The house
is again called Cistercian.

>» Ibid.

" L. and P. Hen. Fill (i), 1250.

'" B.M. Seals, Ixvi, 97.

157

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE
HOUSE OF CARTHUSIAN MONKS

30. THE PRIORY OF AXHOLME

The Carthusian monastery of Axholmc was
founded in 1395 or 1396 by Thomas Mowbray,
earl of Nottingham, earl marshal of England,
and afterwards duke of Norfolk.^ Although
there were never more than nine houses of this
order in England, sqven of them were founded
between 1343 and 1414, at a time when the
popularity of other religious houses was waning,
and benefactors chose in preference schools, hos-
pitals, and colleges of secular canons. The
motive was no sudden enthusiasm for a new
order : the Grande Chartreuse had its origin in
1084, and the English houses of Witham and
Hinton had been founded in n8i and 1227.^

Before 1389 Mowbray entertained the project
of founding a charterhouse, and petitioned
Urban VI for help.' The priory of Monks-
kirby in Warwickshire had been founded about
1078 by one of his ancestors as a cell to the
Benedictine monastery of St. Nicholas at Angers.*
Like other alien priories its history in the four-
teenth century was very unsatisfactory. Early
in the reign of Richard II the property, which
was valued at over ;^20O a year, is said to have
been leased by the monastery for a considerable
sum of money to Sir Cannon Robsart, a War-
wickshire knight.' The earl represented to
Urban VI that religious observance had not
flourished for some time at Monkskirby, the
expenditure was no longer on pious uses, the
French prior and monks had led dissolute lives,
and the buildings were in part decayed.' Ac-
cordingly a papal mandate was issued to the
bishop of Lichfield to transfer the priory and
property of Monkskirby to a prior and convent
of twelve Carthusian monks to be established in
that place.' Apparently no steps were taken in
the matter.

In 1396, possibly after consulting the Carthu-
sian priors in England, Mowbray had chosen the
isle of Axholme as a suitable spot for a charter-
house, and he then petitioned Boniface IX for
leave to appropriate the priory of Monkskirby as
part of its endowment.' Robert Waldby, arch-
bishop of York, was commissioned to investigate
the matter, and comply with Mowbray's request.'

' Pat. 19 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 36. Exch. K.R. Eccles.
Doc. (P.R.O.) ^-g, fol. 2, 7. This is only a part of the
chartulary, and ends abruptly before the conclusion
of the foundation charter, so the exact date is
missing.

' Dugdale, Mofi. vi, 1-24.

' Exch. K.R. Eccles. Doc. (P.R.O.) ^\, fol. 2.

* Ibid. Cf. Bugdale, ffanv. (ed. 1730), {,75.

» Ibid. 76.

« Exch. K.R. Eccles. Doc. (P.R.O.) ^% fol. 2.

7 Ibid. ' Ibid. ' Ibid.

158

On the site of the monastery at Low Me
in Epworth, stood a chapel dedicated to the
which had long been called the Priory
Wood.^" There the earl planned to erect
church in honour of the visitation of the
St. John the Evangelist, and St. Edwar
and confessor, cloisters, monastic buildin
cells for a prior and thirty monks.^^
Richard II's licence he endowed the he
frankalmoigne with 100 acres in the ma
Epworth, a rent of 20 marks, and such ri
common of pasture, of turbary, and of fisl
other free tenants held within the isle, (
vowsons of Epworth and Belton, and the
of Monkskirby.^^ John Moreby was chc
prior of the new foundation.^'

In June, 1398, in aid of the building
church and charterhouse, Boniface IX g
the very liberal indulgence known as t
St. Mary of the Angels at Assisi.^* Pe
who visited the house on the feast of the
tion of the Virgin, and gave alms to the
received remission of all sins from their b
to that day. Only three months later,
result of his quarrel with Bolingbroke, the
of Norfolk was banished for life from the
dom, and he died at Venice in September, 1

Soon after the accession of Henry I
prior and convent of Axholme suffered a
blow. On 29 December, 1399, the pri
Monkskirby was restored to the monast
St. Nicholas at Angers," and in 1401
face IX annulled his former mandate I
desire of Henry IV." The house was
way deprived of the greater part of its e
ment, until Monkskirby was confiscated
the rest of the alien priories by Henry '
restored to Axholme in 14 15."

Under these circumstances it is probabl
the convent consisted only of a prior and
monks, the fixed complement according
earlier statutes of the order, and a certain r
of lay brothers.

In 1449 the charterhouse was very flour
the numbers had increased, but there we

"Exch. K.R. Eccles. Doc. (P.R.O.) ^,
Dugdale, Man. v, 26, No. ii.

" Exch. K.R. Eccles. Doc. (P.R.O.) ^j, fol

" Ibid. fol. 3 p. 4, 5, 7, 8. The endovin
Monkskirby included the manors of Newbold oi
Coppeston, and Walton, the appropriated chu:
Monkskirby and Newbold, and the advow
Withy Brook, Warpenbury, and Sharnford.

" Ibid. fol. 5 r. 6, 7.

" Dugdale, Mo». v, 27.

" Diet. Nat. Biog.

" Cal. Pat. I Hen. IV, pt. ii, m. 13.

" Cal. Papal Let ten, v, 438.

"■"Pat. 3 Hen. V, pt. ii, m. 39.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

enough cells for the monks, and buildings begun
* with wondrous skill and great cost ' were still
unfinished.^ The prior and convent desired to
add to their endowment, and in 1 450 succeeded
in appropriating to their own use the church of
Sileby in Leicestershire, which after the ordin-
ation of a vicarage was worth at least 1 4 marks
a year.^ In 1 46 1 they obtained from Edward IV
a confirmation of former charters, and as his
special gift two pipes of Gascon wine to be
taken each year at the port of Hull, and licence
to acquire property in mortmain to the annual
value of £$0.^

Of the internal history of the house there is
nothing to record. The life in a Carthusian
monastery was one of prayer and contemplation.^
Each monk had a small house of two stories
with a little garden ranged around a cloister.
The ground floor was occupied by a workroom
in which he kept his tools ; in the two rooms
above it he prayed, read, ate, and slept. His
food was passed into the lower room through an
opening so constructed that he could not see the
lay brother who brought it.

Three times in the day he went to the church
for the services of mattins, mass, and vespers, but
the other hours he said in his cell. On Satur-
days he might take a walk within the grounds of
the monastery. On Sundays and feast-days most
of the services were held in the church, and the
monks dined together in the frater. The chapter-
house was used for service on certain feast-days,
and there the monks assembled for a necessary
discussion about the temporal affeirs of the
monastery. The officers were the prior, vicar,
proctor, and sacrist. The prior had supreme
power, but was subject to the prior of the Grande
Chartreuse, and to the visitors of the province,
when they came to his house. The vicar was
spiritual head of the monastery in the prior's
absence. The proctor was responsible for the
general administration of the house, and bore rule
over the lay brothers and servants. In the
statutes of the order the number of lay brothers
was limited to sixteen. The offices held by
them were those of kitchener and cellarer, baker,
cobbler, proctor of agriculture, and master of the
shepherds. A number of hired servants were
employed.

The nine houses in England formed a separate
province of the Carthusian order, and two visitors

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Lumley, fol. 49.

' Ibid.

' Cai. Pat. I Edw. IV, pt. vi, m. 39 and 38.

* It is only possible here to indicate a few of the
features of life in a Carthusian monastery. The
statutes of Guigo, fifth prior of the Grande Chartreuse,
were printed in 1 5 1 o, Statuta Oriiinis Cartusiensis a
Domno Guigme Priore Cartusiae edita ; cf. also Disciprtna
Ordinis Cartusiensis auctore R. P. D. Innocentio le Masson,
{nova editio), 1894. For a summary cf. Laurence
Heudrik, Tie London Charterhouse (ed. 1889), 26-35,
55-8, and E. Margaret Thompson, The Somerset
Carthusians {^di. 1895), 31-44.

chosen from among its priors were appointed at
intervals by the general chapter, which met
yearly at the Grande Chartreuse. The visitors
performed their office in each house once in two
years. Every other year one at least of them
was bound to attend the general chapter, and the
expense was borne by all the houses of the
province. In 1415" it was conceded that the
visitor should only attend in leap year, in other
years letters from the province were to be sent
to the nearest priors across the sea.

The numbers at Axholme declined before the
dissolution, when there were not a dozen monks
in the house. There is no reason to think that
discipline was not strictly maintained, and under
such a prior as Augustine Webster the spiritual
and moral condition cannot have been other than
satisfactory. The revenues amply sufficed for
the needs of the house. When the difficult
questions of the succession arising out of the
divorce of Catherine of Aragon and the marriage
with Anne Boleyn were under discussion, a
determined effort was made to force the monks
of the London Charterhouse to assent to the
king's will. Under the rule of Prior Houghton,
the house was a model of religious observance.
Although the monks were so strictly enclosed
they had considerable influence, as many persons
resorted to them for spiritual advice. The story
of their troubles has often been told." About
the middle of April, 1535, when they were ex-
pecting to have the oath of supremacy tendered
to them, Augustine Webster, prior of Axholme,
and Robert Lawrence, prior of Beauvale, arrived
at the Charterhouse. They determined to go to
Cromwell with Prior Houghton in the hope of
perhaps obtaining some modification of the
royal demands. Cromwell refused to listen to
them, and gave orders that they should be
arrested on the spot and taken to the Tower.
On 20 April the priors of Axholme and Beau-
vale were examined by Cromwell at his house
in the Rolls.' When questioned as to the
royal supremacy both declared that they could
not assent nor so believe. Accordingly they
were taken back to the Tower. On 28 April
they were tried together with Prior Houghton
and Dr. Reynolds, a Brigettine monk of Sion,
on the charge of treason.^ Whether the jury
were influenced by Cromwell's threats or not,
they brought in a verdict of guilty on the 29th,
and the prisoners were condemned to death.
On the next day Cranmer wrote to Cromwell
on behalf of the prior of Axholme and Dr. Rey-
nolds. * I marvel at both ' he said, ' as they
are learned men, and Webster promised he
would never support that opinion. If no other

° E. M. Thompson, The Somerset Carthusians, 109.

* Laurence Hendriks, The London Charterhouse,
1 1 5-240. F. A. Gasquet, Hen. VllI and the English
Monasteries (ed. 1899), 45-74.

' L. and P. Hen. Fill, viii, No. 565.

» Ibid. No. 609.

159

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

offence, it will much more tend to the con-
version of others to convert their consciences
by sincere doctrine, and so for them to publish
it than to suffer penalty of law. If they were
sent to me, I suppose I could do much on their
behalf.'^ If Cromwell allowed Cranmer to
exert his influence it was of no avail. On
14. May, 1535, the three Carthusian priors and
Dr. Reynolds were executed at Tyburn.

The monks at Axholme did not emulate
the example of their prior, and none of them
were included among the Carthusians who suf-
fered death for their opinions. It is probable
that the vicar ^ of the house, Michael Meke-
ness, became prior by Cromwell's appointment.
His rule was very unquiet.' A certain Henry
Stokwith, who, in view of the coming surrender,
desired the lease of the demesne lands, stirred
up strife between the prior and the monks. The
prior appears to have looked only to his own
interests and to have purposed to surrender his
house. He kept the convent seal and quarrelled
with the monks who refused their consent to a
lease of certain property to one of his kinsmen.
Cromwell heard, perhaps from the monks,* that
the prior was wasting the goods of the house,
and it was rumoured that he intended to depose
him.° In February, 1538, a letter signed by
eight of the monks was sent to Cromwell stat-
ing their belief that he had elected brother
Thomas Barningham as prior, and asking thaj
he might be put into possession as soon as pos-
sible.* On 2 1 March they wrote again.' The
prior, expecting to be deprived, had by Stokwith 's
advice laid hands on all the money he could,
collected the rents, sold all the valuable horses,
and gone away, leaving them only £2- * Dan
Thomas Barningham is a sad and very religious
man,' they said, 'would God we had him,'
Nothing was done. Cranmer interposed and
urged the willingness of the prior to surrender
the house.* A letter to the prior of Shene
Charterhouse, written in utter despair, and signed
by two monks and a lay brother, discloses the
pitiful condition of the house.^ * Our husbandry
is not looked upon, our land is not tilled, muck
is not led, our corn lyeth in the barn, some is
threshed and some is husbanded, and much is yet
to thresh, and taketh hurt with vermin ; and as
soon as our father came home, he shewed our

' L. and P. Hen. VIII, viii, No. 616.
' Wright, Suppression of the Monasteries (Camden
See), 174.
' Ibid.

* Ibid. 176. » Ibid. 173.

= L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii (i). No. 489. This and
the follovcing letter were probably written in 1538,
not 1537. Cf. L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii (i),
No. 1025.

' Ibid. No. 693.

* Wright, Suppression of the Monasteries (Camden
See), 173.

' Ibid. 174-6.

servants that he had given up the house :
bade them shift for themselves, and so at Ea;
they went many of them away. And shoi
hay-time shall come, and when it should
sped, other things shall be to do.' They hea
too, that the prior was going to send Stokw
to London with the convent seal, and dreac
the worst.

Their fears were shortly justified. When 1
commissioners arrived to take the surrender, thi
was no resistance. It was signed on 1 8 Juj
1538, by the prior and eight monks.^" The pr
was awarded a pension of ;^20, and seven of t
monks received small yearly sums.*^ The 1
brothers got nothing.

The clear yearly value of the property
1535 amounted to ;^237 15^, 2\d., of whi
;^i57 125. i^d. was drawn from the tempora
ties and spiritualities of Monkskirby.^^ T
remainder included lands and rents in the Isle
Axholme, in Owston, Kinnard's Ferry, Gu
thorpe, and Kelfield in Lincolnshire, and sm
rents in Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, and t
rectory of Sileby. The demesne lands were wor
£2, I 8J' A'^- ^ year. In the hands of the crov
bailiff four years later, the property brought
£323 2s. oK"

Priors of Axholme

John Moreby, elected 1396"
Henry, occurs 1449 ^*
Richard, occurs 1469" and 1472"
Augustine Webster, 1535 ^*
Michael Mekeness, 1535 to 1538^'

A seal of this priory is attached to a charter
1450.^ It is in shape a pointed oval, and repr
sents the Salutation of the Virgin, in a nic
with carved canopy, and tabernacle work at i
sides, on which are two shields of arms of t
founder : a lion rampant, Thomas Mowbra
earl of Nottingham, afterwards duke of Norfol
In base, under an arch, a shield of arms : Englai
with a label of three points.'^ The legend is :-

s : coE : DOMus : uisitacois : be : marie
VGis : ORD cart'

'° Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, p. viii.

" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiv (i), 597.

" Va/or Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 135, 136.

"Dugdale, Mon. v, 28.

" Exch. K.R. Eccles. Doc. (P. R. O.) ^, fol. S v.

''Line. Epis. Reg. Lumley, fol. 12.

'" Cal. Pat. 9 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. 12.

" Cole MS. xxviii, fol. 2043 (B.M.).

"i. and P. Hen. VIII, x, No. 565.

"Wright, Suppression of the Monasteries (Came
Soc), 174.

'"Add. Chart. 20612 (B.M.).

" W. de Gray Birch, Cat. of Seals, i, 430. 1
seal attached to the surrender (Deeds of Surrenc
Aug. Off. No. 9) is exactly similar.

160

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

HOUSES OF AUSTIN CANONS

31. THE ABBEY OF GRIMSBY OR
WELLOW

The abbey of Wellow was founded, like the
priory of Dunstable, by King Henry I,* and
dedicated to St. Augustine and St. Olaf.* There
is no evidence at present to determine the exact
date of foundation. Ranulf earl of Chester and
Geoffrey Trussebut were benefactors of the
house before the reign of Henry II, who con-
firmed the gifts of his grandfather, and took the
abbey under his own patronage.'

In 1202 the abbot secured the advowson of
the church of Riby in a suit against Emma of
Riby.^ In 1228 a licence was granted to the
canons to preach and beg alms for the repair of
their house throughout the king's dominions.'
During the Scottish wars of Edward II the
abbot was required to supply the king with
wheat, malt, and sheep to the value of ;^i8, and
had £\2, lOJ. ^d. besides exacted from him,
but these sums were repaid by Edward III.'
The house was seriously in debt in 1325, and a
secular was appointed to take charge of its affairs
for awhile;' and again, in 1359, arrangements
had to be made by the bishop to reduce the
expenses of the canons' maintenance.' Later
on, in 1372, the abbot, John Utterby, was
accused of having sold, alienated, and dissipated
the goods of the house and brought it almost to
ruin.'

In 1534 Robert Whitgift, the abbot, with ten
canons, signed the acknowledgement of royal
supremacy.^" The abbey at this time had a
clear revenue of only ^^95 ; it consequently fell
within the range of the first Act of Suppression.
It was dissolved before Michaelmas, 1536. The
abbot received a pension of j^i6 a year, and nine
canons had ^^8 i os. divided between them ' in
regard,' as well as their arrears of 'wages,' amount-
ing tO;^6 13J. \dP- The bells and leads of the

' See Confirmation Charter of Henry II in
Dugdale, Mm. vi, 470, and Pat. I Edw. IV, pt. ii,
m. 24.

' The double dedication appears frequently on the
Patent Rolls.

' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 470. It remained under the
royal patronage to the dissolution.

* Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
i, 25.

' Pat. 1 2 Hen. Ill, m. 4.

^ Close, I Edvi'. Ill, pt. i, m. 3.

' Pat. 19 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 34.

° Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynwell, 1 1 7.

' Ibid. Memo. Bokyngham, 109 </.

"' L. and P. Hen. Fill, vii, 1121 (38).

" Mins. Accts. (27-28 Henry VIII), No. 1 66.

2 161

monastery were sold for ;^202 i6i.," which
makes it probable that the buildings were fairly
extensive, and had been intended at first for a
large number of canons.

There are several notices relating to the
internal history of this abbey in the Lincoln
registers. In 1359 the bishop made arrange-
ments for one secular clerk to manage its
revenues and another to collect the rents and
hand them over to the prior, as it was evident
that the canons at that time were not good men
of business.^' In the same year it was noticed
that some scandal had arisen because the north
gate of the church had been frequently left open ;
this defect was to be remedied in future.^* In
1368 the canons were accused of frequenting
the taverns of Grimsby, and passing a good deal
of time there in drinking and gossip.^' In
1372 the abbot was suspended for his bad
government, and required, with another brother,
to do penance for crimes (not specified) which
had been proved against them.'*

Bishop Flemyng visited the house in 1422, but
found nothing specially worthy of comment.
He ordered his injunctions as to the keeping of
the rule to be read twice every quarter in
English, to avert, as far as possible, the danger of
laxity." Bishop Alnwick visited in 1438 and
in 1440 ; his injunctions are again formal, and
such as might have been delivered to any
monastery at the time : to safeguard the observ-
ance of the rule an apostate canon was to be
caught and brought back.^* In 1444 the same
bishop gave orders that the parish church of Clee
should be served by a secular priest instead of a
canon, as religious men suffered so much loss to
soul and body by wandering from the cloister
and conversing with the world.^'

In 1 5 1 9 the monastery was visited by Bishop
Atwater. The abbot complained that his
obedientiaries were not diligent in performing
their duties. No other complaint seems to have

"Mins. Accts. (27-28 Henry VIII), No. 166.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynwell, 1 1 7.

"Ibid. 138.

" Ibid. Memo. Bokyngham, 66 d.

"Ibid. I0<)d.

"Line. Epis. Reg. 233a'. The notice that the
injunctions should be read in Engfish here and else-
where at this period points to the decay of learning
which was among the causes of decline in the
religious life during the fifteenth century. ■

'* Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), 69,
751/. The visitation report is not very legible, but
the entries are all short and evidently not very
important.

'' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Flemyng, 44. d.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

been made. The bishop enjoined that accounts
should be duly shown, and exhorted the brethren
generally as to charity and diligence in study.^
The house was evidently in better condition at
this time than some others of the order, for the
abbot in 1 5 1 8 had been made one of the definitors
at the general chapter held at Leicester " under the
presidency of Cardinal Wolsey, when such great
eiforts were made to secure reform and renewal
of fervour among the Augustinians generally.

After the Lincoln rebellion the prior of the
suppressed abbey of Wellow was accused by one
of the king's officers of charging him to join the
Commons, but the matter does not seem to have
been taken up.'

The original endowment of the abbey of
Wellow by Henry I consisted of the site in
Grimsby, with the church of St. James and
divers ponds, mills, &c., for which they had to
pay a rent of 40^. a year to the exchequer,* and
tithes of the manors of Lusby, Grimsby, and of
fish in the port of Honfleet.^ Ranulf earl of
Chester gave the churches of Tetney, Clee,
Humberston, and Huttoft, with lands in Tetney
and Humberston ; Geoffrey Trussebut gave the
church of Riby ; * Gilbert de Turribus the church
of Cabourn.' The burgesses and knights of
Grimsby gave other lands in that vill.* The
churches of Thorganby, Holton, and Cadeby
also belonged to the abbey at an early date.' In
1 29 1 the temporalities of the abbot were assessed
at £6y 2J. $(!}'■' In 1303 he held one-twelfth of a
knight's fee in Irby, three-quarters in Thorganby,
one-eighth in Swallow, one-twelfth in Clee,^^
and very much the same both in 1346'^^ and
1428.^' In 1401-2 he held the churches of
St. James, Grimsby and Clee, and a quarter of a fee
in Clee.^* Mention is made during the four-
teenth century of the manors of Tetney, Weels-
by, Cabourn, Thorganby, Swallow, Grimsby, and
Stallingborough as belonging to the abbey.^* In

' Visitations of Atwater (Alnwick Tower), 53.
There is a direction, not easy to understand,
that nothing must be allowed to grow for a space of
three feet beyond the walls of the monastery. One
person was to do ail the washing for the brethren.

' Cott. MS. Vesp. D. i, fol. 63 d'.

' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xi, 975.

* Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 291.

° Dugdale, Man. vi, 470 ; and Lans. MS. 207 C,
128 a'. The church of Humberston belonged later
to the abbey there and Huttoft to Markby (Gibbons,
Liier Jntij. 43).

" Lans. MS. 207 C, 128 <^.

' Liier Antiq. (ed. A. Gibbons), 96.

' Cart. Antiq. K. 34.

' Pope Nkh. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 57, 58 ; Dugdale,
Mon. vi, 470.

'» Pope Nich. Tax, 6U.

" Feud. Jidi, ill, 137, 141, 153, 161.

'■ Ibid. 214, 217, 220, 230-2.

" Ibid. 256, 278, 282, 292, 296. " Feud. J ids, in.

'' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynwell, 117; Add.
MS. 6165, fol. 63.

1534 the clear revenue of the house was only
;^95 6^. id}^ The Ministers' Accounts amounted
to £ij8 gs. lod., including the rectories of
Grimsby, Clee, Riby, Cabourn, and the manor
and rectory of Tetney. ^^

Abbots of Wellow

William,^' occurs about 1153

Richard,^' occurs 1202

Richard,^" elected 1217, occurs to 1226

Reginald,^^ elected 1234

Philip de Gammes,^^ elected 1252

William Cabourn,^' elected 1252, occurs 1261

John,^ elected 127 1, died 1 27 1

Simon of Wainfleet,^^ elected 1271, died 1293

William of Croxby,^* elected 1293, died 1317

Thomas of Wellinghom,^' elected 131 7, died

1341

John of Holton,^* elected 1 34 1

Richard of Utterby,^' died 1369

John of Utterby,'" elected 1369, deposed 1374

John Thorp," elected 1374, died 1410

William Cotes,'^ elected 14 10, died 141 7

John Grimsby,'^ elected 141 7, resigned 142 1

Henry Sutton,'* elected 1 42 1, died 1456

John Anglesby,'^ elected 1456

Richard Clee,'* elected 1467, died 1477

Richard Hamilton," elected 1477

'^ Falor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 6j.

" Mins. Accts. (27-28 Hen. VIII), No. 91. The
churches of Tetney, Huttoft, and Cadeby are men-
tioned as late as the confirmation of Edw. IV (Pat.
I Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 24).

'' Dugdale, Mon. v, 579 (Foundation Charter of
Greenfield Priory), where he is contemporary with
Ralf, abbot of Louth Park.

" Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
i, 25.

*° Pat. I Hen. Ill, m. 4 ; Boyd and Massingberd,
Abstracts of Final Concords, i, 182.

" Pat. 18 Hen. Ill, m. 5.

"" Ibid. 26 Hen. Ill, m. 10.

=" Ibid. m. 7.

" Ibid. 55 Hen. Ill, m. 4. It is noticed that he
died immediately after his election.

" Ibid.

^^ Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Sutton, 1 2 ; Pat. 1 1
Edw. II, pt. i, m. 7.

" Pat. II Edw. II, pt. i, ra. 5 ; ibid. 15 Edw. Ill,
pt. i, m. 24.

^' Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Gynwell, 92.

^ Ibid. Inst. Bokyngham, 35.

'« Ibid, and Pat. 43 Edw. Ill, pt. ii. William of
Utterby was first elected, but the bishop set him aside
as illegitimate, and provided John of Utterby, whom
the king at first refused, as the provision was made
without his assent, but afterwards accepted.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Bokyngham, 61 ; Add.
MS. 6165, fol. 67.

'* Ibid. Inst. Repingdon, 47.

'' Pat. 5 Hen. V.

'* Ibid. 9 Hen. V, pt. ii, m. 19.

'^ Ibid. 35 Hen. VI.

'" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Chedworth, 79 d.

"■ Pat. 17 Edw. IV, pt. ii.

[62

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Thomas Cawode,^ elected 1501

Richard Kyngson,* elected 1 504, died 1525

Robert Whitgift,' last abbot, elected 1525

A twelfth-century pointed -oval seal * shows
St. Augustine, standing, lifting up the right hand
in benediction, in the left hand a pastoral stafF.

[SJIGILLV ECCLESIE • SANCTI AVGVSTINI "
D • GRIMESB ....

The fourteenth-century pointed oval seal
made by John de Utterby ° shows, in a double
niche, with carved canopies, crocheted and pin-
nacled, with a small vacant niche between the
two large ones; on the left St. Augustine full-
length with mitre lifting up the right hand in
benediction, in the left hand a crozier ; on the
right King Henry I, the founder (or perhaps
St. Olaf), with crown, lifting up the right hand
with first finger extended, in the left hand a
battle-axe. On the tabernacle work at the
sides, two shields of arms — the left, quarterly
I and 4 England, 2 and 3 France (ancient) ; on
the right England.

In base, between two trees, a shield of arms ;
on a chevron between a royal crown and a lion
of England in chief, and in base a pastoral staff,
issuing from the base three fleurs-de-lis, Grimsby
Abbey.

: c5e

SCI

ABBT

(SVENT : MOASTII

AVGVSTINI : DE : GRIMESBY

The thirteenth-century pointed oval seal of an
abbot ' shows the abbot standing on a platform,
a book in the hands. In the field on the right
an estoile ; the corresponding device on the left
side is destroyed. The legend is destroyed.

32.

THE PRIORY OF HYRST

The little cell of Hyrst in Axholme was built
on lands granted by Nigel d'Albini to the prior
and convent of St. Oswald's, Nostell, probably
early in the twelfth century. Roger de Mowbray
confirmed the gifts of his father. It seems
probable that there never was but one canon
living there, to take charge of the lands ; the
charter of Nigel speaks of Ralf the Canon ' being
resident there, and the charter of Roger names
' Osbert Silvanus the Canon.' The property
consisted only of the grove and marsh of Hyrst,
with certain tithes of corn, malt, and fish from
the neighbourhood. In 1534 it still belonged
to St. Oswald's Priory, and was worth £y lis. 8d.
a year ; in the Ministers' Accounts the value is
said to be £() 8sJ

' Lans. MS. 963, fol. 29.

' Ibid. fol. 22.

' L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (2), 2367.

* B.M. Seals, Ixvi, 100.

' Ibid, xllii, 42.

" Harl. Chart. 45, A 24.

' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 100.

There is a seal of the twelfth or early thir-
teenth century.* The obverse is pointed oval
representing the Virgin seated on a throne, with
nimbus, in the right hand the Child, in the left
hand a sceptre fleur-de-lize.

[sJiGILLV HERS

The reverse is a small oval signet or counter
seal representing Athena Nikephoros, to the right
from an oval Greek gem.

33. THE ABBEY OF THORNTON

The abbey of Thornton was founded in 1 139
by William le Gros, earl of Albemarle and lord
of Holderness. The foundation charter states
that by the counsel of his kinsman Waltheof, prior
of Kirkham, of Simon earl of Northampton and
Henry earl of Huntingdon, the founder placed
here twelve canons from Kirkham who were at
first ruled by a prior ; and the house was raised
to the dignity of an abbey by bull of Pope
Eugenius III in 1148.'

Before 1284 the Albemarle estates escheated
to the crown ; but the canons of Thornton had
already acquired the privilege of administering the
estates of the monastery during voidance, with-
out fees to the patron, except such as were due
to two servants who kept the great gate and the
door of the guest house in his name. This privi-
lege was confirmed by the king,^" who also, in
consideration of a fine of ;^io, promised not to
grant the advowson of the abbey out of his own
hands and those of his successors.'^^ It remained
therefore a royal foundation until the dissolution.

The abbey was well endowed with lands and
churches by the founder and other benefactors ;
and in 1 29 1 its temporalities were taxed at
;^235.^^ The original number of canons was
considerably increased, and even at the dissolution
there were still twenty-three.

In 1 22 1 the abbot secured the advowson of
Welton-in-the-Marsh in a suit with Walter de
Hamby, a descendant of the original donor. ^*
From 1269 to 1292 a good deal of expense was
incurred by the purchase of certain manors and
advowsons." In 1275 the abbot was accused of
appropriating sixteen acres on the moor of Caistor
for his sheepfolds"; in 1319 he received a

»Harl. Chart. 43, I, 18.

' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 324 ; from a chronicle of which
a transcript exists in the Bodleian Library, Tanner
MSS. 166.

" Pat. 12 Edw. I, m. 11 ; and Close, 16 Edw. II,
m. 22.

" Pat. 6 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 9 ; Abbrev. Plac.
(Rec. Com.), 73.

'= Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 6U.

" Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
162.

" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 324, Charter i.

" Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 266.

163

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

pardon for his trespass.^ During the reign of
Edward II the canons of Thornton had to con-
tribute provisions for the Scottish war at con-
siderable expense, and were also disseised of some
property by Hugh le Despenser, of whose want
of reverence for church property this is not the
only instance. The land was restored by
Edward III, and payment promised for the
provisions.^ In 1332 losses from inundation,
cattle plague, and the burden of hospitality led
to the impropriation of the church of Wootton.'
Several pensioners were sent successively by
Edward I and Edward II to spend their last
days at the abbey.* In 1312 the abbot was
summoned for the first time to Parliament, but
he and his successors made great efforts to escape
this duty; in 1341 an exemption was formally
granted,^ but in 1348 it was revoked, and
attendance was thenceforward required.* A
petition made by the abbot in 1341, that he
might not have to pay a ninth on his tempo-
ralities as well as the annual and triennial tenths,
was granted for all property acquired before
1292.'

Some of the abbots of the fourteenth century
were great builders, and spent on the decoration
and improvement of the monastery rather more
than their revenues justified. William Grasby,
abbot from 1323 to 1347, incurred great expenses
in this way ; he also purchased the manor of
Barrow for ;^200 and the advowson of Wei ton
for j^6o, and at his death the house was evidently
somewhat embarrassed ;* and the bursar at this
time was extravagant and suspected even of dis-
honesty.' The next abbot, Robert of Darling-
ton, spent a good deal on the decoration of the
church and monastic buildings generally.^"

Little is known of the history of the abbey in
the fifteenth century, except that it shared in
the general decline of learning and disciplinc.^'^
Its prosperity, however, was not much diminished.
In 1518 the abbot was able to secure from Pope
Leo X a bull granting him the privilege of
celebrating mass in a mitre with gold plates and
full pontificals.^^ The abbey was described in
1 52 1 as one of the goodliest houses of the order

' Pat. 12 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 14. Perhaps it was
for assault made by his porter and others on the
goods of Richard of Pontefract at Winterton ; ibid.
7 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 3 d.

' Ibid. 2 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 2 ; Close, 1 Edw. Ill,
pt. i, m. 24.

^ Ca/. of Pap. Letters, ii, 354.

^ See Close, 24 Edw. I- 1 3 Edw. II. There were
probably many more.

' Close, 15 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 22.

" Ibid. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. "] d.

' Ibid. 15 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 22.

'Tanner MS. 166.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Gynwell, ^^d.
'"Tanner MS. 166.

" Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), "jad.
" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Smith, •](>.

in England.^' Some slight losses were sufferei
by inundation in 1534;'* but the revenue wa
returned in the same year as nearly ;^6oo clear.

Abbot John Moor signed the acknowledge
ment of supremacy, with twenty-three canons.^
He was accused after the Lincoln rebellion o
having provided the insurgents with money ; ^
but he was not brought to trial. His successor
William Hobson, surrendered the abbey in 1539
receiving a pension of ;^40. The canon
received annuities of ^^5 to £^1 each.^' Th(
revenues of the house were employed for a shor
time in maintaining a college for secular priests.^'

From the thirteenth century onwards thii
house was one of the largest and most important
in the county. There is no precise record o;
the number of canons in its most prosperous
days, but the order of Bishop Alnwick that one
canon out of twenty should be maintained al
the university looks as if there were more ir
his time than at the dissolution. The Chronicle
transcribed by Tanner gave lists of obedientiaries
which imply a very considerable household.^' h
school of fourteen boys, who had to serve at
mass, was kept in the almonry, with a master tc
instruct them, and a large number of corrody-
holders claimed maintenance from the Court oi
Augmentation at the surrender of the monastery.^'

The house had its vicissitudes, as might be
expected, in point of order and discipline. The
abbot of Thornton was one of those deposed by
Bishop Grosteste in 1235 for causes not specified.^'
There were cases of apostacy and other individual
delinquencies from time to time. In 1298 a
canon named Peter de Alazun, having a greater
zeal for learning than for holy obedience, forsook
his monastery and joined the scholars at Oxford
in secular habit. He was excommunicated by
the chancellor throughout the schools, but ap-
parently did not repent and return till 1309.^^
Another canon, Peter Franke, was involved in
1346 in a discreditable fracas between the ser-
vants of the monastery and those of a knight
of the neighbourhood. The knight's servants
had seized a boatload of victuals on its way to

" L. and P. Hen. VIII, iii (i), 510.

" Ibid, vii, 589 (i). The abbot had a suit about
1532 against the inhabitants of Barrow, for driving
his cattle off their pastures, and threatening to
destroy them. Star Chamb. Proc. (1332-8), bdle. 18,
No. 308.

'" L. and P. Hen. Fill, vii, 1 121 (46).

•' Ibid, xi, 853 (2).

"Add. MS. 8102.

'^ See Thornton College.

'' There are lists of cellarers, sub-cellarers, bursars,
chamberlains, almoners, masters of the works, sacrists,
kitcheners, infirmarers, as well as minor officials, in
regular succession for a long time. Tanner MS. 166.

»" Add. MS. 8102.

'■ Jnn. Man. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 143.

*' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton, zio, 214;
ibid. Memo. Dalderby, I34</.

164

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

che abbey, and Peter, being the knight's kinsman,
thought he could induce them by fair words to
give up the booty ; but though he urged the
ringleader ' in the sweetest possible way ' to
restore the boat, he was answered in such rude
fashion that he lost his temper, snatched up the
nearest weapon, and wounded the man mortally.
The Earl of Lancaster interceded for the canon,
who would naturally for this act have been dis-
abled from exercising any ecclesiastical function ;
and the pope allowed him to retain the exercise
of minor orders, and to hold a benefice.^

Cases of this kind show us nothing of the
general condition of the house.' The abbot at
this time was William Grasby, who was at any
rate zealous for the exterior adornment of the
monastery,' and his appointment jointly with
the prior of Kirkham in 1340 by Pope Benedict
XII to convoke a general chapter of the order *
seems to imply that he enjoyed a good reputation
among his brethren. The next abbot, Robert of
Darlington, had been made cellarer previously by
Bishop Gynwell expressly on account of his
' honest and laudable conversation,'" and an order
given during his time that ' no woman, how-
ever honest,' should be allowed to live in the
monastery,' does not necessarily imply that any
serious wrongdoing had been discovered. His
successor, Thomas Gresham, was however a
man of very evil life,' and those who followed
for a while, though less unworthy of their office
than he, do not seem to have been capable of
restoring the credit of the house. Bishop
Flemyng's injunctions in 1424 show that the
number of boys educated in the almonry had
diminished, and that the poor and infirm were
not succoured as in days gone by.^ When
Walter Moulton succeeded in 1439 he was
evidently quite unable to cope with the laxities
and disorders of the house. At Bishop Alnwick's
visitation of 1440 he complained that the

' Cal. of Pap. Pet. i, 112.

* The same may be said of the permission granted
to a canon, William of Louth, in 1 401, to abide
within the cloister for life, and to be exempt from
holding any office, that he might give himself entirely
to devotion. Cal. of Pap. Letters, v, 493.

'Tanner MS. 166.

* Cott. MS. Vesp. D. i, 40-7.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Gynwell, zz d.

^ Ibid. Memo. Bokyngham, 20. He had been
a definitor at the general chapter of 1362. Cott.
MS. Vesp. D. I, fol. 55.

' The chronicler was evidently more honest and
reliable than Tanner's friend who tore out the record
of his life, ' to prevent y" scandall of y" church.'
' The truth is,' says Tanner, ' the account given of
him was that he was a very wicked man, a Sodomite
and what not.' Tanner MS. 166. It may be that
his iniquities were for some time kept secret, for in
1383 he was made a definitor at the general chapter,
Cott. MS. Vesp. D. I, fol. 63 d. He was abbot

1375-94-

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Flemyng, 235.

obedientiaries did not render their accounts.
The canons said that the abbot was thoroughly
incompetent, that manors, granges, &c., were
let without consent of chapter, that the sick
were not provided for, that there were only
two boys in the almonry, and no scholar
at the university. The brethren did not eat
regularly in the refectory, and the sacrist had
lent the sacred vestments to seculars for games
and spectacles. The bishop's injunctions ordered
reform on all these points : after personal ex-
amination of the abbot, he appointed him a
coadjutor elected by the convent.'

After this the house seems to have recovered
a higher standard. Bishop Atwater in 15 1 9
had no remarks to make at all.-^" Nothing is
alleged to the discredit of the abbot and convent
at the end, except sympathy with the popular
movement in 1536 ; and even if this is true, it
does not prove that there was anything wrong in
the lives of the canons.

The original endowment of the abbey of
Thornton by the founder consisted of the vills of
Thornton, Grasby, Audleby, Burnham, 'Hel-
weir (Line), and Frodingham (Yorks.), with
the churches of Audleby, Ulceby, Frodingham,
Barrow-on-Humber, ' Heccam ' and ' Randa.'
Other benefactors added the vill of Humbleton
and half that of Warham, with divers other
parcels of land, and the churches of Thornton,
(Line), Humbleton, Garton, Welton, and
half that of Wyner (Yorks.), and 'Ulstikeby.'^^
The patronage of the churches of Carlton,
Kelstern, Worlaby, and Wootton was acquired
later, with the manors of Halton, Barrow, and
Mersland.i'

The temporalities of the abbey were taxed in
1291 at ;^235 OS. gd.^^ In 1303 the abbot held
a knight's fee in Wootton and Goxhill, another
in Barrow, one and a half in Killingholm, a
half in Owmby and in Wootton and Little
Limber, one quarter in Worlaby, and smaller
fractions in Barton, Croxton, Killingholm, Searby,

' Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), 70 d.
One of the canons stated that when the coming
visitation was announced some of them met in
chapter to try to set things straight a little ; but
when a tumult arose the abbot could do nothing but
wring his hands and cry ' Woe is me ! What shall
I do ? I am undone ! ' and would have fled from
the house as one demented. The bishop's decision
that he was really incompetent tends to confirm this
statement, and his feeble government and incapacity
seems to have been greatly resented by the canons,
for when he died in 1443 no obit was appointed for
him — he was to be remembered only amongst the
ordinary brethren departed, and even the place of
his burial was unmarked by any inscription. Tanner
MS. 166.

'° Visitations of Atwater (Alnwick Tower), ^l^.d.

" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 326-7.

"Tanner MS. 166 ; confirmed by entries on the
Pat. Rolls and Line. Epis. Reg.

" Pope Nkh. Tax (Rec. Com.), 68^.

165

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Welton, and Great Sturton.^ In 1346 his lands
were almost the same, except that he had two
fees in Barrow ^ ; in 1428 he had a small frac-
tion of a fee in Hamby as well.' In 1431 he
held the manors of Barrow and Ulceby, acquired
since 20 Edw. I. In 1534 the clear revenue of
the abbey amounted to ;^59i os. 2^d., and in the
Ministers' Account of the year 1542-3 includes
the churches of Thornton, Barrow, Ulceby,
Worlaby, Wootton, Carlton, Kelstern, and
Grasby in Lincolnshire, Elstronwick, Danthorpe,
Garton, and Hinton in Yorkshire, and the
manors of Thornton, Wootton, Barrow, Carlton-
le-Moorland, Halton, Killingholme, Gothill,
Ulceby, Owersby, and Stainton-le-Hole in Lin-
colnshire, and Garton, Ottringham, Frodingham,
Humbleton, Faxfleet, and Wyncetts in Skeffling
(Yorks.).* There was a small cell of this abbey
at Thwayte, in Welton in the Marsh, of which
a single canon had charge, during the fifteenth
century.'

Abbots of Thornton °

Richard, first prior in 1 1 39, abbot in 1 148,

died 1 152
Philip, elected 1 1 52
Thomas, elected 1175
John Benton, elected 1 184
Jordan de Villa, elected 1203
Richard de Villa, elected 1223
Geoffrey of Holme, elected 1233
Robert, elected 1245, died 1257
William Lincoln, elected 1257
William Huttoft, elected 1273, resigned 1290
Thomas of Glanford Bridge, elected 1 290,

died 1323
William Grasby,^ elected 1323, resigned 1348
Robert Darlington, elected 1348, died 1364
Thomas Gresham,^ elected 1364
William Moulton, elected 1394, died 1418
Geoffrey Burton, elected 1418, died 1422
John Hoton, elected 1422, died 1439
Walter Moulton, elected 1439, died 1443
William Medley, elected 1443, died 1473

^ Feuii. Jids, iii, 131-74.

' Ibid. 215-57. ' Ibi'J- 257-308.

* Fahr Eccles. (Rec. Com.), 73 ; and Dugdale,
Mon. vi, 328.

' It is mentioned only in the visitation of Bishop
Alnwick.

* This list is taken from Tanner MS. I dS. The
general trustworthiness of this manuscript can be
proved in so many places by comparison with the
Lincoln Registers and the Patent Rolls, &c., that its
evidence may be accepted where they fail.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Gynwell, 22 d, says he
resigned in July, 1 348. The Chronicle places his
death on 10 February, 1347. He probably died
within the year of his resignation. The date would
be taken from the lists of obits, and the difference
in the year is very likely a slip, for Robert Darlington's
election is dated 1 348, as in the bishop's register.

* The date of his election, missing in the Chronicle,
is supplied from Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Bokyngham, 21.

John Beverley, elected 1473, died 1492
John Louth, elected 1492, died 15 17
Thomas Butterwick, elected 15 17, died 1526
John More, elected 1526, occurs till 1534
William Hobson,^ last abbot

The thirteenth-century seal ^'' has a pointed
oval obverse representing the Virgin, with crown,
seated on a throne, in the right hand a lily
sceptre, topped with a bird, in the left hand a
book. The Child on her lap. [Her feet on
a footboard.]

SCE

The reverse is a smaller oval counter seal
impression of an antique oval intaglio gem
representing a helmeted figure seated on a
bench ; to the left on the ground a shield.

se[c]retvm.

The thirteenth-century seal of Abbot William
Lincoln ^^ has a pointed oval obverse showing the
Virgin half length with a crown under a trefoiled
arch with churchlike canopy, the Child on the
left knee. In base under a pointed and trefoiled
arch with pinnacled gables, the abbot half length
with pastoral staff to the right.

s' will'i : ABBis : de : thornton

The reverse is a smaller pointed oval counter
seal showing the Virgin seated with the Child ;
in base, under a trefoiled arch, the abbot kneeling
in prayer to the right.

AVE : MATER : CVM : FILIO.

34. THE PRIORY OF THORNHOLM

The priory of Thornholm appears to have
been originally founded by King Stephen ; but
the manor of Appleby, on which it stood, passed
afterwards into the hands of John Malherbe, so
that it soon ceased to reckon as a royal founda-
tion. And in 1 27 1-2 the prior acknowledged
John Malherbe as founder, and asserted that the
patronage of the house belonged to Hugh de
Nevill of Cadney as descended from John's
eldest daughter Mabel.^^ The patronage during
the reign of Edward III was in the hands of
William and Michael de la Pole.^' The en-
dowment of the house was never very large,
but it may have supported twelve canons in
early days : at the dissolution there were nine
beside the prior.

° The Chronicle breaks off in 1532. John More's
name is on the acknowledgement of supremacy, and
William Hobson's is only found in the pension list.
Add. MS. 8102.

•» Harl. Chart. 45, A 3.

" Ibid 44, B 56.

"Dugdale, Mon. vi, 356 (from the Assize Roll) and
Assize R. 483, m. ^o d.

"Inq. p.m. 40 Edw. Ill, No. 31 ; Pat. 7 Ric. II,
pt. ii, m. 24.

166

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

In 1229 the prior secured the advowson of
Bottesford church,^ which had been for some
time in dispute ^ against Simon de Vere. To-
wards the end of the thirteenth century the
priory had fallen into debt, and was placed
under the custody of one of the king's clerks.'
In 1280 the prior had to complain of violence
done to his property and his brethren by Geoffrey
de Neville, who claimed free warren beyond
the limits of his own demesne.* From 1292
onwards there were similar difficulties with mem-
bers of the family of Redmere.^

In 1347 the taxation of the priory was
reduced, after an appeal to the pope, on the
ground that it had been placed too high in
1 29 1.' It seems probable that this house suffered
severely during the great pestilence. There
was a vacancy before August, 1349, and the
prior then elected died before Micliaelmas.' In
1384 the priory was again under the king's
custody, because of difficulties at the election of
John de Castro, who was, however, finally con-
firmed in his office.* The prior and nine canons
signed the acknowledgement of supremacy in
1534;' and the house was surrendered before
Michaelmas, 1536. A pension of ;^20 was
assigned to the prior ; the canons received 20s.
apiece and their only novice lo^.-"'

Except for the absolution of one or two
apostates,^^ and the institution of priors, there is
no notice of Thornholm in the episcopal regis-
ters before the visitation of Bishop Repingdon,
between 141 3 and 1420. The bishop exhorted
the brethren, who had evidently been at strife
amongst themselves, to peace and unity. He
ordered a boy to be provided to serve the sick in
the infirmary : accounts were to be more regu-
larly rendered and repairs seen to. One brother,
William Soleby, was to be cloistered for a year,
and to fast on bread and water every other
Friday during that time ; his offence is not
specified.^^

' Boyd and Massjngberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,

"5-

' It had been originally granted by Guy de Vera,
grandfather of Simon ; and in the minority of Simon
was claimed by the crown. The suit was postponed
until Simon should be of age ; and then at the final
concord it was decided in favour of the prior, though
Simon was to present during his lifetime (Ibid, and
Bracton's Note Book, case 1364).

^Pat. 3 Edw. I, m. 32.

'Ibid. 8 Edw. I, m. it,d.

' See Pat. Rolls.

* Pat. 2 1 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 1 3 ; Cal. of Pap.
Pet. \, 50.

' See list of priors.

* Pat. 7 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 24.

'i. and P. Hen. VIII, vii, 1121 (55).

"Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 166.

"Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 186; ibid.
Memo. Gynwell, 179.

'^ Ibid. Memo. Repingdon, 29. The date is limited
by the resignation of John de Castro in 141 3.

At the visitation of 1440, Robert Neville, the
prior, answered omnia bene ; but the brethren
had a good many complaints to make, to which
the bishop gave careful attention. The prior
was accused of harshness in correction,'^ of
alienating the goods of the monastery on his
own responsibility, of being too free in granting
corrodies, especially to his own relations ; neces-
sary repairs were left undone, the common seal
was kept under one key only, which the prior
himself held. The clothing and food provided
for the canons was insufficient, and they were
roughly treated if they ventured to complain.
They were not even allowed to solace them-
selves by making gardens.

The bishop thought so seriously of the matter
that he postponed the examination of the prior
until he could obtain fuller information. It was
found that the house was considerably in debt,
and the first of the bishop's injunctions provided
for its better administration. A discreet secular was
to collect rents and superintend repairs ; another
was to be cook. The prior was generally ex-
horted to be patient with his brethren and
careful in administration of his revenues. The
common seal was to be kept, as was customary
in all monasteries, under three keys. The
brethren were all exhorted to be faithful to their
rule. No one was to be punished in public
unless he showed himself incorrigible. The
bishop kept vv^atch upon the priory for the next
two years after the visitation, and examined the
prior more than once, to see that the injunctions
were observed.^* Nothing is recorded to the
discredit of the priory in its last days.

The original endowment of this house cannot
be exactly given, as there are no foundation char-
ters extant. In the thirteenth century the canons
held the churches of Appleby, Risby, Messingham,
Blyton, Laughton, Cadney, Orby,'^^ and for some
time Bottesford ; Scawby was appropriated in the
fourteenth century.'^ The temporalities of the
priory were taxed in 129 1 at ^^7 5 14;. lo^d.^''
but this was acknowledged a little later to be too
high. In 1303 the prior held one knight's fee
in Kirmington and one-half in South Ferriby.
One fee in Waddingham and Stainton was held

" It was alleged as a proof of his cruelty that a sick
canon was put to public penance in hall before canons
and seculars for not making his confession to the
prior, although he had received a licence to choose
his own confessor. For the sake of the prior's credit,
however, it should be added that the punishment was
not so very terrible, though no doubt it was hard for
the natural man to bear. He was served in the open
hall v/il)\fsh — in Easter week, when all his brethren
around were rejoicing at the conclusion of a long
course of red herrings and salted cod.

" Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), %6 d.

'^Pat. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 13 ; and Cal. of Pap.
Pet. i, 50.

" Pat. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 32.

" Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 69.

[67

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

K'hJf"a\rtnT r:'"^- '" ^^46 he
" iiair a tee in Appleby, one quarter in

Kaventhorpe, as well as the land in Kirmington,
Waddingham, and Stainton.' In 1428 he held the
same lands as in 1346.'

/^^ 1534 the clear revenue of the priory was
£105 13X.'' The Ministers' Accounts amount
^° £149 12;. 6J^., including the rectories of
Appleby, Orby, Cadney, Laughton, South
Ferriby, Messingham, Risby with Scawby,
and the granges of Messingham and South
Ferriby.'

Priors of Thornholm

Walter,^ occurs 1 202-8

Andrew,' occurs 1226

Geof&ey,* occurs 1229

John of Sixhills,' elected 1262

Laurence,^" occurs 1274

Thomas de Hedon," occurs 1292, died 1307

Walter of Revesby," elected 1307, occurs to
1320

Richard of Gainsborough,^' occurs 1346, died

1349
William of Seagrave," elected and died 1349
Roger of Belton,^' elected 1349
John Wascelyn," occurs 1365, died 1383
John de Castro," elected 1383, resigned 1413
William Ashendon,^* or Wrangel, elected

1413
Robert Neville,^' occurs 1440—2
John Wroth,^" occurs 1493

^Feud. Aids, iii, 134, 173, 175.
'Ibid. 226, 227, 236.
'Ibid. 277, 286, 307-9.
* Fahr Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 139.
'Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 91.
^Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
22, 72.

'Ibid. 194. ^Ibid. 225.

'Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Gravesend.
"Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 166.
" Pat. 20 Edw. I, m. 28 d.; Line. Epis. Reg. Inst.
Dalderby, 90.

'^Linc. Epis. Reg. Inst. Dalderby, 90 ; Pat. 14
Edw. II, pt. i, m. II d.
"Pat. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 32.
"Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Gynwell, 106.
''Ibid.

" Harl. Chart. 45, A 7 ; Line. Epis. Reg. Inst.
Buckingham, 149.

"Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Bokyngham, 149, 152.
He was accused by three brethren of crimes not
named, but the bishop examined the matter, and
found it to be untrue. He resigned the next year,
but was re-elected.

"Ibid. Inst. Repingdon, 136. He is called here
William Ashendon of St. Frideswide, and was pro-
vided by the bishop at the request of the brethren.
In the injunctions of Bishop Repingdon delivered
soon after the prior is called William Wrangel ; he
may, perhaps, be another person.
'" Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), 86 d.
'°Dugdale, Mon. vi, 356.

Thomas Tanfield,^^ occurs 1503 and 15 10

Thomas Nower,*^ occurs 1529

George Clayton,"' or Rotherham, elected 1529

A thirteenth-century seal," with a counter-
seal of Prior Thomas, represents on a pointed
oval obverse the Virgin, with crown, seated on a
carved throne ; in the right hand a sceptre fleury,
on the left knee the Child, with nimbus ; over
his head an estoile wavy, her feet on a foot-
board.

The legend on a bevelled edge —

^ SIGILL' SANCTE mar HOLM.

The reverse is a smaller oval counterseal,
being the impression of an antique oval gem.
Victory to the right reclining against a column,
holding a spear and helmet, on the ground
before her a shield.

^ FRANCE : LEGE : TEGE.

The seal of Prior John "' is a pointed oval
representing the Virgin, with crown, in a cano-
pied niche with tabernacle work at the sides, on
the left arm the Child with cruciform nimbus,
on the right an ecclesiastic kneeling in adoration.
In base in a carved panel a shield of arms : — a
fretty, a canton.

S ORNHOLM

The early thirteenth-century seal of Prior
Walter"^ is the pointed oval impression of a gem,
the prior, half length, lifting up the hands in
prayer ; in base two wavy lines of water.

Ijl ZIGILLVM - WALTERI - PRIORIZ - d'tHORNHOL'

35. THE PRIORY OF NOCTON PARK

The priory of Nocton Park was founded by
Robert Darcy in honour of St. Mary Magdalene,
probably during the reign of Stephen,^ and the
patronage of the house remained for a long time
in the family of the founder. Like many
mediaeval patrons of monasteries, the Darcys
were tenacious of their rights, and careful to keep
the monks in mind of the exact limits of the origi-
nal benefaction. In 1200 Thomas Darcy com-

" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 356 ; and L. and P. Hen. VIU,
i, 1097.

" Dugdale, Mon. vi. 356. He probably resigned in
that year.

"Z. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (3), 2699. He was cer-
tainly the last prior — Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII,
No. 166 — and had ^^20 pension. 'Thomas More,'
who was receiving a pension of -jSs. as prior in 1553,
is probably the same as the ' Thomas Nower ' who
preceded George Clayton, and, as it seems, outlived
him (Add. MS. 8102).

"Harl Chart. 45, A i.

" Ibid. 44, A 2. »6 Ibid. 45, A 4.

" Robert is said to have been the son of Norman
Darcy, the Domesday tenant of Nocton (Dugdale,
Baronage, \, 369). He occurs as benefactor of Kirk-
stead and other monasteries during the reign of
Stephen.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

plained that the bishop had admitted a prior
without his consent.^ In 1297 Philip Darcy
protested against a similar case.^ In 1202 the
prior had a dispute with Thomas Darcy as to
the exact measure of the common pasture which
had been granted to the canons. Thomas pro-
cured a royal writ, and had it measured afresh,
but the prior declared that this was unfair, as he
had been disseised of 1,500 acres since the first'
endowment of his house ; he appealed to the
king to have the foundation charter confirmed.'
Thomas is nevertheless said to have been a bene-
factor of the priory ; perhaps it was after this
dispute was settled.* In 1243 Norman Darcy
again brought up the question of the common
pasture, and for a time deprived the prior of it,
but he finally gave it back, with pasture for
sheep in addition and the right of way between
Nocton and Brothermilne.' In 13 1 5 another
prior had to complain of trespasses committed
by the Darcys, and received protection for a
year from the king.'

The last prior, Thomas Hornell,^ had to give
up his house before Michaelmas, 1536 ; he
received a pension of ten marks, and his four
canons, after payment of their arrears of allow-
ance, 205. apiece.^

Little is known of the interior history of the
house, as only one visitation report is preserved.
In 1 440 there were four canons beside the prior,
as well as a canon of Thornton, whose presence
in the priory was not at all to its advantage.
Not much was said as to the order of the house,
which seems to have been fairly good, though
the prior's servants were insolent in their be-
haviour to the canons, and the bailiff in particular
was said to be non utilis monasterio. It was com-
plained, however, that the canon of Thornton
had no business in the house, and brought
scandal upon it, being suspected of unlawful con-
nexion with a woman of Bardney. The bishop
examined both him and the prior with care. It
seems that he had been allowed by his abbot to
come to Nocton (though no licence had been
granted by the bishop for his transference), and
had made obedience to the prior there. After-
wards, being guilty of some fault, he was sum-
moned before the general chapter of the order,
and condemned to banishment to a cell of St.
Osyth's Abbey. Thence he had returned to
Nocton Park without asking anyone's leave, and

■ Abbrev. Placit. (Rec. Com.), 26.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Sutton 22.

' Abbrev. Placit. (Rec. Com.), 40.

■■ Dugdale, Mon. vi, 341.

' Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,

34+-

* Pat. 8 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 29 d.; ibid. 2 Edvir. II,

pt. i, m. 30.

' He signed the acknowledgement of supremacy in
1534 with three others {L. and P. Hen. FIII,vu,
1024 [32]).

* Mins. Accts. (27-28 Hen. VIII), No. 166.

2 169

the prior had not been able to get rid of him
since. The bishop ordered him to be dismissed.'

In 15 18 the prior of Nocton Park was made
one of the visitors for the order in the arch-
deaconries of Stowe, Lincoln, and Leicester," at
least an indirect testimony in favour of his house.
Two poor boys were being educated in the
monastery at the time of dissolution. They
received 3^. apiece when the canons were sent
out."

The original endowment of the priory con-
sisted of the demesne lands, with the churches of
Cawkwell, Nocton, and Dunston, with mills
and lands of smaller value.^^ The manors of
Osbournby and Water Willoughby were granted
in 1479 by Thomas Wymbish and John
Ayleston.^' The temporalities of the priory
were taxed in 1 29 1 at £4.6 ijs. ld}^ In
1303 the prior held one third and one tenth
of a knight's fee in Nocton, one third in Mether-
ingham, and smaller fractions in Ingleby, Potter-
hanworth, and Dunston ;" the same in 1346.^*
In 1534 the clear revenue of the house was
j^43 3^. 8^." The Ministers' Accounts give a
total of £bQ ts. o^d., including the rectories of
Nocton and Dunston. '^

Priors of Nocton Park

Ivo de Scarla,^^ elected 123 1

Thomas of London,^" elected 1241, occurs

1243
Philip de Gunesse,^^ resigned 1258
Thomas of Navenby,^^ elected 1258, resigned

1267
Peter of Thurlby,^^ elected 1 267, deposed

1276
Richard of Sarewell,^* elected 1276
Hugh of Grimsby,^' resigned 1293
John of Geveleston,^^ elected 1293, resigned

1297

° Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), 78-79.

'» Cott. MS. Vesp. D. I. fol. 66 d.

" Mins. Accts. 27 and 28 Hen. VIII, No. 166.

" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 341. The churches of Nocton
and Dunston were claimed by the abbot of St. Mary's,
York (to which the Darcys were also benefactors),
in the reign of John, but secured by the prior.
{Abbrev. Placit. [Rec. Com.], 94).

" Pat. 14 Edw. IV, m. 16.

" Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 69.

" Feud. Aids, iii, 136, 141, 142, 144, 156.

" Ibid. 199, 200, 207.

" Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 123.

" Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 91.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Wells. ' R.' occurs in
a charter of the twelfth century (Harl. Ch. 44,

H33).

*" Ibid. Rolls of Grosteste ; Boyd and Massingberd,
Abstracts of Final Concords, 344.

*' Ibid. Rolls of Gravesend.

"' Ibid. " Ibid. =" Ibid.

" Ibid. Inst. Sutton, 9. He went to the Friars
Minor. "^ Ibid.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Thomas of Louth,' elected 1297, resigned

1301
John of Hough,^ elected 1 30 1, resigned 1 303
William Grimsby,' elected 1303, resigned

1319
Thomas of Louth,* elected 131 9, resigned

1323
Walter of Navenby,' elected 1323, resigned

1349
Hugh of Dunston,^ elected and died 1349

William of Mere,^ elected 1349

Robert Frisby,* resigned 1400

Benedict of Lincoln,' elected 1400

John Stamford,^" elected 14 15

John Shelford," occurs 1 440

Robert Hanworth,^^ occurs 1522

Richard,^' occurs 1529

Thomas Hornell," last prior, elected 1532

There is a fifteenth-century pointed oval seal ^'
representing the prior kneeling to the right
before St. Mary Magdalene, crowned, in a
garden.

SIGILLUM "-^ CAPITVLI ^^ . . . DB ^-' NOCTONE
^-' PARKE

36. THE PRIORY OF TORKSEY

The priory of St. Leonard at Torksey was
founded some time during the reign of Henry II
and possibly by the king himself.^' John de
Balliol was patron of the house in the thirteenth
century," but in 1344 the advowson was granted
by the king to John Darcy and his successors in
tail male.^*

The prior was accused in 1275 of having set
up a court for himself at Torksey, to the preju-
dice of the king's court there ; and appro-
priated to his house the assize of bread and ale,
and enclosed more than 2 feet of the king's high-
way.^' The priory was probably a small one, and

' Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Sutton, 22.

' Ibid. Inst. Dalderby, 5. ' Ibid. 7 J.

* Ibid. 359. ' Ibid. Inst. Burghersh, 10.

' Ibid. Inst. Gynwell, 81. His institution and
Walter's resignation are on the same page as the in-
stitution of William of Mere. The cause is probably
the great pestilence.

' Ibid. ° Ibid. Inst. Beaufort, 23.

" Ibid. " Ibid. Inst. Repingdon, 78 </.

" Visitations of Alnwick, 78. He may be the
same as John Stamford ; the name is not very clear.

" Line. N. and Q. v, 36.

" L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (3), 2698,

" Ibid, vii, 1024 (32). Line. Epis. Reg. on resigna-
tion of Richard Stoke aRas Hanworth.

" B. M. Seals, Ixvii, 23.

" A confirmation charter of John dated 1200 says
that the house was ' of our alms, and under our custody
and protection,' and alludes to letters of ' Henry our
father ' conferring privileges.

" Close, 20 Edw. II, m. 5.

" Pat. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 2.

" Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 358.

had but few canons from the first.^" They
pleaded poverty in 131 9, and were allowed to
appropriate the church of St. Peter in conse-
quence.^^ In 1323 the prior was accused of
burning houses in Wold Newton and committing
divers robberies and trespasses there ; '^ and in
1342 his house was said to be 'greatly wasted by
misrule ' ; ^* it was after an inquiry made at this
time that the advowson was granted to John
Darcy.

The prior signed the acknowledgement of
supremacy in 1534 with five canons. At the
dissolution ^* before Michaelmas, 1536, he received
a pension of £^$, and the canons the usual 20r.^°

Except the notice of ' misrule ' in 1 342 nothing
is known of the internal condition of the house ^*
until 1440. In this year Bishop Alnwick held
a visitation. No faults in morals were discovered,
but it was complained that the prior ' began much
building but finished nothing ' ; and the canons
were not regular in attending choir. One
brother, John Gowsell, though learned in the
mason's craft, objected to having to superintend
or assist in the repairs of the church and priory.

The bishop in his injunctions simply ordered
that the brethren were not to eat or drink in
Torksey unless they were serving its parish
churches, and then only with respectable people.'''
In 1444, however, he deposed the prior for
alienation of goods and mismanagement, which
was bringing the house almost to ruin.^*

In 15 19 Bishop Atwater found everything in
a satisfactory condition. The canons rose regu-
larly to mattins, though at a somewhat late hour
— six a.m. ; they were not, however, able to sing
any office except the * Lady Mass ' and vespers ;
all the other hours were said submissa voce, ex-
cept on double feasts.^' It was a very poor little
house at this time, and had neither cloister nor
dormitory : an order had been given in the
general chapter of the previous year that these
should be provided,'" but it is uncertain whether
this was ever carried out.

'" In 1200 they received a privilege not to be im-
pleaded except before the king or his justices j and
were thankful to have Geoffrey FitzPeter pay the
palfrey which was the price for this concession {Rot.
de Oblat. (Rec. Com.), 16, A* 1200).

*' Pat. 13 Edw. II, m. 25. The church was not
actually appropriated until 1386.

" Ibid. 16 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 7 d.

" Ibid. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m.zSd.

" L. and P. Hen. Fill, vii, 1216 (4).

" Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 166.

'^ A canon was excommunicated for disobedience in
1295 (Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton, 1451^.) ; and
the next year the prior was • absolved from his rule '
for causes unknown (Ibid. 149 d.).

" Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), 21.

'* Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Alnwick, 59 </.

" Visitations of Atwater (Alnwick Tower), 46.

» Cott. MS. Vesp. D. i, 66 d. The bells, lead, &c.
were only worth £6^, which looks as if the buildings
were not large.

170

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

The endowment seems to have consisted of
498 acres of land in Torksey, with 500 tofts and
the three churches of that vill, and also the church
of North Restur of the gift of Stephen son of
Herbert Chamberlain.^ In 1291 the temporali-
ties of the prior were taxed at £24 14J. ifd? In
1534 the clear revenue of the house was only
;£i3 \s. i^? The total in the Ministers'
Accounts is {jlt \os. 6^., including the churches
of St. Mary and St. Peter Torksey.*

Priors of Torksey

John,' occurs 1234

Joel,' resigned 1290

William of Rasen,' elected 1290, resigned

1295
Geoffrey of Bekering,' elected 1295, deposed

1296
William of Rasen,' elected 1296, resigned

1316
Robert de Sandale,^" elected 131 6, occurs

1323
Henry of Thornborough,^' resigned 1332

Henry of Buckingham," elected 1332

Henry of Croyland,^' resigned 1347

John Poignant,^* elected 1347, occurs 1348

Robert of Willingham," occurs 1353

Thomas Saxelby,^' elected 1366, resigned

1374
John of St. Botho," elected 1374

Roger Pacy,^* resigned 1 41 6

William Cottingham," elected 1416, resigned

1417
Richard Ellay,''" elected 1417, deposed 1444
Alan Dean,^^ resigned 1472
William Sutton,^^ elected 1472
Thomas Cawode,*' elected i486
John Covell,^'' last prior, occurs 1534

37. THE PRIORY OF ELSHAM

The priory of Elsham was at first intended to
be a hospital for the poor, in charge of one or

' Dugdale,Af«».vi,42 5 ; Assize R. Line. 503, m. 21 </.

' Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 69, 31 2^5.

' Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 131.

* Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 91.

' Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
261.

° Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Sutton, 37.^.

' Ibid. * Ibid. 39. ' Ibid. 49.

'» Ibid. Inst. Dalderby,97 ; Pat. 16 Edw. II, pt. 2,
m. jd.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Burghersh, 103.

" Ibid. '' Ibid. Inst. Gynwell, 104.

'* Ibid. Close, 22 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. zod.

'^ Dugdale, Mon. vi, 425.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynwell, 30 d.

" Ibid. Inst. Bokyngham, 140.

" Ibid. Inst. Repingdon, 1 29 d. '' Ibid.

'" Ibid. 131 ; and Visitations of Alnwick.

" Sloane MS. 4937, fol. 267. '' Ibid.

" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 425.

" L. and P. Hen. Fill, vii, 1 2 16 (4).

two canons of the order of St. Augustine. It
was founded by Beatrice d'Amundeville, and her
sons Walter, William, and Elias increased its
endowment before 1166.^' Early in the next
century Jocelyn d'Amundeville, son of Elias,
confirmed the gifts of his predecessors to
the priors and canons, and from this time
forward there is no mention of the hospital.^'

Near the end of the twelfth century the
knights hospitallers laid claim to the endowments
of the canons of Elsham, and obtained letters
from Pope Alexander III to secure it to them-
selves, by the help of Jocelyn d'Amundeville ;
but he afterwards repented of his share in
the transaction, and wrote to a subsequent
pope to explain the true rights of the case.
He gave the canons at this time the confir-
mation charter above mentioned, and pro-
mised that they should never be subject to the
jurisdiction of another house of religion.^'

Little more than this is known of the history
of the house. The prior, Thomas Kerver,
signed the acknowledgement of supremacy
in 1534,^' and his successor surrendered the
house under the first Act of Suppression be-
fore Michaelmas, 1536. The prior received a
pension of ;^io ; the six canons their arrears
of wages and 20s. apiece, except the one
who was a novice, to whom only lOf. was
given.^'

A visitation report dated 1440 shows that the
standard of life in the monastery at that time was
distinctly low. The prior complained (not much
to his own credit) that the canons were un-
learned, and that they ate and drank largely, to
the great expense of the monastery : the rule was
altogether ill-kept. Two chapels appropriate to
the monastery were not sufficiently served. The
canon who did the work of a cellarer complained
of the daintiness of the brethren, and one in par-
ticular drank too much and then became insolent
and difficult to handle.

The bishop remarked that as the brethren
seemed to be neither docile nor well instructed,
the prior had better find someone to instruct
them in the rule. The brethren, for their
part, must be diligent and obedient and con-
tent with their food and clothing. Anyone
guilty of drunkenness must fast on the Wed-
nesday and Friday following — first on bread
and beer, then (in the case of a second offence)
on bread and water ; and this penance might

" A eonfirmation charter of Henry II limits the
date to II 66, Harl. Chart. 45 A. 4. The history of
the foundation is contained in Harl. Chart. 45, C, 32 ;.
45 C, 3 3 ; Harl. MS. 2,044, f°l- 1 26 </. ; and Dugdale,
Mon. vi, 559.

'^ Ibid.

" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 559. ' Pope Alexander ' must
be the third of that name. There is no other near
the end of the twelfth century.

" L. and P. Hen. VIII, vii, 1121 (51).

^ Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, 166

171

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

be continued for a month or more as the case
might ask.^

The house probably recovered somewhat with
change of rulers. In a general chapter of the
order, held at Leicester, the priors of Elsham and
Kyme were appointed masters of the ceremonies
for the great procession to the church of
St. Martin, and the prior of Elsham was further
constituted one of the visitors for the arch-
deaconries of Leicester, Lincoln, and Stowe.^
In 1535 Bishop Longlands wrote to Cromwell to
suggest a new prior for Elsham in terms which
do not imply that he had any fault to find.^

The original endowment by the Amundevilles
included the vill and church of Elsham, and the
churches of Kingerby, Kirkby (cum Osgodby),
Snartford, Winthorpe, with a mill and smaller
parcels of land.^ The temporalities of the prior
in 1291 were taxed at ;^39 14J. lo^d.^ In 1303
he held one-third of a knight's fee in Elsham ; ®
in 1346 a small fraction also in Scottlethorpe.'
In 1 534 the clear revenue of the priory amounted
to £70 O;. 8d., including the rectories of Kirkby,
Kingerby, Ulceby, Elsham, and certain payments
from the churches of Winthorpe and Croxton.^
The bells and lead of the monastery were only
worth ^9 1 I js. 6d. ; it was probably not a very
large place.

Priors of Elsham

William Clement,' occurs 1208

Henry,^" occurs 1218

William Elerop,^' elected 1229

William of Barton,^^ occurs 1295, died 1303

Robert Newsham,'' elected 1303

Stephen of Keelsby," died 1332

Richard of Thornton,^'' elected 1332, died

1339
John of Torksey,'" elected 1339

Ralf of Crossholm,^^ elected 1340, resigned

1343
William of Grimsby,^' elected 1343

' Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), 73.
This visitation is of interest as showing that when
there was a definite charge of drunkenness a definite
penance was assigned ; and that such a charge is not
necessarily implied when it is only said that the canons
(or nuns) ' are given to drinking after compline.'

» Cott. MS. Vesp. D. i, fol. 63 d. 66.

' L. and P. Hen. VIII, viii, 328. The bishop
simply suggests John Baxter as ' very fit to be head.'

* Harl. Chart. 45, C 32, and elsewhere.

* Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 69.

'Feud. Aids, iii, 140. ' Ibid. 193, 216.

' Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 72.
^ Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
i, 83.
" Ibid, i, 124.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Wells.
" Harl. Chart. 44, D 32.
" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Dalderby, 9.
" Ibid. Inst. Burghersh, 41. " Ibid.

" Ibid. 79. " Ibid. 93 d.

■» Ibid. Inst. Bek. 3.

Alexander Disney," elected 1347, resigned

1352
Simon of DuflSeld,^" elected 1352
Richard Ouresby,^^ died 1 41 2
John Cowyck,^^ elected 141 2
William Clifton,^' occurs 1440
Robert Parke,^^ occurs 1522
Thomas Kerver,^' occurs 1529 until 1534
John Baxter,^^ last prior, elected 1535

The common seal with counterseal of Prior
William de Barton ^^ is of the thirteenth century.
The obverse is pointed oval representing the
Virgin crowned and with a nimbus, the Child
on her knee, in the right hand a sceptre, fleur-de-
WxL

The reverse is a smaller pointed oval counterseal
showing the Virgin sitting in a canopied niche,
crowned, holding the Child. In base the prior,
half-length to the left in prayer.

S . WILL'i • DE • BARTONA PRIOr' " D

N and A are conjoined.

The thirteenth-century pointed oval seal of
Prior Robert ^^ represents the Virgin seated with
the Child, in a carved niche. In base, below a
trefoiled arch, the prior half-length to the right
praying.

s' rob'ti p[r]ior[i]s be ... .

38. THE PRIORY OF KYME

The priory of Kyme was founded by Philip
of Kyme, steward to Gilbert earl of Lincoln,
before the year 1169,^' in honour of Blessed
Mary. It was never of any great importance.
Its revenues provided fairly well for about a dozen
canons : at the dissolution there were still
eleven.

In 1317 the prior complained of trespasses on
his property committed by Adam of Normanton."'
An indult granted by the pope in 1402, that the
canons might rent, let, or farm all their fruits,
manors, and benefices without licence of the
ordinary, looks as if they were in poverty at that
time.'^ The last prior, Ralf Fairfax, signed the
acknowledgement of supremacy ,^^ and two years

" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Bek, 27.

»» Ibid. Inst. Gynwell, 53.

"' Ibid. Inst. Repingdon, 61 d. " Ibid.

" Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), 73.

" Line. N. and Q. v, 36.

" L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (3), 2698, and vii, 1 1 21

(SO-

'^ Ibid, viii, 328.

" Harl. Chart. 44, D 32. " Ibid. 45, C 25.

^ Roger, prior of Kyme, occurs 1 1 69 in Madox, Form.
Angl. 251. The priory must have been built early in
the reign of Henry II, if not in that of Stephen.

^^ Pat. 10 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 8 d.

" Cal. of Pap. Letters, v, 505.

'^ L. and P. Hen. VIII, vii, 1024 (29).

[72

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

later received a licence for the continuance of his
house, although it was of less value than ;^200 a
year ; a fine of ;^200 was exacted for this privi-
lege.^ The surrender was finally taken by
Dr. London on 6 July, 1539 ; ' the prior received
a pension of ;^30, and the canons annuities vary-
ing from ^5 to £$ 6f. 8^.'

There are a good many notices of this house
in the episcopal registers. In 1236, Bishop
Grosteste visited it and removed the prior, sub-
stituting, as he said afterwards, a suitable man for
an unsuitable ; but as he did not ask the consent
of the patron, Philip of Kyme, the latter questioned
the new prior's right. The bishop wrote a cour-
teous letter to Philip, taking the responsibility
entirely on himself, and saying that he had done
the same thing before, even in the houses under
royal patronage. The new prior was an honour-
able and religious man, and had accepted the
office ' non sponte sed coactu.' If Philip wanted
to be angry, he must be angry with the bishop,
not with the unoffending canons.*

In 1377 Bishop Bokyngham held a visitation.
The canons were in the habit of serving their
appropriate churches in person, and not by means
of secular vicars — a custom common at the time
as well as later — and their community life had
suffered a little in consequence. The bishop
ordered that henceforth none of them should
serve churches or take charge of granges distant
from the monastery, that the divine office might
be well sustained. They were forbidden to wear
swords or any other weapons, or to have their
habits unnecessarily ornamented. There are also
the usual injunctions as to going out without
leave, eating and drinking outside the monastery,
or entertaining friends too liberally within it.'
Similar injunctions were issued by Bishop Flemyng
in 1422.° An order was given by Bishop Rep-
ingdon in 141 7 to bring back a canon who had
gone without leave to join the Carmelites at
Nottingham.' A full report of Bishop Alnwick's
visitation in 1440 is preserved. The prior com-
plained that his canons were too fond of idle
sports. The cellarer complained that there were
too many boys in the choir, which was a hind-
rance to the divine office : he said the infirmary
was out of repair, and that the obedientiaries ate
in the town of Kyme when they went there on
business, and one canon hunted for his own
profit. Others complained of the accumulation
of offices in the hands of a few, and of the too
free access of seculars to choir and refectory.
The bishop dealt with all these points. The time

' L. and P. Hen. VIII, xi, 519 (z) ; xiii (2), 457.

* Ibid, xiy (i), 1222. ' Ibid. 1280.

* Epis. Grosseteste (Rolls Ser.), 116-7.

'Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham, 155. It is
impossible, without the actual visitation report, to say
how far injunctions are merely formal or meet actual
difficulties.

° Ibid. Memo. Flemyng, 235.

' Ibid. Memo. Repingdon, 178.

spent in games should be given rather to contem-
plation, reading and study ; seculars should be
banished from choir and refectory, and the in-
firmary repaired.*

The canons of Kyme at the time of the first
Act of Suppression loved their monastery and
their religious life well enough to pay a heavy
fine for continuance. What Dr. London says
in 1539 of young canons being grieved that they
might not marry after the surrender, since they
were still priests,' can scarcely reflect much dis-
credit on Kyme, though he mentions this house
in the same letter ; for seven of the religious
there were described as ' aged men,' and only two
as 'young men.' ^^ London himself remarks that
the prior was an ' honest priest ' and had redeemed
his house from debt ^' — no slight credit, when his
total income was only ;f lOl Os. ^d., and he had
just had to pay a heavy fine. There seems little
doubt indeed that the priory had an honourable
ending, and that the canons were living at the
last quietly and faithfully under their rule.^^

The original endowment of the priory of
Kyme consisted only of the demesne land and
smaller benefactions in the neighbourhood," with
several churches. In 1291 the temporalities of
the prior were taxed at £2,9 10/. t^d}^ In 1303
he held half a knight's fee in Thorpe Tilney
and with another one-quarter in Thorpe and
Swarby ;" about the same in 1346,^° and in 1428
half a fee in Immingham." In 1431 he held
the manor of Immingham.^' In 1534 the clear
revenue of the priory was ;^I0I 0/. 4^?., including
the churches of Kyme, Swarby, Ewerby, Osbourn-
by, Metheringham, Thorpe near Wainfleet,
Calceby, Croft, Northolme, and Wainfleet All
Saints.^' The Ministers' Accounts amount to
;(;i30 lis. 91^.2°

Priors of Kyme

Roger,^^ occurs 1169
Lambert,^^ occurs 11 77

' Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), 79.
Besides these general complaints it was mentioned
that one canon had been guilty of apostacy and had
gone to the Minorites, but now desired to return. One
was accused of incontinence, but denied the charge.

' Wright, Suppression of Monasteries, 213.

" L. and P. Henry VIII, xiv (i), 1280. " Ibid.

" The sum of 1 7/. %d. was distributed still to the
poor every year in memory of Gilbert d'Umfraville
earl of Angus, a benefactor of the fourteenth century.
The prior of Kyme was appointed auditor for collec-
tion of moneys towards St. Mary's College at Oxford,
and a visitor for the order, not long before the sup-
pression. Cott. MS. Vesp. D. i, fol. 66 d.

"Pat. 13 Edw. I, m. 11 ; Dugdale, Mon. vi, 377.

" Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 59.

" Feud. J ids, iii, 145, 162.

" Ibid. 201, 209. " Ibid. 303. " Ibid.

" Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), 1 17.

*" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 377.

" Madox, Form. Angl. 251.

" Cott. MS. Vesp. E. XX, fol. 95.

[73

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Roger,^ occurs 1202

Henry,' resigned 1251

John of Brampton,' elected 1251

Peter of Lincoln,* resigned 1267

John of Timberland,^ elected 1267, resigned

1274
Thomas of Spalding,' elected 1274, resigned

1290
Arnold of Thornton,' elected 1290, resigned

1293
Walter of Herdeby,' elected 1293
Roger Bretonius,' resigned 1326
Robert of Lincoln," elected 1326
Henry of Whaplode,^^ elected 1376
Hugh of Wainfleet," died 1 400
Thos. de Bykyre," elected 1401, died 140 1
Robert of Langton,^* died 1407
John Evedon,^' elected 1407
Robert Ludburgh,^^ occurs 1440
Thomas Day,^' died 1 5 1 1
Ralf Fairfax,^* last prior, elected 1511

A thirteenth-century seal ^' represents the
Annunciation of the Virgin. On each side of
the Virgin a fleur-de-lis growing on a long stalk
in a flower-pot.

ijt SIGILLVM PRIORIS ET CONVENTUS DE KIMA

Cabled borders,

A fourteenth-century pointed oval seal '" repre-
sents the Virgin standing in a canopied niche
with tabernacle work at the sides, with crown,
the Child on the left arm, in the right hand a
sceptre. In base, under a round-headed arch,
the prior, to the left.

W P OR DE KYME.

39. THE PRIORY OF MARKBY

There is little doubt that the priory of
St. Peter at Markby was founded during the
reign of Henry II, though there is no mention of
it earlier than 1204,'^ for the founder, Ralf
FitzGilbert, was by that time long since dead,
and his lands were in the possession of his

' Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,

37-

Ibid.

^ Ibid.
Mbid. \zd.
■° Ibid.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Roll of Grosteste.
* Ibid. Rolls of Gravesend.
» Ibid.

' Ibid. Inst. Sutton, 4.
' Ibid. Inst. Burghersh, 16.
" Ibid. Inst. Bokyngham, 87.
" Pat. 2 Henry IV, pt. 2, m. 39.
" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Beaufort, 22 ; Pat. 3 Hen
IV, pt. ii, m. 4.
" Pat. 9 Hen. IV, pt. ii, m. 31.
" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Repingdon, 35.
'* Visitations of Alnwick, fol. 79.
" Harl. MS. 6953, fol. 14 (from Epis. Reg.).
'« Ibid.

" B.M. Seals, Ixvii, 8. '» Ibid. Ixvii, 9.

" Madox Hist, of Exch. 605.

grandson Hugh.^' Another early benefactor of
the house was Alan of Mumby, who granted to
the canons the churches of Mumby, Line, and
of WyclifFe, Yorks. Both of these advowsons
were claimed at the beginning of the thirteenth
century by the descendants of Alan, but the
case was given each time for the prior.*' In
1266 the prior complained that he had been
disseised of his right of common pasture in
Strubby.'* In 1 300 a writ of oyer and terminer
was issued at the request of the prior, who
alleged that certain persons had come to the
monastery, besieged him and his men there,
prevented food from being brought to them, and
beaten such of his servants as they could find
outside the gates ; they had even dared to resist
the king's ministers, who came to preserve the
peace.*' Neither the cause of this afilair nor its
termination are recorded.

In the fifteenth century there were about ten
canons here, in 1534 there were eight besides
the prior.** The house was dissolved under the
first Act of Suppression, The prior received
the rectory of Huttoft in commutation of a
pension of £,10^ his five brethren zqs. each,
besides arrears of ' wages,' *'

A quarrel between the prior and the cellarer
in the earlier half of the fourteenth century led
to an appeal to the pope. The cellarer had
been accused by certain seculars of wasting his
time in hunting, and of wandering from the
monastery without leave, and was in consequence
deprived of his office. He purged himself, how-
ever, of these charges before his diocesan, and
then visited Rome, and was made a papal chap-
lain. On his return the prior refused him
admittance, and told him he might provide for
himself. On appeal the pope ordered that if all
this was true the cellarer was to be reinstated,
and given an allowance twice as large as he had
before,*' The great pestilence settled the dis-
pute by the death of the prior in the same year.

The visitation of Bishop Alnwick in 1438'"
shows this priory to have been in a worse condi-

" Abbrev. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 46.

" Bracton's Note-book, cases 409 and 141 8. It
was proved that Alan had not presented to either
church, but they were appurtenant to manors of
which he had seisin. This was in 1220 and 1230.
In 1334, however, the church of Mumby was
granted to the bishops of Lincoln {Abbrev. Rot.
Orig. ii, 81, and Pat. 7 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 23), and
in 1263 that of WycliiFe quitclaimed to Robert
of WycliiFe. Feet of F. (Div. Cos.), 47 Henry III,
B. 15.

" Abbrev. Plac. (Ree. Com.), 155,

" Pat. 28 Edw. I, m. zd.

^o L. and P. Henry Vlll, vii, 1121 (24).

" Ibid, xii (I), 575.

** Mins. Accts. 27-28 Henry VIII, 166.

*' Cal. of Pap. Letters, iil, 336.

" Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower),
fol. 84, 90.

'74

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

tion than any other in the county. The bishop
prefaced his injunctions by saying that he had
heard of many excesses here, both in religion and
in the observation of rule, and in administration ;
and when he came he had found his worst
expectations fulfilled, ' not even the shadow of
religion,' he said, but debts, drinking, and suspicion
of even worse sins.

The prior allowed that his house was loo
marks in debt, and that silence was badly kept
throughout the monastery, even in the church
and cloister ; that neither senior nor junior
canons practised contemplation, and that one
Thomas Dugby was suspected of sinful inter-
course with a woman at Markby. The sub-prior
also allowed that religion was not kept, and
seconded the complaints of the prior ; on the
other hand, all the canons joined in complaining
of the incompetence of the prior, and negligence
of the sub-prior. It was generally allowed that
the canons went out without leave, and ate and
drank in the town ; one indeed went to his
mother's house every day, and was almost the
same as an apostate. Two went constantly to
taverns, and one of them showed much vindic-
tiveness of temper ; he had a boy often about
with him, especially at night.^ Other seculars
were admitted to the dormitory, and much too
freely to all parts of the house.

Thomas Dugby confessed the sin of incon-
tinence charged against him, and was put to
penance.^ The prior thought it best to resign,
and the bishop issued injunctions for the better
administration of the revenues of the house, as
well as the keeping of the rule.

The prior of Markby was appointed a visitor
of the order early in the sixteenth century.' In
1 5 1 9 Bishop Atwater visited and found some
irregularities, but no grave faults. Accounts
were not well kept, the canons were careless
about their silence and about the customs of the
refectory, the sick were not well provided for,
and one brother was not only unlearned but
unwilling to learn. The bishop ordered a due
rendering of accounts, and renewed devotion to
the rule of the order.*

The original endowment of the priory cannot
be accurately stated, as the foundation charters
are missing. The temporalities of the priory in

' Painful as such cases are to record, it is only right
that they should be mentioned, in view of indis-
criminate charges that have sometimes been made. In
a careful study of the visitations of four counties —
Lincoln, Leicester, Buckingham, and Bedford — only
three such cases come to light : here, at Thornton
Abbey, and at Missenden Abbey, Bucks. Here,
further, the charge was not proved ; the offender was
warned, but not put to penance.

* To fast on bread, beer, and one vegetable for
three months, and to say certain psalms for a longer
period. Ibid.

' Cott. MS. Vesp. D. i, fol. 66 d. Another prior
had been visitor in 1353 (Ibid. 561/.).

* Visitations of Atwater (Alnwick Tower), fol. 50.

1 29 1 amounted to ^^41 19/. S^/.," with pensions
in certain churches. Mumby and WyclifFe,
Yorks., belonged to the prior and convent at the
beginning of the thirteenth century,^ as well as
those which appear in the Valor Ecclesiastkus.
In 1428 the prior held part of a knight's fee in
Maidenwell.' In 1534 the clear value of the
priory was ^^130 13/. oj^.' The Ministers'
Accounts amount to ;^202 is. Z^d., includmg
the rectories of Huttoft, Bilsby, Stickford,
Great Carlton, Markby, and West Wykeham ;
and the manors of Huttoft and Ludford."

Priors of Markby

Eudo,'° resigned 1228

Geoffrey of Holm," elected 1228, resigned
1232

Alan,^^ elected 1232

John of Hedon," elected 1247

Roger of Walmesgrave,^* elected 1261, re-
signed 1272

Simon of Ottringham," elected 1272, died
1290

Roger of Braytoft,^^ elected 1290, died 1306

William of Laughton," elected 1306

Thomas,^* occurs 1342

John Edlington," died 1349

Richard of Leek,^" elected 1349, occurs 135 1

Peter of Scotton,^^ elected 1372

John Fenton,^^ elected 1433, resigned 1438

Henry Wei V died 1508

Henry Alford,^* elected 1508

Thomas Kirkby,^' occurs 1522

John Penketh,^^ last prior, occurs 1529

' Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 69.

' Mumby was exchanged for Great Carlton in 1334
(Pat. 7 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 23) ; WyclifFe quitclaimed
to Roger of WyclifFe in 1263 (Feet of F. [Div.
Co.], 47 Henry III, n. 15).

' Feud. Aids, iii, 300.

' Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 50.

° Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 91. Cer-
tain benefactions in money, beans, and corn to the
poor of Bilsby, Stickford, and Huttoft were still
regularly paid in 1534 {yalor Eccles. [Rec. Com.],
iv, 50).

'" Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Wells.

" Ibid.

" Ibid. Rolls of Grosteste.

" Ibid. Rolls of Gravesend.

" Ibid.

'* Ibid. Inst. Sutton, 4.

" Ibid. Inst. Dalderby, 19.

'» Pat. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. li^d.

" Cal of Pap. Letters, iii, 336.

"■ Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Gynwell, 18.

" Ibid. Inst. Bokyngham, 68.

^ Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), 84.
He gave an account of his administration since 1433.

^ Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Smith, 117.

'* Ibid.

"* Line. N. and Q. v, 36.

" L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv (3), p. 2698.

175

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

The twelfth-century pointed oval seal ^ repre-
sents St. Peter, seated on a throne, lifting up the
right hand in benediction, in the left hand two
keys. The dress bordered with pearls.

The legend is wanting.

A pointed oval seal of a thirteenth-century
prior* represents the prior full-length, in the
right hand an indistinct object, in the left hand
a book.

RIOR

Another pointed oval seal of a prior of the
fourteenth century ' represents the Virgin, with
nimbus, seated in a canopied niche with taber-
nacle work at the sides ; the Child, with nimbus,
standing on the left knee. In base a shield of
arms — three birds, two and one.

LENCII . DE . GRAVLERIO
DE . MARKEBY

PRIOR

40. THE PRIORY OF NEWSTEAD BY
STAMFORD

The priory of Newstead was originally
founded, like that of Elsham, as a hospital.
The founder was William d'Albini (third of
that name) ; and the house was built near
the end of the twelfth century, in honour of
Blessed Mary, 'at the bridge of Wass between
Uffington and Stamford,'* and was sometimes
called the hospital of Uffington.' It was in-
tended to maintain seven poor and infirm persons
of good character, under the charge of a master
' of honest and approved religion,' who was to
be assisted by another priest with a deacon and
a clerk.* The founder a little later increased
the revenues to endow thirteen beds in the hos-
pital.'' His son, however, seems to have con-
sented to a change in the purpose of the endow-
ment, for he confirmed all the property of the
hospital to a prior and canons before 1247.*

There may have been as many as six canons
at the first,' but as the value of the endowment
decreased the number diminished. Small and
insignificant as this house was, however, two of
the general chapters of the order were held here
during the fourteenth century, in 1340 and in

1362.^° In 1440, when Bishop Alnwick visited
the priory, there were only three besides the
prior, and of these one was too ill to appear, and
one was living at Ulvescroft Priory. The prior
complained that the house was 20 marks in
debt, and almost in ruins, through the improvi-
dence of his predecessor. One canon said they
did not rise to mattins because they were so few.
The bishop gave general injunctions as to the
keeping of the rule ; the canon at Ulvescroft
must return at once, and the canonical hours
must all be recited, even though they could not
be sung.^^

Shortly before the dissolution a tenant of the
priory was sued for not paying a certain rent to
the prior ; he defended himself on the ground that
it was a bequest originally made that the canons
might sing for the soul of Walter Huntingfield,
but now they were so few that they could not
afibrd to set apart a priest for this purpose for
many years. Moreover they had made an agree-
ment that the requiem should be sung sometimes
at Badington and sometimes in the monastery,
which was contrary to the conditions of the
grant.^* The state of things here described was
probably true, by no fault of the canons, but
only because of their poverty. Bishop Longlands,
on the occasion of the election of the last prior,
wrote compassionately to Cromwell of the
poverty of the house, as if he had no other
quarrel with it, and spoke of John Blakyth as a
' right honest sober man.' ^' There were at the
dissolution only two canons and a novice besides
the prior ^* ; he received a pension of j^i5," and
the others were paid off in the usual way.

The priory was endowed with several parcels
of land in the neighbourhood, with tithes from
the bread, fish, and flesh prepared for the house-
hold of William d'Albini, and with pasture for
100 sheep and a few cattle.^* In 1 30 1 Isabella
de Roos granted to the prior and convent the
advowson of Stoke Albany, Northants,^' and in
1308 William Roos granted a moiety of that of
Grayingham.-'* In 1321 they had also the ad-
vowson of Little Casterton, Rutland.^' In 1291
the temporalities of the priory amounted to
;^42 igs. S^-^ In 1303 the prior held a small
fraction of a knight's fee in Uffington, Talling-
ton, and Casewick *^ ; in 1 346 he had a quarter
of a fee in the same places.** In 1534 the clear

' Harl. Chart, 44, G 5. '"

' Ibid. 7. ' Ibid. "

• Dugdale, Mo». vi, 562 ; Chart. I. "

' In the episcopal registers of Hugh of Wells. 49.

" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 562 ; Chart. I. "

' Ibid. Chart. II. "

^ Ibid. Chart. III. The earliest mention of a prior "

is 1247. The earlier appointments are masters, in "^

1226 and 1232. "

' If the entry in Pat. 7 Edw. I, m. 5 </., charging '^

Simon, prior of Newstead, and six canons with an "

assault and murder, refers to this house and not to '"

the Gilbertine priory of Newstead. ^'

176

Cott. MS. Vesp. D. i, 47, 55.

Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), 82.

Star Chamber Proc. (Hen. VIII), bdle. 33, No.

Wright, Suppression of Monasteries, 94.

Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 166.

L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii (i), 576.

Dugdale, Mon. vi, 562.

Pat. 29 Edw. I, m. 28.

Ibid. 33 Edw. I, pt. i, m. 15.

Ibid. 15 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 26.

Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 54, 6 9^5.

Feud. Aids, iii, 166. ** Ibid. 210.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

revenue of the priory was £^1 ^^- ^ » the canons
had no longer any churches. The Ministers'
Accounts amount to ^(^43 is. id? The bells,
lead, &c., of the monastery were only worth
^12 i8,.»

Priors of Newstead

Adam of Herefeld,* presented 1226
Walter,' presented 1232
Walter de Crek,* elected 1247
Hamo de Gretford,' elected 1262

Simon,^^ occurs 1279

Thomas of Deeping,^^ resigned 1293

Robert of Stamford," elected 1293, resigned

1308
Henry of Overton," elected 1308

Sutton,"

William Lilleford," occurs 1440
Stephen Sherp," occurs 1522
Thomas Hallam,^' occurs 1534
Richard Lynnc," occurs 1534
John Blaky,'" the last prior, occurs 1536

HOUSE OF AUSTIN CANONS OF THE
ARROUASIAN REFORM

41. THE ABBEY OF BOURNE

The abbey of Bourne was founded in 1138
by Baldwin, a younger son of Gilbert de Clare
and brother of the first carl of Pembroke.* By
the marriage of the founder's daughter with
Hugh Wake the patronage of the house passed
into the hands of the lords of Liddell, with
whom it continued till the fourteenth century.

The foundation charter was made out to
Gervase, abbot of St. Nicholas of Arrouaise, but
it was not intended as a cell of that abbey ; it
was an independent house with an abbot of its
own from the first. The Arrouasian canons
diflfered very little from other Augustinians, and
sometimes abandoned at an early date the slight
distinctions they originally had ; but the abbots
of Bourne retained to the last some tradition of
independence, and kept up also some links of
connexion with the abbey of Missenden in
Bucks, which had a similar origin.

In 131 1 and 1324 attempts were made by
the king's escheator to claim this house as a
royal foundation, but the Wakes were successful
in proving their right.' It never attained any
great wealth or importance ; the original number
of canons was probably twelve, who had dwindled
after the great pestilence to seven *° ; they were
eleven again in the fifteenth century, and at the
surrender there were nine besides the prior.

In 1 40 1 the abbot acquired the possessions of
the alien priory of Wilsford, by purchase from

' Vabr Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 109.

' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 562.

' Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 166.

* Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Wells.

' Ibid. These two are presented as masters to the
hospital of Uffington.

" Ibid. Rolls of Grosteste. This is the first prior
who occurs.

' Ibid. Rolls of Gravesend.

' Foundation Chart. Dugdale, Mon. vi, 370 ;
Round, Geoffrey de Mandeville, 160 ; and Peerage
Studies, 75.

» Close, 4 Edw. II, m. 10, and 17 Edw. II. The
patronage afterwards passed to the earls of Kent.
"> Cal. of Pap. Letters, iii, 574 (i335)-

2 I

the abbot of Bee Herlouin *^ ; but it did not
bring them much increase of revenue. In 1536
the revenue of the house was under ^^200, and
it was accordingly dissolved, the abbot receiving
a pension of ;^24, and the canons 20J., besides
their wages and capacities.^^

In 1309 the abbot complained of violence
done to one of his canons by seculars.^' In 1349
another abbot had some difficulties with his
diocesan, which ended in his excommunication,
but the bishop was obliged to invoke the secular
arm to enforce the sentence.^* In 1359 the
abbot of Missenden, who had been guilty of
tampering with the coinage, was imprisoned at
Bourne.^' The abbey docs not seem to have
been very happily ruled about this time. A
canon of Bourne in 1368 received a licence
from the pope to transfer himself to another
house of the same order, on account of the
injuries he had received from his own abbot ^^ ;
and it was noticed a little earlier that other
canons had forsaken the abbey for the priory of
Cottingham in Northamptonshire, which was
also of the patronage of the Wakes.^'

" Pat. 7 Edw. I, m. 5 d. This may be the Gil-
bertine Newstead. It is the only entry where the
words ' by Stamford ' do not occur to prove the
identity.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Sutton, 9.

" Ibid.

" Ibid. Inst. Dalderby, 22.

" Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), fol. 82.
William Lilleford calls him his predecessor.

'= Ibid.

" Line. N. and Q. v, 36.

'» L. and P. Hen. VIII, vii, 1024 (20).

" Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 109.

'" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xili (i) 576.

" Cal. of Pap. Letters, v, and Line. Epis. Reg. Memo.
Repingdon, 122.

" Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, 166.

" Pat. 2 Edw. II, m. 2 d

" Ibid. 24 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 9.

'' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynwell, 1 1 6.

^° Cal. of Pap. Letters, iv, 75. The inquiry into the
matter was entrusted to the abbot of Missenden.

" Ibid, i, 245.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

The injunctions of Bishop Flemyng in 1422
contain nothing but formal directions as to the
maintenance of the rule.^ The visitation of
iiishop Alnwick in 1440 shows very little
irregularity; the canons nearly all said omnia
bene, but the prior said that they sometimes drank
with their friends in the town of Bourne. A
single case of apostacy was reported.^' The
report of Bishop Atwater in 15 19 was again
satisfactory. The brethren did not, however,
observe the refectory, but ate habitually with
the lord abbot ; it was enjoined that henceforth
some at least should go to the refectory. The
bishop observed with approval that the abbot had
ordered senior and junior canons alike to say
their masses in regular order. Accounts, how-
ever, were not shown annually, and the sick
needed better provision ; the younger canons were
exhorted to be more obedient to their seniors.'

About the same time the abbot of Bourne
was summoned to a general chapter of the order,
but declined to go, as it seems, on the ground of
the Arrouasian origin of his house.*

Nothing is known of the last days of this
monastery, except that one of its canons had to
serve out capacities to his brethren and other
ejected religious after the dissolution.^

The original endowment consisted of the
churches of Bourne, Helpringham, Morton, East
and West Deeping, Barholm, Stowe, South Hyke-
ham, Skillington, East Wykeham (Est wic),
Line, and Thrapston, Northants ; and lands
in Bourne and Spanby, with mills and tithes
of different kinds.' The churches of Bitchfield
and Glatton were granted at an early date by
other benefactors.^ In 1291 the temporalities of
the abbey in Lincolnshire and Rutlandshire were
taxed at ^42 1 1^. gd.^ In 1303 the abbot had a
third of a knight's fee as well as one and a half
bovates in Bourne'; in 1346 a small fraction
also in Scottlethorpe.^" In 1534 the clear revenue
of the abbey was ;^i67 14^. 6^d., including
the rectories of Bourne, Morton, Helpringham,
Bitchfield, Barholm, and Stowe.^' The Ministers'
Accounts amount to ^187 is. j\d. ^^ ; the bells,
lead, &c., were worth £121 lOs}^

■ Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Fleming, 235 </.
' Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), 64.
' Visitations of Atwater (Alnwick Tower), 47.
The house was ^^80 in debt.

* Cott. MS. Vesp. D. i, 66 d. He simply said
that he was ' not of their chapter,' and the abbot of
Dorchester (also Arrouasian) made a similar plea.

* Gasquet, Hen. VIII and the English Monasteries, ii,
450.

" Dugdale, Mm. vi, 371.

' Liber. Antiq. (ed. Gibbon), 7 ; Cal. of Pap. Pet.

i, 364-

^ Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 66-5 and 6U.
' Feud. Aids, 'in, 166, 168.
'° Ibid. 193, 210, 21 1.
" Fa/or Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 103.
" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 371.
" Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 166.

178

Abbots of Bourne

David," occurs about 11 56
Baldwin," occurs I2I2 to 1218
Everard Cutt," occurs 1224, resigned 1237
William of Ripton," elected 1 237
Robert de Hamme,^^ 1248, died 1260
Robert de Hasceby," elected 1260, resignea
1275

William of Spalding,^" elected 1275

Alan de Wauz,^^ died 1292

Thomas de Calstewith,^^ elected 1292, died

William of St. Albans,^' elected 13 13, resigned

1314
William of Abbotsley,^* elected 13 14, died

1324
John de Wytheton,^' elected 1324, died 1334
Simon of Walton,^^ elected 1334, died 1355
Thomas of Grantham,^' elected 1355, died

1369
Geoffrey of Deeping,^* elected 1369, occurs to

1406
William Irnham,^' occurs 1440
Henry,'" died 1500
Thomas Fort," collated 15 00
William Grisby,'^ died 1512
John Small,'' last abbot, occurs 1534
The twelfth-century common seal '* represents
St. Peter with a nimbus, seated on a throne to the
left, lifting up the right hand in benediction j in
the left hand a key of early form placed over
the left shoulder.
siGiLLVM : ECCLEsiE : BEATi : PETRI : apl'i :

DE : BRVNNA

The pointed oval seal of Abbot John Small ''
shows the abbot standing in a canopied niche
with tabernacle work at the sides, in the right
hand a pastoral staff, in the left hand a book.

.... LUM : lOHANNIS : ABBATIS : DE :
BRUN ....

" Cott. MS. Vesp. C XX, fol. 91 d. Contempora^
with Gilbert of Sempringham and Walo of Revesby.

" Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
106, 126.

'* Ibid, i, 1 73 ; Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Grosseteste.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Grosseteste.

'* Dugdale, Mon. vi, 370; Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls
of Gravesend.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Gravesend.

*» Ibid. " Ibid. Inst. Sutton, 7. " Ibid.

^ Ibid. Inst. Dalderby, 45 ; Pat. 8 Edw. II, i,
m. 18.

"Ibid. Inst. Dalderby, 52 ; Close, 17 Edw. II,
m. 24.
*' Cal. of Pap. Letters, ii, 523.
*^ Ibid, and Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Gynwell, 62.
" Ibid.

'' Ibid. Inst. Buckingham, 34 d. ; Cal. of Pap.
Letters, vi, 75.
*' Visitations of Alnwick (Alnwick Tower), 64.
'" Harl. MS. 6953, fol. 13. " Ibid.

'' L. and P. Hen. Fill, i, 1802.
" Ibid, vii, 1024.
" B.M. Seals, Ixvi, 86. " j^j^j^ g^.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

HOUSE OF AUSTIN NUNS

42. THE PRIORY OF ST. LEONARD,
GRIMSBY

The priory of St. Leonard, Grimsby, was
probably founded some time during the reign of
Henry II. The name of the founder is unknown,
but the house was placed before 1 1 84 under the
protection of the Austin canons of Wellow, for
in that year the nuns complained to Pope
Lucius II that one of their brethren had by
threats compelled them to sell some of their
property in Ravendale.^ The relations of the
nuns and canons apparently became friendly
again soon after, for in 1232 and 1303 a canon
of Wellow was chosen as warden of the priory.^

The house was a poor and obscure one. Its
temporalities were only rated at 3^. in 1 29 1. In
1296 the nuns had to beg alms to support them-
selves,' and in 1297 certain men were excommu-
nicated for an unjust distraint upon their property.*
Another licence to beg was granted in 131 1, on
the ground that their houses, corn, &c., had been
consumed by fire.' Yet other licence to beg was
granted in 1459 because their buildings had been
burnt and their land inundated.* In 1394 they
were excused from payment of a subsidy at the
bishop's request, on account of their poverty.'

There are no records of episcopal visitations of
this house, though doubtless such were held from
time to time. There are notices in 1337 and 1356
of the absolution of nuns of Grimsby — one for
apostacy, another for a breach of chastity.' In spite
of its scanty revenue the priory was not suppressed
in 1536 ; it lingered on till 15 September, 1539,
when the prioress received a pension of £^, and
the other nuns annuities of 30J. or 33^. ^d. each.'

The endowment of the priory consisted only of
small parcels of land in the counties of Lincoln
and York, with the churches of Grimsby, Little
Coates, and Ravendale." In 129 1 the prioress was
taxed only for 3^.^^ In 1534 the clear value of
the priory was only £f) 14X. "jd. including the
churches of Little Coates and Ravendale (Randall).
The Ministers' Accounts amount to ;^22 Js. ']d}^

Prioresses of St. Leonard's

Emma^*

Agnes of Bradley," died 1299

Maud of GrafFham,^^ elected 1299, died 1309

Amice or Avice Franks,^' elected 1309, occurs

1321
Alice of Alesby,^* resigned 1370
Agnes of Humbleton,'^^ elected 1370, occurs

1393
Eleanor Billesby,^" elected 1409

Maud Beesby,^" resigned 1465

Joan Saxby,^^ elected 1465, occurs 1490

Beatrice,^^ occurs 1507

Anne Mallet,^' occurs 1529

Margaret Riddesdale,^* last prioress

The pointed oval conventual seaP^ represents
St. Leonard standing in an elaborately carved
niche, with trefoiled canopy and tabernacle work
at the side, in the right hand a pastoral staff, in
the left hand a book. The inner edge of the
field engrailed.

siGiLLU : comne : monaliu : sci :

LEONARDI : DE : GRYMMESBY

Cabled borders.

HOUSES OF THE GILBERTINE ORDER

43. THE PRIORY OF SEMPRINGHAM

The Order of Sempringham had its origin in
1131.^" In or about that year Gilbert of Semp-

' Lans. MS. 207, B, fol. zi() d. At the election
of Joan Saxby in 1465 the bishop called the priory
' of the Augustinian order.'

^ Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Wells, and Memo.
Dalderby, $i d.

' Ibid. Memo. Sutton, 158 </. * Ibid. 188 ^

' Ibid. Memo. Dalderby, I'&i d. ; and Dugdale,
Mm. iv, 545.

* Line. N. and Q. ii, 76.

' Ibid. Memo. Bokyngham, 47.

' Ibid. Memo. Burghersh, 385 ; Memo. Gynwell,
66 d.

' L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiv (2), 173.

'" 1 1 3 1 is the date given in the Annals of Sempring-
ham in MS. Barberini 2689 (Transcripts from Rome,
16 P.R.O.), also in the Annals of Derley, Mon. vii,
p. xcvii. The later date, 1 1 39, given by Dugdale and
Tanner, was the date of Gilbert of Ghent's gift.

ringham left the household of Alexander, bishop
of Lincoln, and returned to serve the parish
church of Sempringham, of which he was rector.^*

" Dugdale, Mon. iv, 545 ; Pat. 6 Edvir. II, pt. ii,
m. 29.

" Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.).

" Falor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 68.

" Lans. MS. 207 B, fol. zi6 d.

■* Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Sutton, 28. '« Ibid.

" Ibid. Inst. Dalderby, 29 ; Lans. MS. 207 B,
fol. 204.

'' Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Gynwell, 44.

'' Ibid, and Lans. MS. 2071^, 204.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Repingdon, 35^/.

" Lans. MS. 207 B, fol. 204. '^ Ibid. 204.

^^ Dugdale, Mon. vi, 545.

'' L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiv (2), 173.

"" Egert. Chart. 476.

^* The text of the life of St. Gilbert is printed in
Dugdale, Mon. vii, pp. v-xxix. For an English life
cf. R. Graham, 5/. Gilbert of Semf ringham and the Gil-
bertines, i, 28.

179

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

He found there seven maidens, who had learnt
the way of holiness from him as children, and
longed to live a strict religious life. Gilbert,
having inherited from his father lands and pos-
sessions in Sempringham, resolved to give such
wealth as he had for the use of those maidens.
With the help and advice of Alexander, he set
up buildings and a cloister for them against the
north wall of the church, which stood on his
own land at Sempringham. He gave them a
rule of life, enjoining upon them chastity,
humility, obedience, and charity. Their daily
necessaries were passed to them through a
window by some girls chosen by Gilbert from
among his people. His friends warned him that
his nuns ought not to speak with secular women,
who by their gossip might rekindle in them an
interest in the world which they had renounced.
On the advice of William, abbot of Rievaulx,
he decided to yield to the request of the serving-
maids, who begged that they too might have a
dress and rule of life. Soon afterwards he took
men as lay brothers to work on the land, giving
them too a dress and a rule.

The little community grew in numbers, and
amongst its earliest benefactors was Brian of
Pointon.^ In 1 139 Gilbert accepted three caru-
cates of land in Sempringham from Gilbert of
Ghent, his feudal lord.^ His first building had
proved too small, and Sempringham Priory, with
its double church, cloisters and buildings, was
erected on the new site given by Gilbert of
Ghent, not far from the parish church, and dedi-
cated to the Virgin. In virtue of his gift Gilbert
of Ghent was held to be the founder.

In 1 147 Gilbert went to the general chapter
at Citeaux to ask the abbots to bear rule over his
nuns. This they refused. Yet his journey was
not unfruitful, for at Citeaux he met Bernard,
abbot of Clairvaux, and Eugenius III, the latter
of whom conferred on him the care of the
order. Bernard invited him to Clairvaux, and
there helped him to draw up the Institutes of the
Order of Sempringham, which were afterwards
confirmed by Eugenius III. Gilbert returned
to England in 1148, and completed the order,
by appointing canons to serve his community as
priests, and to help him in the work of adminis-
tration.

Within a brief space it is impossible to do
more than point out a few of the distinguishing
features of the order.' Gilbert gave to the
canons the rule of St. Augustine, and added
many statutes from the customs of Augustinian
and Premonstratensian canons. The chief
officers were the prior, sub-prior, cellarer, pre-
centor, and sacrist. In a double house the

' Genealogist (new ser.), xvi, 3 1 .

' Dugdale, Mon. vii, 948, No. i.

' The rule of Sempringham is printed in Dugdale,
Mon. vii, pp. xxix-xcvii. It is briefly summarized in
R. Graham, S/. Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilber-
tines, 48-77.

number of canons varied from seven to thirty,
but afterwards at Sempringham they were
increased to forty.* The lay brothers followed
the rule of the Cistercian lay brothers.

The nuns of the order kept the rule of St.
Benedict, and followed in every way the customs
of the canons, ' so far as the weakness of their
sex permitted.' Each house was under three
prioresses, who for a week in turn held the
chapters of nuns and sisters, presided in the
frater, and visited the sick in the farmery. The
other officers were the sub-prioress, cellaress, sub-
cellaress, sacrist, and precentrix. The lay sisters
were bound to serve and obey the nuns in all
things. They cooked for the whole community
under the supervision of a nun, who served for a
week at a time. They also brewed ale, sewed,
washed, made thread for the cobblers, and wove
the wool of the house. All the clothes, except
the shirts and breeches of the men, were cut out
and made by the women.

The general administration of the property of
the house was in the hands of a council of four
proctors, consisting of the prior, cellarer, and
two lay brothers. The expenditure was con-
trolled by the nuns. The treasury was in their
buildings, and the keepers were three mature
and discreet nuns, who each had charge of a
different key.'

Communications about business, food, and
other matters were made at the window-house,
which was so constructed that the speakers could
not see each other.' The supreme ruler of the
order was the master, who, subject to good
behaviour and health, was elected for life at a
general chapter by representatives of nuns and
canons from all the houses. The privilege of
freedom of election was granted by Henry II,''
and confirmed in 1 1 89 by Richard I,* and the
custody of the order, its houses, granges, and
churches, was legally vested in the priors during
the vacancy, which, in fact, lasted only a few
days.' The master was not attached to any
house, but continually went from one to the
other on his visitation. He appointed the chief
officers and admitted novices. According to the
rule his consent was necessary for all sales and
purchases of lands, woods, and everything above

* Cal. Pap. Letters, ii, 273.

' For a fuller account of the financial management
of a Gilbertine house cf. The Finance ofMalton Priory,
Roy. Hist. Soc. Trans. (New Ser.), xviii, 133-56.

* The complex arrangements of a Gilbertine
monastery can be easily understood with the
aid of the plan of Watton Priory, printed and
described by W. H. St. John in Arch. Joum. Iviii,

«-34-

' This grant by Hen. II is only known by confir-
mation of Ric. I, in which the date of his father's
charter is not specified.

» Genealogist (New Ser.), xvi, 226 ; Cott. MS.
Claud. D, xi, fol. 28 p.

' Transcripts from Rome (P.R.O.), No. 16, fol.
1-3-

180

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

the value of three marks, and his seal was

affixed to all charters, but these provisions were

afterwards modified in practice. He had no

benefices or other property set aside for the

expenses of his visitations and other duties which

might devolve on him. In the middle of the

thirteenth century it appears that the houses

of the order were contributing to the communa

magistrl in proportion to their means,^ and in

1535 a fixed payment to the master 'of ancient

custom ' is mentioned in the outgoings of each

house.^

The general chapter met each year at Sem-
pringham on the Rogation Days,^ and was
attended by the prior, cellarer, and two prioresses
from each house, the scrutators general, and the
scrutators of the cloister.

While Gilbert was master there were two
serious crises in the history of Sempringham and
the other houses of the order. Early in 1 1 65
Gilbert and all the priors were summoned to
Westminster to answer a charge of having sent
money abroad to Thomas, archbishop of Canter-
bury, and of having helped him to escape from
England, the penalty for which was exile. The
accusation, however, was false, though Gilbert
scrupled to swear to his innocence. Meanwhile
messengers arrived from Henry II to say that
he would judge the case on his return from Nor-
mandy, and that Gilbert and his priors could go
in peace.*

In 1 170 a rebellion took place among the lay
brothers, who complained of the harshness of the
rule, and insisted on more food and less work.
Two of them went to Rome, with ill-gotten
gains, and slandered Gilbert and the canons to
Alexander III, who intervened on their behalf.
As Gilbert's cause was warmly espoused by
Henry II and several of the bishops, the pope
was convinced that he had been deceived.
When the lay brothers found that they had failed
to move Gilbert by violence, they asked for
pardon and humbly entreated him to relax the
rule for them. Accordingly, certain changes in
their food and dress were solemnly made about
1 187, in the presence of Hugh, bishop of Lin-
coln, with the consent of the general chapter of
Sempringham.'

On 4 February, 11 89,* Gilbert died at Sem-
pringham, and was buried on the 7th in the pre-
sence of a great concourse of people. His tomb was
placed between the altars of St. Mary and St.
Andrew, in the priory church, and could be seen
on either side of the wall which divided the men
from the women. Many miracles of healing

' Royal Hist. Sac. Trans. (New Ser.), xviii, 152.
' Valor Eccks. (Rec. Com.), iv, 34, 63, 83, 103, 123,

&c.

' Dugdale, Mon. vii, 947.

' R. Graham, St. Gilbert of Sempringham and the
Gilbertines, 16-19.

» Ibid. 19-23. ' Ibid. 24.

were reported to have been worked at the tomb
in the next few years, and in 1 200 Hubert
Walter, archbishop of Canterbury, set about
obtaining his canonization.' After due inquisi-
tion into the truth of the alleged miracles,
canonization was decreed by Innocent III. The
translation of St. Gilbert took place on 13 Oc-
tober, 1202, in the presence of great crowds,
an indulgence of forty days to pilgrims to his
shrine being granted by the archbishop of
Canterbury, and no days by several other
bishops.*

The convent of Sempringham at first suffered
poverty, but several benefactors had compassion
on the nuns.' In 1189 the possessions of the
priory included the whole township of Sempring-
ham, with the parish church and the chapel of
Pointon, the granges of Kirkby, Marham, Cran-
well, Fulbeck, Thorpe, Bramcote, Walcote,
Thurstanton, the hermitage of Hoyland, a mill
in Birthorpe, half a knight's fee in Laughton
(Locton), the mills of Folkingham, and the
churches of Billingborough, Stowe with the
chapel of Birthorpe, Hanington, Aslackby, Bux-
ton, Brunesthorp, Kirkby, Bradstow, and moieties
of Trowell and Laughton.^" Probably in con-
sideration of this endowment Gilbert limited the
number of nuns and lay sisters to 120, and of
canons and lay brothers to 60.^^

It is worthy of notice that original grants of
whole manors to the Gilbertines were very rare.
They received lands within the manors of their
benefactors and their feudal lords, usually in
frankalmoign, owing no service to the lord's
court. Henry II granted them full manorial
rights throughout their own lands," and thus a
number of smaller manors were created, though
except in royal charters ^' these bore the ecclesi-
astical name of granges. Until the Black Death
the Gilbertines cultivated their own lands to a
great extent. Wherever they received a suffi-
cient grant of land or pasturage they built a
grange which was in itself a small religious
house, with its oratory, frater, cloister, common

' R. Graham, St. Gilbert of Sempringham and the
Gilbertines, 25-7.

» Cott. MS. Cleop. B. i, fol. 140.

' The chartulary of Sempringham perished in a fire
at Staple Inn. A valuable series of Sempringham
charters has been printed by Major Poynton in the
Genealopst (New Ser.), xv, xvi, xvii.

'° Genealogist, xvi, 226—8.

" Dugdale, Mon. vii, p. xcvii, cap. vi. The num-
bers fixed in the statute represented no ideal comple-
ment, but a real limit. The fixing of the numbers
of nuns is ascribed to St. Gilbert in a Bull of Hono-
rius III in 1220 (Cott. MS. Claud. D. xi, fol. 9).

" Cott. MS. Claud. D. xi, fol. 28.

" e.g. Chart R. 36 Hen. Ill, m. 10, a grant of free
warren in eleven manors belonging to Sixhills Priory.
Several of these occur as granges in the Fakr Eccles.
(Rec. Com.), iv, 83, and in Mins. Accts. in 1539,
Dugdale, Mon. vii, 965.

181

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

room, and guest hostel. Workshops for smiths,
carpenters, cobblers, tailors, and others all stood
within the walled enclosure, but stables and
sheds for cattle and sheep might be built outside.
Only the lay brothers lived at the granges with
the hired servants ; they were under the rule of
the grainger, a lay brother who fulfilled some of
the same duties as the prior at the monastery.
The supply of lay brothers fell far short of the
demand for them, especially as the thirteenth
century went on, and, indeed, the importance of
hired labour, as early as 1 1 64, was recognized in
the agreement which was concluded between
the Cistercian and Gilbertine orders.^

Grants of pasturage were numerous, and the
chief source of revenue of the Gilbertines, as of
the Cistercians, was their wool. In some houses
the wool was made into cloth, not only for the
dress of the convent, but for sale.^ Cloth of
Sempringham was noted in John's reign.' In
1 193 all the wool of the order of Sempringham
for one year was taken for Richard I's ransom.^
The Gilbertines were tempted by their exemp-
tions from all tolls and customs ^ to act, like the
Cistercians, as factors in the wool trade through-
out the county ; ecclesiastical * and royal prohi-
bitions alike failed to check them from
disobeying their own rule. The jealousy of
other traders stirred Henry III and Edward I
to threaten correction in 1262' and 1302,* but
in 1342^ and 1344-"* the same complaints
reached Edward III, who also bade the Gilber-
tines desist utterly from such trading.

In spite of increasing possessions the convent
was at no time wealthy ; though the standard of
life seems always to have been simple the
revenues were small for the number of inmates.
The numbers fixed by St. Gilbert represented no
ideal complement, indeed the tendency was to
exceed them, as at Sempringham, and the burden
of maintaining so large a number of nuns is
mentioned in more than one papal privilege. In
1226 Henry III gave the master a present of
100 marks for their support.^^ In 1228 he re-
lieved the priory of the expense of providing
food during the meeting of the general chapter
at the mother-house on the Rogation Days by his
gift of the church of Fordham, which was worth
fifty-five marks a year.^^ Ten years later the
revenues were materially increased. The Scotch

' Stowe MS. 937, fol. 146.

* Dugdale, Mon. xliv, cap. iv.

' Doc. illustrative of Engl. Hist. (Rec. Com.), 267.

* Roger of Hoveden, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 211.
' Cott. MS. Claud. D, xi, fol. 28.

" Douce MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 136, fol. 89.
' Pari. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 156-7; cf. Hund. R. (Rec.
Com.), i, 317.
'Ibid. 1563.

^ Cal Pat. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 39^/.
'« Ibid. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 37.'
" Ibid. 10 Hen. Ill, m. 6.
'^ Dugdale, Mon. vii, 947.

house at Dalmulin on the north bank of the
Ayr, which was founded and endowed by Walter
FitzAlan about 1 22 1, was abandon ed,-'' and its
possessions were transferred to the abbot and con-
vent of Paisley in consideration of a yearly
payment of forty marks to Sempringham.^* The
parish churches of Sempringham, Birthorpe,
Billingborough, and Kirkby were already appro-
priated." Yet in 1247 Innocent IV granted to
the master the right to appropriate the church of
Horbling, because there were 200 women in the
priory who often lacked the necessaries of life.^*
The legal expenses of the order at the papal curia
perhaps accounted for their poverty.-" The annual
payment of forty marks was felt as a grievous
burden by the abbot and convent of Paisley, and
seems to have been ignored in several years, for
in 1 246 the prior and convent of Sempringham
appealed to Innocent IV to right them.^' They
w^ere obliged to pay the whole of the expenses
of the suit and remit half the arrears of the debt
on condition that the abbot and convent of
Paisley should make regular payments from that
time onwards.

In 1254 the spiritualities of Sempringham were
assessed at ^i 70, the temporalities at j^i 96 9^. idP'
In 1253 *^^ prior and convent obtained a grant
of free warren in all their demesne lands,^" and
in 1268 the right of holding a fair in the manor
ofStow.21

The order was under the special protection of
the papacy,^^ and was exempt entirely from
episcopal visitation. Accordingly, evidence of
its internal history must be sought in papal bulls
and registers. It would appear that on or before
1220 the general chapter petitioned that the
sole power of making changes in the rule might
be confirmed to them, and that the master and
priors should not alter their liberties and consti-
tutions.^^ Complaints were also made of the
extravagance of priors who travelled with
servants and baggage horses, and used silver
cups, and other pompous vessels. In 1223
a visitation of the order was conducted by
the abbot of Warden by order of the legate
Otho.^* The injunctions of the abbot of Warden
showed that there was a tendency to relax the
rule in somewhat unimportant matters. He
directed that the cowl of the nuns should not be

" John Edwards, The Gilbertines in Scotland, 7.

" Cott. MS. Claud. D, xi, fol. 227.

" Liber Jntij. (ed. A. W. Gibbons), 54, 55.

" Cal. Pap. Letters, i, 232.

"Ibid, i, 284; cf. Roy. Hist. Soc. Trans. (New
Ser.), xviii, 155.

'*■ John Edwards, The Gilbertines in Scotland, 17 ;
Reg. de Passelet (ed. Cosmo Innes), i, 24.

" Cott. MS. Claud. D, xi, fol. 278 v.

"' Cal. Chart. R. 37 Hen. Ill, m, 1 1.

=' Ibid. 52 Hen. III. m. 4.

*^ Dugdale, Mon. vii, p. xiii.

" Cott. MS. Claud. D, xi, fol. 9.

" Douce MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 136, fol. 100.

laa

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

cut too long, that fine furs should not be used
for the cloaks of canons and nuns, that the
canons' copes should be made minime curiose.
Variety of pictures and superfluity of sculp-
ture were forbidden. The rule of silence was
to be more strictly observed. The proctors were
bidden to provide the same food and drink for
the nuns as for the canons, and not in future to
buy beer for the canons when the nuns had only
water to drink. A very important papal visita-
tion was undertaken when Ottoboni was legate
in England from 1265 to 1268. He went to
Sempringham in person, but delegated the duty
of visiting other houses of the order to members
of his household.^ In 1268, after a careful study
of the reports of the visitors, a series of injunc-
tions was drawn up by Ralph of Huntingdon, a
Dominican chaplain in the service of the legate,
with the aid of Richard, chief scrutator of the
order.^ The democratic principles of the order
had obviously been violated, and the master and
heads of houses had shown arbitrary tendencies.
It was necessary to insist that the master should
strive to rule by love rather than fear, and to
threaten priors and sub-priors who were stern to
the verge of cruelty with deposition. The
master was forbidden to receive men and women
into the order without the advice of its members.
The priors were warned against conducting
business and manumitting servile lands and serfs
without consulting their fellow proctors and
seeking the consent of their chapters. The
lucrative practice of collecting wool and selling
it with the produce of their own flocks, was
strictly, though in vain, forbidden. It was
ordered that discipline should be firmly main-
tained among the regular servants of the priory
and granges, and servants and labourers were
forbidden to go off the monastery lands without
special leave. Lay brothers who were skilled
in surgery might only practise their art by the
prior's leave, and if the patients were men. A
tendency to treat the nuns with less consideration
than the rule required was sternly repressed.
They were to have all their rights and privileges,
and no plea of urgent business might avail to
deprive them of their assent to all transactions.
Pittances provided for the nuns were not to be
assigned to other purposes for any reason, and
money given on the admission of a nun was to
be devoted to their needs. The master was to
see that they were not stinted in clothes and food.
In 1 29 1 the assessment of the temporalities
had risen to ;^2I9 1 71. ii^d? The property
continued to increase, as several licences were
obtained subsequently to appropriate numerous
small grants of land in mortmain.* The right
of holding a fair in the manor of Wrightbald

' Douce MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 136, fol. 88.
' Et seq. ibid. fols. 88 to 91.
' Pofe Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 70, etc.
' e.g. Cal. Pat. 18 Edw. I, m. 43 ; 27 Edw. I,
m. 20.

was conceded in 1293.* At the beginning of
the fourteenth century the annual sales of wool
amounted to twenty-five sacks a year,^ and,
whatever the net profits may have been, added
largely to the income of the convent. It was
doubtless on account of the important share of
the order in the wool trade that Edward II
asked in 131 3 for a loan of 1,000 marks,' and in
1 3 15 for ;^2,ooo,* for the assessment of all its
spiritualities and temporalities scarcely exceeded
j^3,ooo.'

In 1303 the prior held in Lincolnshire half
a knight's fee in Horbling, half in Irnham, half
less one-twelfth in Laughton and Aslackby, a
quarter in Cranwell, a quarter in Bulby, one-
fifth in Bulby and Southorpe, one-eighth in Ful-
beck, one-eighth in Scredington, one-sixteenth in
Osbournby, one-twentieth in Bitchfield. In
1346 he held also a knight's fee in Straggle-
thorpe, one-sixth in Walcote, and one-thirty-
second in Aunsley, and in 1428 in Leicester one-
quarter of a fee in Thrussington.^"

At the general chapter in 1304 it was decided,
*on account of frequent and continuous royal
and papal tenths, contributions and exactions,'
that in each house a grange, church, or fixed
rent should be set aside to meet those demands.^^
The Gilbertines had been exempted by Henry II
from all gelds and taxes,^^ and John especially
mentioned, in his charter of confirmation, the
aids of the sheriffs, tallage, and scutage.^^ How-
ever, in the reigns of Henry III and Edward I
the popes taxed both spiritualities and temporali-
ties, and sometimes handed over the proceeds to
the crown. In this way the order lost its
privileges, and afterwards voted grants with the
rest of the clergy in convocation. At this time
the interests of farming and trading did not pre-
dominate to the exclusion of all else. In 1290
Nicholas IV granted a licence to the prior and
canons of Sempringham to have within their
house a discreet and learned doctor of theology
to teach those of their brethren who desired to
study that science.^* For some years the master
had sent certain canons of the order to study at
Cambridge,^' and in 1290 a house of residence
was secured in the town, and contributions

' Chart. R. 21 Edw. I, m. 1 2, on the vigil, feast,
and morrow of the Nativity of the Virgin.

* W. Cunningham, Growth of Engl. Industry and
Commerce, i (ed. 1905), 635, the prices varying at
Sempringham from twenty marks to nine, according
to the quality. For the importance of wool as a
source of revenue in the Gilbertine priory of Malton,
cf. Roy. Hist. Soc. Trans, (new ser.), xviii, 150.

' Pari. Writs (Rec. Com.), ii, pt. ii, 66, No. 9.

» Cal. Close, 8 Edw. II, m. iz d.

' Cal. Pat. 6 Edw. I, m. 24.

'» Feud. Aids (P. R. O.), iii.

" Douce MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 136, fol. 96 r.

" Cott. MS. Claud. D. xi, fol. 28.

" Chart. R. (Rec. Com.), i John, m. 14.

" Cal. Paj>. Letters, i, 516.

'* Ibid, i, 514.

'83

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

were afterwards levied from all the houses of
the order for the support of canons as scholars.^
Two years later Robert Lutterel, rector of
Irnham, gave a house and lands at Stamford
that canons from Sempringham Priory might
study divinity and philosophy at the university
which was then flourishing in that town,^ In
1 303 a canon named Robert Manning of Bourne
began to write, in the cloister at Sempringham,
his book called Handlyng Sinne^ which was an
English version of Waddington's Manual des
Pechh, a satire on the failings and vices of
English men and women of all classes of society.
He had then lived fifteen years in the monastery,
and had previously studied at Cambridge. The
annals of the house were recorded in French
from 1290 to 1326.*

In 1 30 1 Prior John de Hamilton began to
build a new church for the priory,' as the earlier
one had fallen into disrepair. Ten years before
Nicholas IV had granted lavish indulgences to
penitents who visited the priory church and
chapels of St. John, St. Stephen, and St.
Catherine,' so the proceeds from their offerings
were available. The rebuilding of other parts
of the monastery was also in contemplation, for
in 1306 the prior and convent obtained a papal
bull enabling them to appropriate the churches
of Thurstanton and Norton Disney for that
purpose.' However, the church was still un-
finished in 1342, when Bishop Bek granted an
indulgence for the fabric, ' which had been begun
anew at great cost.'* There were a number of
reasons for the delay. The price of corn was
very high in the years of famine from 1 3 1 5 to
132 1.' Owing to the Scotch wars the payment
of forty marks from the abbey of Paisley ceased
altogether, probably before 1305,*" and it was not
until 1 3 1 9 that the prior and convent were able
by way of compensation for their loss to appro-
priate the church of Whissendine, worth fifty-
five marks, for the expenses of clothing forty
canons and 200 women. '^^

Probably by reason of its position as the head

' Fa/or Eccks. (Rec. Com.), iv, e.g. 34, 63, 83,
103, 123, &c.

* Dugdale, Mm. vii, 947-8.

' Handlyng Sinne (Roxburgh Club).

* Le L'were deReis de Brittanie (Rolls Ser.), 323-55.
The annals end abruptly in the unique MS.
Barberini, 2689 (Vatican).

' Ibid. 327.

' Cal. Pap. Letters, i, 516, 524.

' Ibid, ii, 14.

* Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bek, fol. 6.

' Le Livere de Rets de Brittanie (Rolls Ser.), 331-7.

"John Edwards, The Gilbertines in Scotland, 18.
In August, 1296, the abbot of Paisley acknowledged
for himself and the convent that a sum of forty marks
was owing to the master of Sempringham. He pro-
mised to pay ten marks on 30 August and thirty
marks at Michaelmas. The ten marks were paid,
but there are no later receipts.

" Cal. Pap. Letters, ii, 273.

house of a purely English order, Sempringhan^
was in high favour with the three Edwards, who
sent thither wives and daughters of their chief
enemies. Wencilian, daughter of Llewellyn^
prince of Wales, was sent to Sempringham as a
little child, after her father's death in 1283, and
died a nun of the house fifty-four years later.^^
Edward I allowed the acquisition of certain lands,
in mortmain because he had charged the priory
with her maintenance," and in 1327 Edward III
granted £p.Q a year for her life. In 1322, by
order of the Parliament at York, Margaret,
countess of Cornwall, was sent to live at Sem-
pringham among the nuns.** In 1324 Joan,
daughter of Roger Mortimer, was received at the
priory.'" Two daughters of the elder Hugh
Despenser were also sent to take the veil at
Sempringham, and in 1337 an allowance of ;^20
a year was made for their lives.*'

The unsettled state of the country in the reign
of Edward II and the earlier years of Edward III
was very unfavourable to many monasteries. In
1 3 1 2 Sempringham Priory was attacked by Roger
of Birthorpe, Geoffrey Lutterel of Irnham,,
Edmund of Colville, and other knights ; they
broke into the monastery, assaulted the canons
and their men and servants, and carried away
their goods.*' However, Prior John and some
of his canons and servants raided the park at
Birthorpe to recover their animals which had
been impounded.*' In 13 30 the priors of Sem-
pringham and Haverholme, accompanied by
several of their canons and other persons, were
charged by William of Querington and Brian of
Herdeby with raiding a close at Evedon, cutting
down the trees, carrying away timber, and de-
pasturing and destroying corn with plough cattle.**
The next year the prior lodged a complaint
against Brian of Herdeby and others who had
assaulted a canon and a lay brother at Evedon,,
consumed his crops and grass at Burton, hunted •
in his free warren there, and carried off hares and
partridges.'^"

In 1320 the priory was in money difficulties
and owed ^1,000 to Geoffrey of Bramton, a
clerk.^* Speculations in wool with Italian mer-
chants foUowed.^^ Inability to pay the king's
taxes marked a financial crisis in 1337," and again
in 1345.^* Consequent probably upon the

" Dugdale, Mm. vii, 959 ; Peter of Langtoft,
Chron. (ed. Hearne), ii, 243.

" Cal. Pat. 30 Edw. I, m. 34 ; i Edw. in,pt. i, m. 27.

" Le Livere de Reis de Brittanie (Rolls Ser.), 345.

"Ibid. 351.

" Cal. Pat. 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 27.

" Ibid. 6 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 20 d.

'Mbid. 23 a'.

" Ibid. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 26 d.

'"Ibid. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 39</.

" Cal. Close, 14 Edw. II, m. i8</.

"Ibid. 18 Edw. II, m.zid.; 19 Edw. II, m.
z6d ; 20 Edw. II, m. 1 3 /^. ; 3 Edw. Ill, m. 6 d.

" Cal. Pat. II Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 18.

" Ibid. 1 9 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 6.

184

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

poverty of the house, the Master of Sempring-
ham, in 1341, obtained exemption from future
attendance at Parliament.^ He had been regu-
larly summoned from the great Parliament of
1295, until 1332,^ but, as in the case of other
abbots and priors, attendance was doubtless found
to be a great burden and expense.

No record remains of the ravages of the Black
Death at Sempringham or any other house of
the Gilbertine order, although there is some
evidence of distress in the priory in 1349. On
the eve of Trinity Sunday in that year there was
a great storm and flood, the water in the church
rose as high as the capitals of the pillars, and in
the cloister and other buildings it was six feet
deep. Many of the books were destroyed and
eighteen sacks of wool were damaged.' On
9 November the king granted a licence to the
nuns to appropriate Hacconby church, which
was valued at twenty-four marks a year, for their
clothing.*

There is little doubt that none of the Gilber-
tine houses ever recovered from the eflFects of the
Black Death. They were constrained to abandon
almost entirely the cultivation of their own lands,
and to let their numerous granges on leases.

In 1399 Boniface IX gave permission to the
master, priors, canons, lay brothers, nuns and
sisters of the order of Sempringham to farm,
to fit laymen or clerks for a fixed time, their
manors, churches, chapels, pensions, stipends and
possessions, without requiring the licence of the
ordinary." Thus they lost their profits from the
wool trade, which had probably exceeded their
revenues from all other sources." The sheep
everywhere died in thousands from the pesti-
lence, and it was in fact impossible for the Gil-
bertines to carry on their former occupations of
farming and trading with any success.

There are indications of a decline in discipline
and morals, as well as in numbers. In 1363 the
master, Robert of Navenby, was seeking to
obtain from Urban V the rights of a mitred
abbot that he might himself give benediction to
his nuns.' The bishop of Lincoln however pro-
tested. In 1366 many nuns of Sempringham
had not received benediction, and as the master,
William of Prestwold, refused to listen to the
prioress, they petitioned Bishop Bokyngham,
who came to Sempringham, to right them.*
The number of nuns had then fallen to sixty-
seven. In 1382' Richard II granted a licence
for the master and priors of the order to spize

' Rymer, Foedero, v, 248.

' Pari. Writs (Rec. Com.), ii, pt. 3, fol. 1420.

' Transcripts from Rome (P.R.O.), 16, fol. 3.

* Cal. Pat. 23 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 19 ; cf. Col. Pat.
16 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 22.

' Cal. Pap. Letters, v, 200.

° QLRoy. Hist. Soc. Trans, (new ser.), xviii, 156, App.

' Cal. Pap. Pet. i, 413.

* Line. Epis. Reg. Gynwell, fol. 48 d.
' Cal. Pot. 6 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 29.

and detain all vagabond canons and lay brothers,
and in 1383 ^" and 1390 " mandates were issued to
the sheriffs and others to arrest an apostate canon..
In 1397 Boniface IX sent a mandate to the
archbishops of Canterbury and York and the
bishop of Ely, to investigate the charges against
William of Beverley," who was elected master
in 1393. It was reported that on his visitation
he took immoderate procurations, burdened the
houses by the excessive number of the members-
of his household and of his horses, and committed
many grievances and enormities against the
statutes of the order. The bishops were to
punish him if guilty, to visit the houses, correct
and reform what was amiss, to revise the statutes
of the order, and frame others if expedient. In
1405 the pope issued another mandate," stating
that William of Beverley, master of the order,,
had dilapidated divers goods, movable and im-
movable, had enormously 'damaged it, reduced
it to great poverty, and continued in the same
course. If found guilty he was to be deprived.
However, whether the order obtained any
redress is not known ; the next master was not
elected until 1407."

The history of Sempringham Priory, and of the
order generally, in the fifteenth century, is very-
obscure. In 1400 a papal indulgence was
granted for the repair of the priory church,^" and
in 1409 a legacy was left for the fabric of the
bell tower." In 1445 Henry VI granted ta
Nicholas Resby, master of the order, that the
houses of Sempringham, Haverholrne, Catley,
Bullington, Sixhills, North Ormsby, and Alving-
ham should be free and exempt from all aids,
subsidies, and tallages, and should never contri-
bute to any payments of tenths or fifteenths^
made by the whole body of the clergy or of the
provinces of Canterbury and York separately.^'
However, the prior and convent of Sempringham
were compelled to pay ^^40 in 1522 as their
share of a grant from the spirituality towards
Henry VIII's personal expenses in France for
the recovery of that crown.^*

With the abandonment of farming, except on
the immediate demesne, the need of the order
for lay brothers disappeared ; they probably died
out altogether early in the fifteenth century, and
there is no record of any at the dissolution.
Servants, too, probably very largely took the-
place of the lay sisters.

At a general chapter held at St. Catherine's,,
Lincoln, in 1501, it was resolved that the
number of canons, which * in those days was less.

'» Cal. Pat. 6 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. w d.

" Ibid. 1 3 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 2 d.

" Cal. Pap. Letters, v, 15.

" Ibid, vi, 96.

" Transcripts from Rome (P.R.O.), 16, fol. 3..

" Cal. Pap. Letters, v, 403.

'* Early Line. Wills (ed. A. W. Gibbon), 127.

" Pat. 23 Hen. VI, pt. i, m. 4.

" L. and P. Hen. VIII, iii (2), 1048.

85 24

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

than usual,' should be increased.^ The priors
were to seek suitable persons, that with greater
numbers religion might prosper. This attempt
at revival was to some extent successful, for in
several houses, as at Sempringham itself, the
number of canons fixed at this chapter was
reached before the dissolution. In all the houses
of the order there were, in 1538, only 143
canons, 139 nuns, and 15 lay sisters. Nothing
was alleged by the crown visitors against the
Gilbertines in Lincolnshire, and they appear to
have been living blameless lives, neither in
poverty nor in wealth.

Robert Holgate, chaplain to Cromwell, who
became master of the order in 1536,^ exerted
his influence to prevent the surrender of the
Gilbertine houses under the Act for the Suppres-
sion of the Smaller Monasteries in 1536, for only
four out of twenty-six houses had revenues over
jTaoo a year. No resistance was offered in
1538, when Dr. William Petre came down to
take the surrenders. On 18 September, Robert
the master, Roger the prior, and sixteen canons
surrendered Sempringham Priory.' The prior
received Fordham rectory and ^^30 a year, the
canons and prioresses and sixteen nuns were also
pensioned.

In 1535 the clear yearly value of the house
was ^^317 4.S. id.* Of this sum ;^i28 i6s. jd.
was drawn from the rectories of Sempringham
with the chapel of Pointon, Stow with the
chapel of Birthorpe, Billingborough, Horbling,
Walcote, Loughton, Cranwell, Norton Disney,
Kirkby Laythorpe, and Hacconby, in Lincoln-
shire ; Whissendine in Rutlandshire ; Fordham in
Cambridgeshire ; Thurstanton in Leicestershire ;
and Buxton in Norfolk. The remainder of the
property included granges or lands and tenements
at Sempringham, Threckingham, Stow, Poin-
ton, Dowsby, Ringesdon Dyke, Billingborough,
Horbling, Walcote, Newton, Pykworth, Os-

' Douce MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 136, fol. 106.

'Misc. Laud MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 642, fol. 118;
Emily Day, Notes on the Life and Portrait of Robert
Holgate.

' Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, p. 40 ; Aug. OIF.
Misc. Bks. 233, fol. 32.

* Fahr Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 102. Shortly after
the dissolution of the Gilbertine houses in Lines, a
report vs^as sent up to Cromwell of their value. The
gross yearly value was estimated as ^^1,407, but out of
this sum pensions to the amount of ;^5 74 6/. 8a'. were
granted to the priors and canons, prioresses and nuns.
The sum realized by the sale of household stuff, stock
and store, with the plate, was ;£266 3/. zd., but
wages, rewards, costs, and all manner of charges
reached the high figure of j^7S6 9/. "id. The value
of the bells and lead was estimated at ;f 3,972 1 3/. \d.,
so the capital sum realized was ^4,729 3/. The pem-
sions were considered a heavy charge on the annual
revenue, but as there were a good number of benefices
it was suggested that as they all fell vacant they should
be given to the canons in lieu of their pensions.
Tanner MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 105, 63^.

burnby, Kysby, Folkingham, Aslackby, Wood-
grange, Kirkby, Bulby, Morton, Wrightbald,
Brothertoft, Wilton, Kirton Holme, Wrangle,
Cranwell, Stragglethorpe, Carlton and Fulbeck,
and a few other places in Lincolnshire ; Ketton,
Cottesmore, and Pickwell in Rutland ; Thur-
stanton and Willoughby in Leicestershire ; Bram-
cote, Trowell, and Chinwell in Nottinghamshire ;
and Walton in Derbyshire. Six granges appear
to have been farmed by bailiffs for the monastery
and the rest were let on lease. The demesnes
of Sempringham were worth {jid 13J. i^d. a year.
In the hands of the crown bailiff four years
later the property brought in £,'i,^2> 5^- S"^-"

Masters of the Order of Sempringham

St. Gilbert «

Roger, elected 1 1 89

John, elected 1204

Gilbert, elected 1205

Robert, elected 1225

William, elected 1251

Patrick, elected 1262

John de Homerton, elected 1276

Roger de Bolingbroke, elected 1283

Philip de Burton, elected 1298

John de Glinton, elected 1332, resigned 1 34 1

Robert de Navenby, elected 1 34 1

William de Prestwold, elected 1364

William de Beverley, elected 1393

John de Hanworth, elected 1407, occurs 1425 '

Walter Iklyngham, elected 1435'

Nicholas Resby, occurs 1445 '

James, occurs 1501 ^^

Thomas, occurs 1508 ^^ and 15 11 '^

Thomas de Hurtesby, occurs 1535^'

Robert Holgate, 1536 to 1538"

Priors ^^ of Sempringham

Torphim, occurs 1164'°
Roger, occurs i:
The

K.oger, occurs 1204"
Thomas, occurs 1 242 ^*
Roger, occurs 1282"

' Dugdale, Mon. vii, 948.

" The list of masters to 1407 is taken from Tran-
scripts from Rome (P.R.O.), 16, fols. 1—3.

' Cal. Pap. Letters vii, 418.

' Assoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. rxvii, 304.

' Pat. 23 Hen. VI, pt. i, m. 4.

■" Douce MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 136, fol. 106.

" Dugdale, Mofi. vii, 947.

" Douce MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 136, fol. no.

" F'akr Eecles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 34.

" Dugdale, Mon. vii, 947 ; Misc. Laud MS. (Bodl.
Lib.), 642, fol. 1 18.

" Owing to their exemption from episcopal control
the election of the Gilbertine priors is not recorded
in the Lincoln registers, hence the incomplete lists.

'* Stowe MS. 937, fol. 146 p.

"Add. MS. 6 II 8, fol. 405 p.

" Orig. Chart. (Bodl. Lib.), No. 247.

" Elected master. Transcripts from Rome (P.R.O.),
16, fol. 2.

[86

Abbey of Grimsby or Wellow

Hospital of All Saints, Stamford

Sempringham Priory

Hospital of Holy iNNn^hNi^, i\ ithovt Lincoln

Vaudfy Abbey

Hagnaby Abbey Priory of St. Leonard, Grimsby

Seals of Lincolnshire Religious Houses — Plate II

To face page 1 86

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

John of Hamilton, occurs 1301 ^ and 1312^
John of Glinton, occurs 1325 ^ and 1332 *
William of Prestwold, occurs 1364''
William Cusom, occurs 1366^
John Jordan, occurs 1522, 1529, and 1535'
Roger, occurs 1538'

Prioresses of Sempringham

Edusia of Pointon, Elizabeth of Arderne,
Matilda of Willoughby, occur 1366 '

Agnes Rudd and Margery Marbury, occur
153810

The seal attached to a deed of 1457 " '^ '" sh^pe
a pointed oval, and represents the Annunciation
of the Virgin, and in the base there is a carved
corbel.i^

The seal of the master is a pointed oval, and
represents him three-quarters length to the right,
holding a book.^' The legend is sig .... v •

GILLEBERTI ■ MAGISTRI.

44. THE PRIORY OF HAVERHOLME

The Gilbertine priory of St. Mary, Haver-
holme, was founded as a double house in 1 139
by Alexander, bishop of Lincoln.^* In 1137 he
had offered the site, a marshy island in the river
near Sleaford, to the abbot of Fountains for a
Cistercian abbey. ^^ Abbot Gervase accepted it ;
twfo years were spent in erecting those monastic
buildings which were absolutely needful, and on
Candlemas Day, 1139, a band of monks was
sent from Fountains to take possession. ^^ The
place displeased them, and the bishop gave them
instead the site on which the house of Louth
Park was built. Alexander then offered Haver-
holme to his former confessor, Gilbert of Sem-
pringham, who had lived in his household for
eight years. The number of nuns at Sempring-
ham was increasing very rapidly, the Cistercian
buildings were ready for them at Haverholme,
and the bishop considered tha"t there was sufficient
arable and pasture land for their needs.^' St.

' Le L'were de Rets de Brittanie (Rolls Ser.), 327.

* Ibid. 329.

' Cal. Chse, 19 Edvir. Ill, m. zSd.

' Elected master. Transcripts from Rome (P.R.O.),
16, fol. 3.

Mbid. 16, fol. 3.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Gynwell, fol. 48 d.

' L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, iii, No. 6047 ; Line. N.
and Q. v, 36 ; Fa/or Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 102.

* Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, 40.

° Line. Epis. Reg. Gynvi'ell, fol. 48 d.
'° Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. 233, fol. 32.
" Harl. Chart, ill, C. 37.

'' The seal attached to the Deed of Surrender (Aug.
Off.), 210, is bad.
" Harl. Chart. 44, A.
" Dugdale, Mon. vii, 948.
" Ibid. V, 299. '= Ibid.

" Ibid, vii, 948.

Gilbert sent nuns, lay sisters and lay brothers to
Haverholme, but at first they suffered severely
from poverty. In 1140 Simon Tushett 'had
compassion on their good life, and fearing that
they would lack the wherewithal to live,' granted
them lands in Ashby.^* Henry II," Roger Mow^-
bray,'^ and Roger de Lacy " were among their
later benefactors.

St. Gilbert added canons to the community
soon after his return from Citeaux, in 1148.^*
He afterwards limited the numbers in the house
to 100 nuns and lay sisters, and 50 canons and
lay brothers.''

In October, 11 64, Thomas, archbishop of
Canterbury, found shelter at Haverholme, among
other houses of the Gilbertine order, when he
fled abroad from the Council of Northampton.^

In 1254 the spiritualities of the house
were assessed at ;^40, the temporalities at
jfioo \is. lod.^^ Three years later Richard of
Gravesend, bishop of Lincoln, held that the re-
sources of the house were insufficient for the main-
tenance of guests and poor, and appropriated to the
use of the convent the church of Sleaford (Vetus
LafFord) and a moiety of Ruskington."" In 1291
the value of the temporalities had increased by over
;^i8 a year," and about the beginning of the four-
teenth century the annual sales of wool amounted
to 15 sacks.'' At that time the revenues
probably sufficed for the needs of the house ;
apparently no efforts were made to get a licence
to appropriate lands in mortmain, money was
not advanced by the Italian merchants, no special
difficulty was experienced in the payment of the
taxes.

In 1303 the prior held one knight's fee in
Dorrington, seven-eighths of a fee in Ruskington,
three-quarters in Hougham, a quarter in Braunce-
well, a quarter in Wilsfold, one-sixth in Mar-
ton, one-sixth in Dorrington, one-tenth in Tim-
berland, one-seventeenth in Boothby, four-fifths
of half a fee in Wellingore, and seven-eighths
of half a fee in Anwick.'' Like other monas-
teries and townships, the prior was presented for
neglect before the justices of sewers. In 9
Edward II complaint was made that the south
side of the water from Happletreeness to Kyme
was in decay, the prior was bound to repair a

'^Add.MS. 4937, fol. no.
"Lansd. MS. 20ja, fol. 119.

"" Dodsvi'orth MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 144, fol. 93.

" Lansd. MS. 207a, fol. 119.

" Dugdale, Mon. vii, p. xii.

'^ Ibid. p. xcvii, cap. vi.

** Materials for Hist, of Thomas Becket (Rolls Ser.), iii,

323-5-

" Cott. MS. Claud. D. xl, fol. 278^.

^^ Liber Antiq. (ed. A. W. Gibbon), 105.

*' Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 70^.

"^W. Cunningham, Growth of Engl. Industry and
Commerce (ed. 1905), i, 635, at prices varying from
1 8 to 8^ marks the sack.

^' Feud. Aids, iii, passim.

[87

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

:great part of it and refused.^ It was also stated
that he ought to provide a boat at the Bothe near
the Wathe mouth, the public crossing from
Kesteven, to carry over foot passengers by day
and by night.^

The disturbed state of the country in the
reign of Edw^ard II and the earlier years of his
son is notorious, and Haverholme Priory did not
escape being embroiled w^ith neighbours. In
1 316 a commission of oyer and terminer was
issued on the prior's complaint that certain men
fished in his free fisheries at Iwardy, carried
away his fish and other goods, and threw one of
the canons into the water.' In 1327 John
Bussy of Thistleton, lent., and Hugh Wysman
of Agham and others broke into the prior's
close at Marston by Hougham, carried away his
goods, writings and muniments, and assaulted his
servants.^ Three years later certain men fished
in his fisheries at Old LalFord and Haverholme,
broke the banks between which the water
flowed to his mills, and flooded 300 acres of
his meadow land. They assaulted two of the
canons, a lay-brother, and the prior's servant,
imprisoned one canon until he made a fine of
j^io for his release, and robbed the other of
40s. of the prior's money.' There is no
record of any reprisals, but in 1 330 the prior
and two of the canons with the prior of Sem-
pringham and others trespassed on a close at
Evedon.^

The later history of the priory is quite obscure.
Shortly before the dissolution there were many
manuscripts but few printed books.'

The house was surrendered on 24 September,
1538, by the prior and six canons.* Pensions
were granted to the prior and four canons, the
prioress and seven nuns.'

In 1535 the clear value of the property was
only £jo i^s. lO^d. out of which the net income
drawn from the rectories was jf^j 1 3/. 8^.^" The
demesne lands farmed by the prior's convent were
worth £() 6s. Sd. a year.

In the hands of the crown bailiff, four years
later, the property brought in j^i03 I Js. 6^d., and
included the rectories of Ruskington, Sleaford,
and Anwick, lands in Ruskington, Anwick, and
Dorrington, and four mills in Lincolnshire, lands
and tenements in Staunton, Thorp, Thoroton,
Shelton, and granges at Warborough and Staturn
in Nottinghamshire.*^

' Dugdale, Hisi. of Imbanking and Draining (ed.
1772), 200 (11).

* Ibid. 201 (12).

^ Cal. Pat. 10 Edw. II, pt. i, m. io<^.
' Ibid. I Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 21 </.

* Ibid. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 4 d.

^ Ibid. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 26 d.
' Add. MS. 6413, fol. 9 p.

* Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, 22.
' Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. 233, fol. 58^.
'» Falor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 118.
" Dugdale, Mm. vii, 950.

Priors of Haverholme

Richard, occurs 1164*^

Simon, occurs 1234*'

Odo, occurs 1255 **

William de Walden, occurs 1330 *'

Robert Home, occurs 1522*'

William Hall, occurs 1535 " and 1538 *'

Prioress of Haverholme

Margaret Woodhouse, occurs 1538 "

A seal, attached to a deed [11 96-1 203] ^^ is a
pointed oval, and represents the Virgin seated,
with a crown, the Child between her knees, the
right hand uplifted.^* The legend is imperfect.

SIGILLVM SANT

rhol

The prior's seal of the thirteenth century^* is
a pointed oval, and represents the prior standing
on a carved platform, lifting up his hands. The
legend is

SIGILL' PRIORIS de HAVERHOLME.

45. THE PRIORY OF ST. CATHERINE
OUTSIDE LINCOLN

The Gilbertine priory of St. Catherine, outside
Lincoln, was founded by Robert de Chesney,
bishop of Lincoln, probably soon after the con-
firmation of the order of Sempringham by
Eugenius III in 1 148.^^ The bishop endowed it
with the prebend of Canwick, the mother church
of Newark, and the chapel in Newark Castle,
houses and lands and a tenth of the toll of the
borough except during fairs, and the churches of
Norton Disney, Marton, Newton on Trent, and
Bracebridge.^' There was therefore some justice
in the charge of Giraldus Cambrensis that he
favoured the regulars at the expense of his see.^
He also handed over to the canons the custody
of the hospital of St. Sepulchre at Lincoln and its
property.^'

'' Stowe MS. 937, fol. 146 V.

" Lansd. MS. zo-ja, fol. 165. " Ibid.

" Cal. Pat. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 26 d.

"' Line. N. and Q. v, 37.

" Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 118.

'^^ Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, 22.

"Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. 233, fol. 58^.

«» Harl. Chart. 44, E, 1 8.

" W. de Gray Birch, Cat. of Seals, i, 579.

'* Dugdale, Mon. vii, 969. In virtue of the founda-
tion it became customary for the bishops of Lincoln
to spend the night before their installation in the
cathedral at this priory. Line. Cath. Stat. (ed. H.
Bradshaw and C. Wordsworth), pt. ii, 273, 553.

" Ibid. Norton was transferred to Sempringham,
temp. Bishop Hugh of Grenoble {Assoc. Archit. Soc.
Rep. xxvii, 273).

"Angl. Sacr. (ed. Wharton), ii, 417.

^^ Archit. Soc. Rep. xxvii, 323 ; Dugdale, Mon. vii,
969.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

This hospital was an older endowment founded
by Robert Bloet, bishop of Lincoln (1094-1 123).
Baldwin Wake [circa 1205—13) granted certain
parcels of land to the brethren and poor of the
hospital. The hundred rolls show that the lay
brethren held separate estates.^

The priory was founded as a house for canons,
but it seems probable that lay sisters were soon
introduced to undertake the care of the sick.
St. Gilbert limited the number of women in the
house to twenty, while there might be sixteen
men.^ It is unlikely that there were nuns at
this house to bear rule over the lay sisters,
although in 1 3 14 Edward II requested the
prior and convent to grant to Eleanor Darcy
the allowance of a canoness of that house for
life, having sent her to them at the instance of
Henry de Beaumont.' The lay sisters appear
to have been continuous. In 13 19 Edward II
sent Christiana de Hauville, whose husband and
three sons were slain by the Scotch rebels, to
have her maintenance among the sisters of that
house until she was able to live of her own
again, her lands and goods having been laid
waste and utterly destroyed.* The lay sisters
were remembered in a will of 1392,° and five of
them served the hospital at the dissolution.'

Compared with other houses of the order, the
endowment and later benefactions were con-
siderable. In 1254 the spiritualities were as-
sessed at ;^9i 13J. 4^., the temporalities
at ;£i8o 12s. \d^ At the beginning of the
fourteenth century the profits of the wool trade
were very large, for the sales then averaged 35
sacks a year.* However, the claims of the poor
and sick were obviously unlimited, and in the
fourteenth century it was the custom of the
canons to send out collectors. In 1309 Bishop
Dalderby notified to the archdeacons of the
diocese that divers persons were fraudulently
seeking alms, whereas the prior had only sent
out three collectors.' A few years later he
granted an indulgence to all who should con-
tribute to the fabric of the hospital or the
maintenance of the sick.^" In 1328 Edward III
issued a mandate for five years to sheriffs, bailiffs,

' Archtt. Soc. Rep. xxvii, 266.

' Dugdale, Mm. p. xcvii, cap. vi.

' Cal. 'Close, 7 Edw. II, m. 6d. Henry de Beau-
mont in 1307 received the manor of Folkingham
near Sempringham. {flal. Close, i Edw. II, m. 19.)
He was a benefactor to Sempringham Priory {Cal. Pat.
4 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 27), and therefore in a position to
know the constitution of St. Catherine's outside Lincoln .

* Ibid. 12 Edw. II, m. ^od.

' Early Line. Wills (ed. A. W. Gibbon), 86.

' Falor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 34.

' Cott. MS. Claud. D. xi, fol. 278 v.

" W. Cunningham, Growth of Engl. Industry and
Commerce (ed. 1905), 1,635, the price varying from
2 2i marks the sack to 10, according to the quality.

'" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, fol. 1 29.

'» Ibid. fol. 385.

and others to arrest unauthorized persons who
were converting the contributions to their own
use.^^

There is evidence of considerable activity at
the end of the thirteenth century. In 1285 the
prior and convent got a licence to build a
windmill on the east of the priory gate.^^ A
few years afterwards the first of the Eleanor
crosses was erected on Swines Green, opposite
the gates, as the body of the queen rested at the
priory in November, 1290, on the first night of
the journey from Harby to London." In 129 1
the prior and convent obtained a papal indulgence
for visitors on the feasts of St. Catherine, St.
Gilbert, and St. James." In 1294 they were
allowed to enclose a plot of land for the
enlargement of the priory,^' and twelve years
later to build an aqueduct for a water supply.'^
In 1306 they paid as much as 60 marks for a
royal licence to appropriate in mortmain Staple-
ford church by Norton Disney.^' In 1308 they
appropriated the church of Newark.^* In 1316
they obtained a further licence to appropriate
lands in mortmain to the value of ^^40 a year,'^
but too late to prevent them from being fined
five marks for receiving twenty-one small bene-
factions without licence.^"

The result of somewhat reckless speculation
in lands and wool was apparent early in the
reign of Edward III. In 1330 the house
owed to one merchant of Genoa ^£408 bs. id.,"^
and two years later no less than £()S^ to
several Italian merchants.^^ However the obli-
gations were met, and the bonds subsequently
cancelled.^'

The house suffered from serious assaults
resulting in considerable damage and loss to
property. In 1316 the prior complained that
nineteen persons entered his close at Scopwick,
assaulted his men and servants, drove away his
cattle, impounded 500 sheep and detained them
so long that most of them died of hunger.^ In
1333 the abbot of Kirkstead, two of his monks
and others, took away four ships worth £/i.o
from the prior's ferry at Timberland, and ten
nets from his fishery.^' However not a month
later a commission of oyer and terminer was
appointed on the complaint of the abbot of Kirk-
stead, who charged the prior of St. Catherine's

" Cal. Pat. 2 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 2.

" Ibid. 13 Edw. I, m. 23.

" Arci. Joum. xxxiii, 187.

" Cal. Pap. Letters, i, 523.

" Cal. Pat. 22 Edw. I, m. 28.

" Ibid. 35 Edw. I, m.46.

" Ibid. 6 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 14.

"Harl. MS. 6970, fol. 235.

" Cal. Pat. 9 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 8.

^ Ibid. 10 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 31.

" Cal. Close, 4 Edw. Ill, m. 41 </. and zi d.

" Ibid. 6 Edw. Ill, m. 25 <^. and i\d. » Ibid.

" Cal. Pat. 10 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 3./.

" Ibid. 17 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 19 </.

189

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

with poaching on his fisheries and trampling
down his corn at Canwick.^

In 1303 the prior held a knight's fee in
Houghton and Walton, half a fee in Toft, half
in Pointon, one-third in Syston, a quarter in
Friskney, a quarter in Harmston, a quarter in
Fulletby and Oxcombe, a quarter in Bracebridge,
a quarter and one-eighth in Stapleford, one-fifth
of half a fee in Navenby, one-tenth in Hag-
worthingham, one-twelfth in Boothby, one-
twentieth in Toft Newton, one-twentieth in
East Hykeham, one-twentieth and one-twelfth
and one-thirty-second in Haddington, one-for-
tieth in Timberland, one-fortieth and one two-
hundredth in Boultham. In 1346 he also held
half a fee in Welby, a half in Pointon, a quar-
ter in Foston and Bennington, and one-twentieth
in Claxby.*

The Black Death affected the fortunes of the
house very severely. Even in 1348 the prior
urged that the possessions of the house were not
sufficient for its burdens,' and in 1391 the house
was poor and in debt, labour was scarce, wages
high and taxation heavy, while hospitality and
the care of the sick were serious charges.^ Bishop
Bokyngham accordingly allowed the prior and
convent to appropriate the church of Mere.'
They were favoured just at that time by Lincoln
citizens and county knights, and acquired several
benefactions on the condition of services and
masses." In 1393 they added another five marks
to their revenues by appropriating the church
of Harmston.^

In 1390 the prior was released from the
obligation of collecting the tenths of the clergy
in the diocese,® an office very frequently held by
his predecessors.'

Attempts to economize at the expense of the
secular clergy and their parishioners brought the
convent into conflict with the bishops in the
fifteenth century.^" In 1463 the prior had
neglected to provide a chaplain at Saxby.^^ Four
years later he was compelled to increase the
stipend of the vicar of Alford by six marks
a year.^^ Papal intervention enabled him to set

' Cal. Pat. 17 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. \% d. Final Con-
cords, 293. The church of Saxby was given by
William Foliot and confirmed by his nephew Jordan
in 1236.

' Feud. Aids, ill, passim.

' Cal. Pat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 16.

* Line. Epis. Reg. Bokyngham, fol. 391.
^ Ibid.

' Cal. Pat. I 3 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 4 ; 13 Ric. II, pt. ii,
m. 12 ; 15 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 13 ; 16 Ric. II, pt. i,

m. 34 ! pt- "> "^- 2-

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham, fol. 3971^.

* Cal. Pat. 14 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 30.

' e.g. Ibid. 22 Edw. I, m. 8 ; 24 Edw. I, m. 22 ;
I Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 13, &c.
" Line. Epis. Reg. Chedworth, fol. 8 1 d.
" Ibid.
'Mbid. fol. %ld.

aside ordinations of vicarages and to send canons
whom he could recall at will to serve the
churches of Newark and Mere.-^'

Just before the dissolution the house was
unfortunate in its priors. Robert Holgate, who
afterwards became the last and most unworthy
master of the order, robbed it of a chalice and a
pair of censers of some value, and was cited
by his successor, William Griffiths, to answer
the charge before the king's commissioners."
Griffiths was a turbulent person. He was said
to have been deprived for promoting the rebellion
in Lincolnshire in 1536, and for dissipating the
goods of his house.^' He entered the priory by
force, expelled the new prior, and maintained
his position until the surrender, when in spite of
his conduct he secured a pension of {^ifi}^

The priory was surrendered on 14 July, 1538,"
two months before the other Gilbertine houses
in the county. The thirteen canons were pen-
sioned,^® but the lay sisters got nothing.

In 1535 the clear yearly value of the property
was ;^202 5^. o\d}^ It included the granges
or manors of Harmston, Wellingore, North
Hykeham, Stapleford, Long Bennington, Belch-
ford, Cherry Willingham, and Saxby ; in Not-
tinghamshire, Coddington, and in Yorkshire
Brampton, lands and rents in many other places
in Lincolnshire, and the rectories of Stapleford,
Alford with Rigsby Chapel, Marton, Brace-
bridge, Canwick, Hackthorn, Mere, Friskney,
Harmston, North Hykeham and Saxby. Granges
and rectories alike were let, and the canons
lived on their rents. The cost of the main-
tenance and education of some orphans in the
hospital, of five lay sisters to look after them and
the sick amounted to only j^2i 13^. 4^. a year.

Four years later in the hands of the crown
bailiff the property brought in £,'2.o<) 5^. 9^.""

Priors of St. Catherine without Lincoln

Adam,^^ occurs 1164
Gilbert,^^ occurs 1202
William,^' occurs 1218
Vivian,^ occurs 1225
Hugh,^' occurs 1232
Roger,^^ occurs 1236

" Ibid. Memo. Smith (1496-1509), fol. Sd. Ad
entry of a bull of Boniface IX, dated 1394.
" L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii (i). No. 1 103.
" Ibid. No. 397.

'' Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. 233, fol. jU.
" Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, 27.
" Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. 233, fol. 78^.
" Folor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 30.
'" Dugdale, Man. vii, 969.
" Stowe MS. 937, fol. 146^.
''' Assoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. xxvii, 271.
" Final Concords, 133.
"Ibid. 180. "Ibid. 248.

'« Ibid. 293.

190

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Ralph,' 1245

Henry,^ 1 269

Gilbert,' occurs 1323

William,* occurs 1333

Richard de Stretton,^ ob. 1334

Walter de Shireburn,^ '334

Robert de Navenby,' occurs 1340

William,* occurs 1344

Roger de Houton,' occurs 1348

Hamo,'" occurs 1390

Walter Iklyngham," occurs 1428 and 1435

Richard Misyn,^ 1435

John Busseby,'' occurs 1447

Robert,'* occurs 1 5 1 1

John Jonson,'' occurs 1522

Robert Holgate,'^ occurs 1529

William Griffiths," occurs 1538

Several seals of the thirteenth century are at-
tached to deeds in the British Museum.'* In shape
they are pointed ovals. One represents St. Cathe-
rine seated on a throne with a nimbus, in her right
hand a sceptre, in her left hand a book." Over-
head is a small round-headed arched canopy.
The legend is sigill' ecclesie beate katerine
viRGiNis LiNCOLiE. Another represents St. Cath-
erine standing on a platform with crown and
nimbus, in her right hand a sword, in her left
hand a book, and at the right side a wheel.^"
The legend is ... or et conventos . . .
s. STE KATRINE LI . . . A Seal ad causas
represents St. Catherine crowned standing slightly
turned to the right on a corbel, in her right
hand a book, in her left a wheel, is in the style
of the fourteenth century and of the date 1522.*'

46. THE PRIORY OF BULLINGTON

The Gilbertine priory of St. Mary, Bullington,
was founded as a double house between 1148
and 1 1 54 by Simon, son of William de Kyme.^^

' Line. N. and Q. vii, 41.

' jissoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. xxvii, 273.

' CaL Pat. 17 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. lid.

' Cal. Close, 7 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. \^d.

' Jssoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. xxvii. ' Ibid.

' Transcripts from Rome, 16 (P.R.O.), fol. 2.
Robert became master of Sempringham in 1340.

° Assoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. xxvii, 297.

' Cal. Pat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 16.
'" Ibid. 14 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 30.
" Assoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. xxvii, 304.
" Warton, Hist. Engl. Poetry, i, 265.
" Assoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. xxvii, 305. " Ibid. 307.
" Line. N. and Q. v, 36.
■' L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv (3), No. 6047.
" Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, p. 27.
*« Ibid. Harl. Chart. S7F, 51 ; Eg. Chart. 480.
" Cf. the similar seal attached to the Deed of
Surrender (Aug. Off.), No. 97.
'" Birch, Cat. of Seals, \, 628.
" Ibid.
" Dugdale, Men. vii, 952.

He gave as a site part of his park of Bullington,
and part of his wood and lands on the north and
east of the priory, the churches of Bullington
and Langton, Hackthorn mill, lands for a grange
at Faldingworth, and pasturage in Aldfeld for
600 sheep.^' His son, Philip de Kyme, provided
for the maintenance of seven canons his demesne
land in Faldingworth, the churches of Sprid-
lington and Winthorpe, and a moiety of
Friskney.^ He gave 20 acres in Huttoft for
the clothing of the convent,^* and for the farmery
of the nuns the church of St. Albinus at Sprid-
lington.^' The prior and convent of Sempringham
made over their lands at Skirbeck, near Boston,
for the care of the sick,^' and also granted for
half a mark yearly the church of West Tor-
rington,^* of which St. Gilbert held the rectory.^'
Alexander de Crevequer granted 52 acres in
Hackthorn, and common of pasture for 500
sheep.^" He also united to Bullington the small
Gilbertine priory, which his father had founded
on the island of Tunstall.^'

The numbers were limited by the statute of
St. Gilbert to 100 nuns and lay sisters, and
50 canons and lay brothers.^^

Throughout the thirteenth century the prior
and convent continued to acquire both lands and
churches. In 1248 they obtained a bull from
Innocent IV enabling them to appropriate the
church of Prestwold, worth 65 marks, because
they had to maintain 1 00 women who, for lack
of necessaries, suffered in health.^' In 1254 the
spiritualities were assessed at ;^ioo, the temporali-
ties at £()() y. 6d.^* In 1277 a licence was
obtained to appropriate in mortmain lands, tene-
ments, or churches to the value of ;^40 a year,"
the endowment was increased by small sums
spread over many years,'^ but in 1291 the as-
sessment of the temporalities had risen to
j^iii 5r. 7Ji." In 1 3 10 John Dalderby,
bishop of Lincoln, allowed the prior and convent
to appropriate the church of Ingham, because the
house was burdened with ' a multitude ' of nuns
and lay sisters, the revenues were quite inade-
quate, and great expenses 'which ought to be
still greater ' were incurred in providing hospi-
tality.'* Yet the house had a large trade in wool,

" Dugdale, Mon. vii, 952.
"Add. MS. 61 1 8, fol. 37Sf.
" Ibid. fol. 3 Sols'.
« Ibid. fol. 383.
" Ibid. fol. 393.
'" Ibid. fol. 375 f.

"Dugdale, Mon. vii, p. vi ; cf. Arch. Journ.
xxxiii, 183.
'° Dugdale, Mon. vii, 953.
" Ibid. 953,982-
'' Ibid, xcvii, cap. 6.
" Cal. Pap. Letters, i, 258.
" Cott. MS. Claud. D, xi, fol. z-]%v.
" Harl. Chart. 43 D, 16. ^6 jf^jj^

" Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 70^.
''Harl. Chart. 43H, 35.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

selling in the fourteenth century i8 sacks a
year.^

In 1303 the prior held a knight's fee in
Hardwick by Wragby, half a fee in Ingham,
a quarter of the fee of Croft, Friskney, Burgh
and Winthorpe, one-eighth of another in Burgh,
a quarter of a fee in Fulletby and Oxcombe,
one-thirtieth of another in Oxcombe, one-sixth
in Redbourne, one-sixth and one-fortieth of one
fee in Hainton, and one-twelfth in Lissington,
one-eighth and one-fifteenth in Hainton, one-
tenth in Hackthorn, one-twelfth in Wragby, and
one-eightieth of half a fee in Rand. In 1346 he
also held half a fee in Torrington, and in 1428
three-quarters of a fee in Bilsby and Huttoft.^

Bullington, like the other Gilbertine houses,
never recovered from the elFects of the Black
Death. The revenues from churches in Lincoln-
shire dwindled greatly; indeed in 1428 there
were not ten persons domiciled in the parishes of
Bullington' and St. Albinus, Spridlington.* For
this reason the prior and convent suffered the
church of St. Albinus at Spridlington to fall into
ruin, and in 141 7 they gladly consented to its
union with the church of St. Hilary.' In 1448
they petitioned that their third of the church of
Fulletby might be united to the remainder, as
no rector would accept that portion on account
of its great poverty."

In 1449, just before the Wars of the Roses,
they complained to the bishop of Lincoln of
trespass and damage in ten of their granges, and
prayed him to excommunicate the offenders in
virtue of a bull of Innocent IV.'

The house was surrendered on 26 September,
1538, by the prior and nine canons,* the prioress
and fourteen nuns were included with them in
the pension list.'

In 1535 the net annual value of the property
amounted to ;^I58 js. iid}" Of this sum
;^9i 6s. 2d. was drawn from the rectories of
Hackthorn, Burgh in the Marsh, Winthorpe,
West Torrington, Langton, Friskney, and
Prestwold. All the granges and tenements were
let, and the demesne at Bullington farmed by the
prior and convent was only worth ^^5 a year.

In the hands of the crown bailiff four years
later the property brought in £7^;^^ however,
the more valuable rectories, the site of the priory,
and several of the granges had already been
granted away.^^

' W. Cunningham, Gmoth of Engl. Industry and
Commerce (ed. 1905), i, 635, at prices varying from
22 to 9^ marks a sack.

* Feud. Aids, \\i,passm. ' Ibid. 311. * Ibid. 331.

° Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Repingdon, fol. 1 5 1 1^, 1 7 1 .

' Ibid. Memo. Alnwick, fol. 23.

' Harl. Chart. 43 I, 11.

' De/>. Keeter's Rep. viii, App. ii, 10.

' Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. 233, fol. 134.

'» Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 84.

" Dugdale, Mon. vii, 954.

" L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv (i), No. 651.

Priors of Bullington

Richard, occurs 1164^'

Henry, occurs 1 1 99 ^*

Hugh, occurs 1 2 1 5 ^°

William, occurs 1226 and 1235^*

Walter, occurs 1261 "

Gilbert, 1308^8

Robert Hotun, 1402"

Henry, 1452 ^^

Thomas Ingilby, occurs 1522^^

Richard Bretton, 1529,*" I535, and 1538^*

Prioress of Bullington
Mary Sutton, occurs 1538^

There are several seals of Bullington Priory.
The first,^' attached to a deed of the twelfth
century, is in shape a pointed oval. It repre-
sents the Virgin seated, wearing a flat cap and
dress with long sleeves, and holding the Child
on her lap with her left hand, and in her right
hand she has a flower.^* The legend is sigmum

CO\ENTUS SANTE MARIE DE BVLINGTVN.

An early chapter seal of the thirteenth
century,^' in shape a pointed oval, represents an
ornamental fleur-de-lis. The legend is sigillvm

DE BVLLIMTVM.

A later chapter seal of the thirteenth century
is a smaller pointed oval, and represents a bust in
profile to the left, couped at the neck.*' The
legend is wanting.

A seal; ad causas of the early fourteenth
century is a pointed oval, and represents the
Virgin crowned, and with a nimbus, seated in a
canopied niche with tabernacle work at the
sides, the Child on her left knee. In base, under
a pointed arch, the prior is kneeling in prayer, to
the right.^' The legend is . . . prior' et

CONVENTVS DE BOLINGTON AD CAUSAS.

A seal of Prior Walter of the middle of the
thirteenth century is a small pointed oval, with
an eagle displayed.'"

The seal attached to the surrender represents
the Virgin crowned, with the Child on her lap.'*

47. THE PRIORY OF ALVINGHAM

The Gilbertine priory of St. Mary, Alvingham,
was founded as a double house between 1148
and 1 154, possibly by Hugh de Scotney or one
of his tenants.'^ In a few years the convent

" Stowe MS. 937, fol. 145P.

"Add. MS. 6 II 8, fol. 388^.

" Ibid. fol. 421. « Add. MS. fol. 421, 407.

" Harl. Chart. 44 A, 43 ; 44 A, 44.

'Mbid. 448,5. "Ibid. 43 F, 12.

'" Ibid. 44 B, 1 5. " Line. N. and Q. v, 36.

" L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv (3), No. 6047.

*' Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, i o.

" Aug. OIF. Misc. Bks. 233, fol. 134.

"' Birch, Cat. of Seals, i, 467. »« Ibid. 468.

" Ibid. " Ibid. »' Ibid. '» Ibid.

" D. of Surrender (Aug. Off.), 24.

" Dugdale, Mon. vii, 958.

192

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

possessed lands in Alvingham, Cockerington, and
Calthorp, and the churches of St. Adelwold,
Alvingham, and St. Mary, Cockerington, which
stood in the same churchyard, within the pre-
cinct of the priory, and the churches of St.
Leonard, Cockerington, Cawthorpe, Keddington,
and Newton.'^ Hamelin, the dean, gave three
parts of the church of St. Adelwold of Alvingham,
the fourth part having been given by Roger
Fitz Gocelyn.^ In view of this endowment,
St. Gilbert limited the number of inmates to
eighty nuns and lay sisters, and forty canons and
lay brothers.'

Before 125 1 the prior and convent had
granges at Alvingham, Cockerington, Grain-
thorpe, Keddington, Newton, Cabourne, Conings-
by, and Swinfleet,* houses or rents in Lincoln,
Louth, Boston, and Great Grimsby, and lands in
several other townships in the county.^ Like
many other religious houses they profited by the
embarrassment of lesser barons and knights, and
in 1232 were able to purchase the greater part
of the manor of Alvingham from John de Melsa,
his father and mother, by paying off their debt of
8j^ marks to certain Jews.*

Their claim to two parts of the church of
St. Andrew, Stainton, involved them in a struggle
with Robert Grosteste.' He revoked the appro-
priation made by his predecessor,* but in 1245
the prior's appeal to Innocent IV was finally
successful.' The grant of the church of Grain-
thorpe by Brian of Yarborough ^^ was disputed by
his sons, but the suit was decided in favour
of Alvingham in 125 1. ''

A wise compact with the neighbouring
Cistercian house of Louth Park in 11 74 pro-
vided against that most fruitful source of strife,
the acquisition of lands.^^ It was agreed that
neither house should hire nor acquire for a price
cultivated or uncultivated lands without the
consent and advice of the other. If the convent
of Louth Park broke the contract the convent of
Alvingham could take a third of the land for a
third of the price paid. On the other hand, the
convent of Louth Park could take two-thirds of
the land of Alvingham for two-thirds of the
price. The pact was to be kept in twenty town-
ships in Lincolnshire.

In 1254 the spiritualities of the house were
assessed at ^^56 13^. 4^., the temporalities at

' Dugdale, Mon. vii, 958.

' Misc. Laud MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 642, fol. 10.

" Dugdale, Mot!, vii, 958.

* Ibid, vii, 960. The bull should be assigned to
Innocent IV, not Innocent III. Robert was master
1225-51.

° Ibid. ' Ibid, vii, 958.

' Misc. Laud MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 642, fol. 3 v.

* Liier Jittiq. (ed. A. W. Gibbons), 67.

" Misc. Laud MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 642, fol. 5.
" Ibid. fol. 96.
" Ibid. fol. 96 V. 98. " Ibid. fol. 130 r.

£$2 17^- 42^-'^ The number of small grants in
Alvingham and Cockerington suggests that the
prior and convent were popular with their neigh-
bours, or at least very successful in inducing them
to part with their land. In 1 29 1 the tempo-
ralities had increased to ;^8i 14J. 2^d}*^ The
revenues were considerably augmented by the
sale of wool, which averaged ten sacks a year at
the beginning of the fourteenth century.'^

In 1303 the prior held half a knight's fee in
Newton, half in Keddington, one-quarter in
Alvingham, and one-sixth of another, a quarter
in Yarborough and Grimblethorpe, one-sixth in
Swinhope, one-eighth and one-fortieth in Cocker-
ington, one-twentieth in Tathwell. In 1428
he also held a quarter in Welton.^'

In 1402 Boniface IX granted an indulgence
for the chapel of the Virgin at the gate of the
priory.^''

The prior commented on the economic effects
of the Black Death in a petition to Alnwick,
bishop of Lincoln, in 1448.^^ The rectors of
the church of Grainthorpe had ceased ' for
frivolous reasons ' to pay a pension of ;^io a year,
and the prior was anxious to exercise his privilege
to appropriate the church, which was worth
47 marks. He pleaded that owing to floods,
sterile lands, pestilence among sheep and cattle,
and other sinister events in the past, the convent
could not maintain its wonted hospitality. An
appeal to Pope Paul II in 1465 resulted in a
bull enabling the prior to hold some benefice in
commendam on account of the great cost of
hospitality.^'

The house was surrendered on 29 September,
1538, by the prior and seven canons.^" The
prioress and eleven nuns were included with them
in the pension list.^'^

In 1535 the clear yearly value of the property
amounted to ^^ 128 145. lodP Of this sum over
^^38 was drawn from rectories. The demesne
lands farmed by the prior and convent were
worth j^20 a year. All the granges, lands, and
tenements were let. The Earl of Northumber-
land unjustly held possession of a wood worth
j^io a year.

Four years later, in the hands of the crown
bailiff, the property brought in ^^131 165. 5<:/.,^'
and included the rectories of Alvingham,
Cockerington St. Mary, Cockerington St.

" Cott. MS. Claud. D, xi, fol. zjiv.

" Pope Nkh. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 771, 325*.

'' W. Cunningham, Growth of Engl. Industry and
Commerce (ed. 1905), i, 635, the prices varying from
1 8 to 9 marks the sack, according to the quality.

'° Feud. Aids, iii, passim.

" Cal. Pap. Letters, v, 574.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Alnwick, fol. 77 d.

" Ibid. Memo. Chedvi^orth, fol. 74.

*° Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, 7.

" Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. 233, fol. 27

** Fakr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 58.

^ Dugdale, Mon. vii, 961.

^93

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Leonard, Keddington, Grainthorpe, and Stainton
and granges, lands, and rents in those places,
and at Yarborough, Stewton, South Somcrcotes,
Wold Newton, Clee, Great Grimsby, Swinflcet.
Flixborough, Normanby, Boston, Rasen, Louth
Lincoln, and elsewhere.

Priors of Alvingham

Geoffrey, occurs 1 174 ^

Reginald, occurs 1195^

Martin, occurs 1208 '

Roger, occurs 1229*

William of Freisby, 1232 ' and 1240®

Richard, occurs 1247'

Alexander, occurs 1256*

Ralph, occurs 1267 ' and 1282 ^^

Thomas, occurs 1307 ^^

Gilbert, occurs 1309^^

Thomas, occurs 1307

Gilbert, occurs 1309^^

William, occurs 1317^'

G. de Nesse, occurs 1340"

Thomas of Brompton, occurs 1376^'

John Busby, occurs 1436 "

John Burton, occurs 1465 ^'

Robert Ingelby, occurs 1534'' to 1538^^

Prioress of Alvingham
Joan Barker, occurs 1538 ^^

A seal of the thirteenth century ^^ is a pointed
oval, and represents the Virgin, crowned, seated
on a carved throne, with ornamental corbel ; the
Child on the left knee. The legend is —

S. SANTE MARIE DE ALVINGHAM a[d CAUs] AS.

A similar seal is attached to the surrender. ^^

48. THE PRIORY OF SIXHILLS

The Gilbertine priory of St. Mary at Sixhills
was founded as a double house between 1148
and 1 1 54, by one of the de Greslei family, possi-
bly Robert, the founder of Swineshead Abbey,
or his son.^' William son of Haco of Saleby
and Thomas his son gave all their land in
Sixhills and the church of the vill, and the sixth

' Misc. Laud MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 642, fol. 1301'.
' Ibid. fol. 146 f. ' Ibid. fol. 143 v.

' Ibid, fol. 146 p. '■ Ibid. fol. 130 v.

Mbid. fol. 128. 'Ibid. fol. 142 ?-.

' Ibid. fol. 142 p. » Ibid. fol. 161 p.

"Ibid. fol. 162. "Ibid. fol. 121.

" Ibid. fol. 41. " Ibid. fol. 85.

'" Ibid. fol. 137 r.

'" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham, fol. 144 </.

" Misc. Laud MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 642, fol. 118.

'" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Chedworth, fol. 74.

•" Misc. Laud MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 642, fol. 118.

■■' De/>. Keeper's Rep. viii . App. ii, 7.

'" Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. 233, fol. 27.

" B. M. Seals, Ixvi, 80.

»' Deed of Surrender (Aug. Off.), No. 3.

■" Dugdale, Mm. vii, 964.

part of the church of Nettleton. Thomas son
of William gave the churches of Saleby and
East Rasen. Jocelin, brother of the queen, with
the assent of King John, and of Agnes dc Percy
his wife, gave the manor of Ludford for ;^ioo.
Robert son of Robert [Twenge] gave the
manor of Legsby.^* Doubtless in view of the
considerable possessions of the house, the numbers
were limited by St. Gilbert to 120 nuns and lay
sisters, and 55 canons and lay brothers.^^

Before 1205 the prior and convent held the
manor of Ludford on the condition of a yearly
rent of 10 marks to be paid to the proctor of
the prior and canons of St. Lo at Boston Fair.^*
The prior and convent possessed before 1235
the rectories of Sixhills, Market Rasen, North
Willingham, Tealby, Saleby, East Wykeham,
Cadeby, and a moiety of West Wykeham.^' In
1252 they obtained the right of free warren in
their demesne lands in the manors of Sixhills,
Legsby, Barkworth, Wykeham, Kirmond, Bin-
brook, Tealby, Willingham, Nettleton, King-
thorpe, and Blesby.^^ Henry III also granted
them at the same time a weekly market in their
manor of Ludford and a yearly fair on the vigil
and feast of St. Peter ad Vincula.^^ In 1254
the spiritualities of the house were assessed at
;£66 8j. 8^., the temporalities at ^^loo lu. ^d?'^
Within the next forty years their acquisitions of
land included the manor of Toft,'^ and added as
much as ^{^75 to their endowment.^^ Robert
Burnell, bishop of Bath and Wells, gave this
manor of Toft near West Rasen with the ad-
vowson of the church.^' The wool trade was
exceedingly profitable, and at the beginning of
the fourteenth century the average sale was
1 8 sacks a year.'*

In 1303 the prior held a knight's fee in Will-
ingham, and one-twelfth of another, one-third of
a fee in Tealby, a quarter in Grimblethorpe, one-
fifth in Kirmond, one-sixth in Herdwick and
Wykeham, one-eighth in Hainton, one-tenth in
Nettleton, one-twelfth in Binbrook, one-twentieth
in Helpringham, one-twentieth in Burgh and
Girsby, one-fortieth in Covenham, one-forty-
eighth in Lissington, one-fifty-first in Walesby.
In 1402 he also held a knight's fee in Toft
Newton.''

" K.R. Memo. Roll, 186, inter Communia Re-
eorda East. 10 Hen. IV, rot. 13, on which are many
other charters.

** Dugdale, Mon. xcvii, cap. vi.

*' Ibid. 964, Chart. R. 24 Hen. Ill, m. 4.

" Liber Antiq. (ed. Alfred Gibbons), 56, 57.

>« Chart. R. 36 Hen. Ill, m. 10. '' Ibid.

'» Cott. MS. Claud. D. xi, fol. 278 v.

" Cal. Pat. 20 Edw. I, m. 17.

5' Pope Wtch. Tax. (Rec. Com.).

^ K.R. Memo. R. 186. Cf. n. 24 supra.

'^ W. Cunningham, Growth of Engl. Industry and
Commerce (ed. 1905), i, 635, at prices varying from
1 8 to 9 marks the sack.

»= Feud. Aids, iii.

194

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Among the nuns from 1283 to 1336 was
Gladys, daughter of David, prince of Wales.^
After her father's execution Edward I sent the
little girl to be veiled in a Gilbertine convent,
afterwards making an allowance of ;^20 a year
for her maintenance.^ Robert Manning of Bourne
was living at Sixhills in 1338, when he wrote
The Story of England.^

In the middle of the fifteenth century the
number of inmates had greatly diminished, and
the house was very poor. In 1462 it was alleged
that all the lands and possessions of the priory for
the maintenance of twenty-eight persons did not
exceed £4.0 a year.* Shortly before the disso-
lution the convent suffered from an epidemic
sickness.'

The house was surrendered by the prior
and seven canons on 29 September 1538°; the
prioress and fourteen nuns were pensioned with
them.'

In 1535 the net yearly value of the whole
property amounted to ;^I35 os. gd.^ The de-
mesne lands at Sixhills were worth ;^26 13^. 4^/.

In the hands of the crown bailiff four years
later, the property, unencumbered by a number
of small charges previously upon it, brought in
^168 IS. 35^a'.° It included rents in Kirmond,
Hainton, Howton, Ludford, Toft Newton,
Nettleton, Legsby and Tealby, several mills and
the rectories of East Rasen, Tealby, North
Willingham, Sixhills, Ludford, Cadeby, East
Wykeham, Sawlby and Legsby.

Priors of Sixhills

Hugh, occurs 1164^" and 1174^^
Nicholas, occurs 1228^^ and 1242^'
Simon, occurs 1292^*
John de Henton, 1302-3^'
Richard Wakefield, occurs 1462^°
William Saleby, occurs 1472"
James Wales, occurs 1522 and 1538 ■'''

' Dugdale, Moti. vii, 959 ; Peter of Langtoft, Chron,
(ed. Hearne), ii, 243.

' Cal. Pat. I Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 20 d.
' The Story of Engl. (Rolls Ser.), i, i.

* Cal. Pat. 2 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. 6.
'Add. MS. 6413, fol. 6.

* Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, 41.
' Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. 233, fol. 181.
» Fahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 83.

' Dugdale, Mon. vii, 965.

'° Stowe MS. 937, fol. 1462'.

" Misc. Laud MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 642, fol. 130 p.

'^ Reg. Mon. de Passekt (ed. Cosmo Innes), 19,
401, 402.

" Hari. Chart. 44 A, 39.

" Cal. Pat. 20 Edw. I, m. 17.

'^ Ibid. 2 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. 6.

'« Ibid. 2 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. 6.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Rotherham, fol. 12.

" Line. N. and Q.v, 36 ; Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.),
iv, 83 ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. 2, 41.

Prioress of Sixhills

Joan Manby, occurs 1538 ^'

A seal attached to a charter dated 1245 ^ is in
shape a pointed oval, and represents the Virgin
with a crown, seated, the Child on the left knee,
on the left three kneeling ecclesiastics, and in
the field an estoile and three roundels. The
legend is —

SIGILL CAPI ATE

SIXELE.

49. THE PRIORY OF NORTH ORMS-
BY OR NUN ORMSBY

The Gilbertine priory of St. Mary, North
Ormsby, was founded as a double house betw»een
1148 and 1154 by Gilbert son of Robert of
Ormsby, with the consent of his lord, William,
earl of Albemarle.^^ He endowed it with the
moieties of the churches of Ormsby and Utterby,
and a third of his land in each township, the
whole of his fee of Warlotes, and certain other
lands. Robert, steward of William of Percy,
gave to the nuns the churches of South Elkington
and Little Grimsby, pasturage for sixty sheep,
besides lands in Little Grimsby and Fotherby.^^
Ralph de Wihom gave all he had in the churches
of Ormsby and Utterby. Hugh de Wildeker
gave half, Roger de Clere a quarter, and William
son of Amfrid de Hagh a quarter of the church
of Fotherby. Hugh of Bayeux gave what he
had in half the church of Grimoldby.*' Before
1 189 William de Vesci granted the hermitage
of Spaldingholm in Yorkshire, and pasturage for
200 sheep and a fixed number of cattle between
the Fuln and the Derwent.^*

In view of this endowment the number of
inmates was limited by St. Gilbert to 100 nuns
and lay sisters and 50 canons and lay brothers.^'

In 1254 the spiritualities of the house were
assessed at £^(i 6s. 8d., and the temporalities at
;^ioo 8.t. jd.^^ It seems that the prior and convent
did not afterwards acquire much more property ;
however, they possessed seven or eight granges,
and had a profitable share in the wool-trade,
selling on an average 8 sacks a year at the be-
ginning of the fourteenth century.^'

In 1303 the prior held three-quarters of one
knight's fee in Ormsby, a quarter and one-
tenth of another, half, one-third, and one-eighth
in Little Grimsby, and several fractions in

" Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. 233, fol. 181.

^"B.M.Harl.Chart. 440,49.

" Dugdale, Mon. vii, 963. '' Ibid.

'^ K.R. Memo. R. 186, inter Communia Recorda
East. 10 Hen. IV, rot. 12.

^' Dugdale, Mon. vii, 963.

** Ibid, xcvii, cap. vi.

'« Cott. MS. Claud. D. xi, fol. 278 V.

" W. Cunningham, Growth of Engl. Industry and
Commerce (ed. 1905), i, 635,31 prices varying from
19 to 10 marks a sack according to the quality.

19s

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Fotherby, Kelsey, Salmonby, Scrafield, Hamer-
ingham, and Elkington.^

After the Black Death the revenues of the
house were greatly diminished. In 1352 and
again in 1378 the prior and convent obtained a
royal licence to appropriate the valuable church
of Ludborough,^ but for some reason they did not
succeed. They wrere probably induced by lack of
funds to seek an indulgence from Boniface IX
in 1399 for the fabric and maintenance of the
Lady Chapel.' It wzs perhaps in exchange for
a gift of money and some other signal benefit
that in 1464 the prior made a formal grant of
the right of next presentation to the church of
Welton to two merchants of that place.*

Shortly before the dissolution there were
many manuscripts at North Ormsby, though
but few printed books.'

In 1534 the prior subscribed to the king's
supremacy.* The house was surrendered by the
prior and five canons on 30 September, 1538/
and nine nuns were included with them in the
pension list.* Four other canons held livings of
the convent.'

In 1535 the net valuation of the whole
property amounted to only jTSo lis. lod.^^ Out
of this sum over ;£20 was derived from appro-
priated churches, viz. from North Ormesby,
Utterby, Fotherby, South Elkington, Grimoldby.
and Little Grimsby. All the granges, lands, and
tenements were let, and the demesne farmed by
the prior and convent was worth only £4. a year.

In the hands of the crown bailiff four years
later the property brought in ;^I26 3^. 9f^.,^^ and
included the rents of granges at Utterby, Fotherby,
Little Grimsby, Friskney, North Kelsey, and
two at South Elkington, besides the rectories.

Priors of North Ormsby

Thomas, occurs 1164^^ and 1174^'
Robert Pygot, occurs 1464^*
Thomas Tyesdale, occurs 1522 "
William Robinson, occurs 1533 ^*
Thomas Robinson, occurs 1535 "
Christopher Cartwright, occurs 1538 ^'

' Feuii. Aids, m, passim.

^ Cal. Fat. 2 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 36.

' Cal. Pap. Letters, v, 10 Boniface IX.

* Entered in Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Rotherham,
fol. 12.

''Add. MS. 6413, fol. 5.

'^ Browne Willis, Mitred Abbeys, ii, 121.

' Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, 36.

* Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. 233, fol. 91^.
" ralor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 62, 63.

" Ibid. 59. " Dugdale, Mon. vii, 964.

'^ Stowe MS. 937, fol. 1461'.

'' Misc. Laud MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 642, fol. 130?'.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Rotherham, fol. 12.

'^ L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv, (i), 105^, No. 55 (l.)

"= Ibid. No. 55 (2).

" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 59.

'* Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, 36.

Prioress of North Ormsby
Joan Stokwith, occurs 1538^'

The common seal of the date 1272 is a pointed
oval and represents the Virgin with a crown,
seated on a carved throne, the Child on her left
knee.2°

On another of the fifteenth century the Virgin
is seated in a canopied niche with tabernacle
work at the sides.^^

The legend is —

SIGILLO • COE • DOM ' B . . . . MARIE * DE ' N. .
. . ORMSBY

50. THE PRIORY OF CATLEY

The Gilbertine priory of St. Mary, Catley,
was founded as a double house between 1148
and 1 154 by Peter of Billinghay.^^ He endowed
it with the whole island of Catley, the site of a
grange and some arable land at Walcote ; the
church of Billinghay and the chapel of Walcote ;
pasturage for 400 sheep in the two townships,
and rights of fishing on Walcote marsh. The
number of inmates was limited by St. Gilbert to
sixty nuns and lay sisters and thirty-five canons
and lay brothers.^' The priory was always one
of the poorest houses of the order of Sempring-
ham. In 1254 the spiritualities were assessed
at ;^20, the temporalities at ;^30 17^. ii(^.," and
ini 29 1 these had increased only to ^^34 1 2s. I od?'
At the beginning of the fourteenth century the
average yearly sale of wool was seven sacks,^'
which added considerably to the income of the
nuns and canons.

In 1303 the prior held half a knight's fee in
Brauncewell, one-third in Dunsby, a quarter in
Billinghay and Walcote, a quarter in Digby, one-
fifth of half in Ingleby, one-fifth and one-twenty-
fourth in Hemswell, one-eighth in Dorrington,
one-tenth and one-sixtieth of one in Glentworth,
and one-twenty- fourth of another. In 1401 he
also held one-seventh in Scopwick.^'

In 1338 the house was in serious financial
straits, and Edward III pardoned the payment of
the tenth, ^^5 i is. 3!^/.^* Seven years later the
prior, canons, and nuns again petitioned to be
excused from the tax. They urged that by fires
and murrain of their animals they were so im-
poverished that they had neither crops nor goods
for their sustenance.^' The loss of tenants and

" Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. 233, fol. 913 ; cf. also Deeds
of Surrender, No. 185.

™ B. M. Seals, Ixvii, 24. " Ibid. 25.

^^ Dugdale, Mon. vii, 967.

'^ Ibid, vii, p. xcvii, cap. vi.

" Cott. MS. Claud. D. xi, fol. 278«'.

'' Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 7o3.

"^ W. Cunningham, Growth of Engl. Industry and
Commerce, i (ed. 1905), 635, at prices varying from
19 to 8 J marks the sack, according to the quality.

*' Feud. Aids, iii, passim.

"« Cal Pat. 1 2 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 7.

*^ Ibid. 19 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 9.

196

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

the mortality among their sheep after the Black
Death no doubt greatly increased the embarrass-
ment of the priory.

The house was surrendered by the prior and
two canons on 25 September, 1538.^ Pensions
were also granted to the prioress and four nuns.*

Iri 1535 the net valuation of the property
amounted to £t^^ lis. (>d., of which ;^8 41. lod.
was drawn from the rectories of Billinghay and
Digby.' The demesne lands of the priory were
only worth ^^4 a year.

In the hands of the crown bailiff four years
later the property brought in ;^38 i8i. iid., and
included, besides the rectories, the grange of
Scopwick, and lands and tenements in Billing-
hay, Timberland, Walcote, Digby, Ingelby,
Saxilby, Lincoln, and Rowston.*

Priors of Catley

Thomas,*^ occurs 1245
Thomas South,^ occurs 1522
William Swift, occurs 1535 to 1538'

Prioress of Catley
Margaret Gastwek, occurs 1538 *

The seal, of the thirteenth century,^ is a pointed
oval, and represents the Virgin, with a crown,
seated on a throne, the Child on the left knee ;
on base under an arch, the prior kneeling in
prayer to the right. The legend is —

S' . PRIORATUS . DE . CATTELE ^°

51. THE PRIORY OF TUNSTALL

The Gilbertine priory of St. Mary of Tunstall
was founded as a double house before 11 64 by
Reginald de Crevequer." He endowed it with
the island of Tunstall, the whole of his fee in
the island of Hade, the meadow between the
islands, and rights of common.^^ Before 1 1 89 his
son Alexander de Crevequer united the house to
the Gilbertine priory of Bullington."

Prior of Tunstall
Alan, occurs prior in 1 1 64"

' Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, 15.

^ Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. 233, fol. 30.

' Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 123.

*■ Dugdale, Mm. vii, 968.

* Line. N. andQ. vi, 239. ^ Ibid, v, 37.

'' Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.) iv, 123; Dep. Keepers
Rep. viii, App. ii, 1 5.

^ Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. 283, fol. 30.

' B.M. Seals, Ixvi, 90.

'» cf. also Deed of Surrender (Aug. Off.), No. Jl.
" Dugdale, Mon. vii, 982.
"■ Ibid. 954, No. xii. " Ibid. 953.

" Stowe MS. 937, fol. 146 f.

52. THE PRIORY OF NEWSTEAD-ON-
ANCHOLME

The Gilbertine priory of Holy Trinity, New-
stead-on-Ancholme, was founded for Gilbertine
canons by Henry II in 1171." He endowed it
with the whole island of Rucholm, on which the
priory stood, and other lands in Cadney and
Hardwick to the value of ^^8 iQs. a year." The
abbot and convent of Longvilliers granted their
lands in Kirton for a yearly rent of £s^^ King
John added land in Housham worth ^^3 6j. ayear.^*"
The endowment was small, and the number of
canons and lay brothers was hmitedbySt. Gilbert
to thirteen."

In 1254 the spiritualities, including the rectory
of Barnetby, were assessed at ;^i5, the tempor-
alities at ^42 17/. 5^.^" The prior and convent
increased their income by the sale of wool, which
at the beginning of the fourteenth century aver-
aged ten sacks a year.^' In 1 291 their temporali-
ties had increased in value by over £(i^^ and in
1329 they obtained a licence to appropriate in
mortmain nineteen gifts of land and rents,
amounting in all only to the yearly value of i oj.,
in part satisfaction of a licence to acquire land
yielding 10 marks.^^

In 1303 the prior held one-twenty-fourth of a
knight's fee in Housham, one-thirty-fourth in
Searby, and a quarter and an eighth in Scawby,
and in 1346 half a knight's fee in Hibaldstow."^

The economic results of the Black Death were
doubtless felt with exceptional severity in a house
with such small resources. The prior had trouble
with his villeins, and in 1384 a commission of
oyer and terminer was appointed touching the
withdrawal by his bondmen and bond tenants,
who had banded together to resist him.^*

In 1397 money was needed for the repair and
maintenance of the priory church, and an indul-
gence was granted for that object by Boniface IX.^^

Edward IV released the prior of the yearly rent
of j^5, formerly paid to the abbot of Longvilliers,
as the lands were then not worth more than \os.
a year.^'

The priory was surrendered on 2 October,
1538, by the prior and five canons,*^ all of whom
received pensions.^'

'^ Dugdale, Mon. vii, 966 ; Pipe Roll {V\^e. R. Soc),
17 Hen. II, 99.

" Dugdale, Mon. vii, 966. " Ibid. 967.

'^ Ibid. " Ibid. p. xcvii, cap. vi.

*» Cott. MS. Claud. D. xi, fol. 2782-.

"' W. Cunningham, Growth of Engl. Industry and
Commerce (ed. 1905),!, 635, the price being 15 marks
a sack.

" Pope Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 71.

'' Cal. Pat. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 26.

'* Feud. Aids, iii, passim.

^' Cal. Pat. 8 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 43 d.

'^ Cal. of Pap. Letters, v, 68.

" Cal. Pat. 3 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. 9.

'* Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, 33.

" Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. 233/

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

In 153s the net valuation of the property
amounted to ^^38 145. $d., of which ^^8 came
from the rectory of Barnetby.'' Granges and
other lands were let, and the demesne land of
the priory was only worth ^^4 Js. a year.

In the hands of the crown bailiff four years
later the property brought in ^^56 i8i., including,
besides the rectory, the granges of Housham,
Hibaldstow, and Stirton, near Scawby, and lands
at Cadney.^

Priors of Newstead

William Robynson,' occurs 1522
Thomas, occurs 1529'*
John Orrey, occurs 1535 '
Richard Hobson, occurs 1538'

The seal affixed to the surrender is round, and
has upon it a large ' N ' surmounted by a cross.
There is no legend.'

53. THE PRIORY OF ST. SAVIOUR,
BRIDGEND IN HORBLING

The Gilbertine priory of St. Saviour, Bridgend,
was founded in or before 1199 by Godwin the
Rich of Lincoln.* As early as 1177 he became
a benefactor to Sempringham, and was received
by St. Gilbert into full fraternity.^ At Bridgend
he gave the chapel of St. Saviour and certain
lands and tenements for the maintenance of a
house for canons, and bound them, after providing
for their own support, to keep in repair the cause-
way through the fens called Holland Bridge and
the bridges over it as far as the new dike near
Donington.^"

The history of the house is largely a record of
disputes about the causeway. From the middle
of the thirteenth century the canons found that
its repair was a heavy burden, and on the evidence
of numerous complaints against them they appear
to have ignored their obligations. In 1263 the
jurors before the king's justices stated that the
canons had obtained a papal bull authorizing them
to collect money for the causeway.-'^ With the
proceeds and other legacies they used to repair it.
Twenty years before it was damaged in a great
flood, and since then the canons had spent their
money on buying land. The jurors contended
that with their revenues the canons might very

' Fa/or Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 71.
' Dugdalc, Mon. vii, 967.
^ Line. N. and Q. v, 36.

* L. and P. Hen. Vlll, iv (3), No. 6047.
' Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 71.

* Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, 33.
'Deeds of Surrender (Aug. Off.), No. 166.

* Dugdale, Mon. viii, 969 ; Cart. R. I John, pt. i,
m. 14.

' Genealogist (New Ser.), xv, 159.
" Dugdale, Mon. vii, 969.
" Dugdale, Hist, of Imbanking and Draining, 219.

well repair the causeway. In 1275 it was de-
clared that the lands at the prior's disposal for
that purpose were worth 10 marks a year. He
took tolls to the amount of ^^5, and yet did
nothing.^^ In 1295 the lands at Bridgend were
valued by the jurors at ;^20." It is difficult to
reconcile their statements with other valuations.
The original endowmentwas very small ; in 1254
the temporalities were assessed at ^10 4^. 2(/.,'*
and in 1290 only at ;^5 8f. dd.^^ The canons had
scarcely any wool to sell to add fo their income.''
In 1307 Edward I granted the right of taking
tolls for seven years in aid of the repairs to the
causeway,^' and the grants were regularly renewed
by the crown.'* However, ten bridges were out
of repair in 1325,'' and in 1331 the people of
Kesteven and Holland petitioned the Parliament
that auditors might be assigned to the prior who
took the tolls and did nothing to the bridges.^"
The petition was granted. In 1333 the prior
appeared before the Parliament at York and
showed that the property barely sufficed for the
maintenance of the canons, and the repair of
the causeway was only a secondary charge upon
his house.^' In 1366 Bokyngham bishop of
Lincoln granted an indulgence for the repair of
Holland Bridge,^^and in 1379 Richard II granted
a licence to the prior to beg for seven years
throughout England for that purpose.^' In a
grant of pontage by Henry IV the supervision
of the repairs was taken from the prior.^^

Bridgend probably suffered from its nearness to
Sempringham, as benefactors were naturally at-
tracted to the mother- house of the order. It is
unlikely that there were ever more than three or
four canons and a few lay brothers at this priory.
After the Black Death the house was doubtless in
great poverty. In 1356 Edward III granted the
right of holding a weekly market in Bridgend
and of a yearly fair on the Feast of St. Mary
Magdalen.^" In 1357 he extended the fair to the
morrow of the feast and granted another fair on
the feast and morrow of St. Luke.^°

In or before February, 1445, a serious fire
devastated the church and monastic buildings,
and Alnwick bishop of Lincoln issued an in-
dulgence of forty days to all who should contri-

" Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 388. " Ibid. 224.

" Cott. MS. Claud. D, xi, fol. 278 v.

" Pope Wtch. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 71.

'° W. Cunningham, Growth of Engl. Industry and
Commerce (ed. 1905), i, 635.

" Cal. Pat. 35 Edw. I, ra. 37.

" e.g. Cal. Pat. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 1 1 </. ;
10 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 13 ; 3 Ric. II, pt. iii, m. 18.

" Dugdale, Hist, of Imbanking and Draining, 202.

'" Pari. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 325.

" Dugdale, Mon. vii, 969.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham, fol. ^z d.

"Dugdale, Mon. vii, 970.

*' Cal. Pat. I Hen. I V, pt. vi, m. 3 7.

« Chart R. 30 Edw. Ill, m. 13.

"=Ibid, 31 Edw. Ill, m. 5.

198

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

bute befort Michaelmas to the relief of the
priory.^

At the dissolution the house had become a cell

of Sempringham, and was surrendered as part of
the possessions of that priory on 1 8 September,
1538.^ The prior received a pension of
l2 6;. id?

The value of the property, which lay almost
entirely in Bridgend, in 1535 amounted only to

;^S I J. ii\d}'^ In the hands of the crown baihiF
four years later it brought in ^7 ']s. 2d}^

Priors of Bridgend

John Eveden, occurs 144S ^^
Christopher Cartwright, occurs 1535 "
William -Style, alias Skelton, occurs 1538 "

No seal of this priory exists.

HOUSES OF PREMONSTRATENSIAN CANONS

54. THE ABBEY OF NEWHOUSE OR
NEWSHAM

The abbey of Newhouse was the first of this
order established in England, the founder being
Peter of Gousla, who held in Newsham ' one
knight's' fee of Ralf de Bayeux, and founded
the abbey,^ and Ralf wishing to share in the
foundation enfranchised that fee.' The dedica-
tion of the house was to the honour of St. Mary
and St. Martial, and the date of foundation 1 143.'
Ralf de Bayeux, as well as Peter de Gousla,
received the honours of a founder, being admitted
to the fraternity of the house ; the absolutions
of the dead and other like offices were said for
him as for the canons. William de Romara,
earl of Lincoln, and Elias d'Albini were also
benefactors of the monastery.'

The canons of Newhouse were involved in a
long suit with the nuns of Elstow during the
twelfth century as to the advowson of the church
of Halton-on-Humber. The nuns claimed it
about 11 70, and, in spite of the award given by
the abbot of Rievaulx and the prior of Bridling-
ton, persisted in their suit till a bull from Pope
Alexander III ordered them to molest the canons
no further.'

In 1385 the canons complained of poverty due
to pestilence, barrenness of lands, and heavy
burdens of hospitality. Recent storms had almost
reduced the monastic buildings to ruins.'

Early in the sixteenth century the abbot was
involved in a suit with Sir Thomas Burgh, who
had violently possessed himself of a certain
grange, granted some time before to his father
by a former abbot for protection under a charge

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Alnwick, fol. 57.
' Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, 40.
' L.andP. Hen. VIII, xiv (ii), No. 235.

* Liber Niger and Yarborough Roll, Line. N. and Q.
vii, 20. ' Ibid.

* Dugdale, Mon. vi, 865 ; Sloane MS. 4935,
fol. 49.

' Ibid. 875.

' Harl. Chart. 44, 1, 3 ; 43 G. 23> H- A pension
was paid to the nuns from the church till the dissolu-
tion.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham, 318.

of murder. Sir Thomas, however, declared that
the grange was his right for ' general council in
all lawsuits, which he had always given and
would still give,' and not in recompense for any
particular favour.^'

The house was dissolved under the first Act
of Suppression, the abbot receiving £p.o pension
and the ten canons the usual allowance for
secular apparel, with wages due.^^

The abbey of Newhouse was a daughter
house of the abbey of Lisques, near Calais, and
itself the parent of eleven others, amongst which
Barlings, Tupholme, and Newbo were num-
bered ;^' and this position gave the abbots a good
deal of dignity within the order. They had
indeed to be consulted at the election of abbots
in all their daughter-houses, but they were also
chosen from time to time to represent the order
generally in important matters. There were no
less than five Premonstratensian abbeys in the
county of Lincoln, and it is not surprising to
find that provincial chapters were frequently
held in this part of England — at Lincoln in
1310, 1459, 1476, 1485, and 1495 ; at Leg-
bourne in 1489; at Grantham in 1492.^* As
early as 1279 the abbot of Newhouse acted
jointly with the abbot of Hales Owen on affairs
of the order in Wales." In the memorable
quarrel of the English abbots with Abbot Adam
of Pr^montr^ as to the payment of subsidies
demanded by the mother-house, but forbidden
by the kings of England on pain of treason, the
Lincolnshire abbots played a prominent part. In

"> Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 105.

" Dugdale, Mon. vii, 970.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Alnwick, fol. 57.

" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 105.

" L. and?. Hen. VIII, xiv (ii). No. 23;.

" Star Chamber Proe. 16 Hen. VIII, bdle. 33,
No. 30.

" Mins. Accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII, No. 166.

" Sloane MS. 4935, fol. 49. The abbots of New-
house had also some jurisdiction over the nunnery of
Broadholm, Notts, of this order {Cal. of Pap. Letters,
vi, 159)-

" Gasquet, Collectanea Anglo - Premonstratensia, i,
125-73.

" Pat. 7 Edw. I, m. 24.

199

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

1 3 1 1 the abbots of Newhouse and Croxton,
being visitors for the order in that year, used
their point of vantage for the purpose of collect-
ing opinions from their brethren and concerting
plans of action. A canon of Newhouse, homo
solidus in ordlne et lingua approbatus, was deputed to
receive the confidences of the English abbots and
report them to his superiors.^ The same two
abbots, also in 1311,^ sent a summons to all their
brethren of the midlands to contribute towards
the expenses of the appeal then lodged at Rome
against Abbot Adam's exactions and unfeeling
disregard of the dilemma in which he had placed
all the English houses of the order. Again, in
1346, another abbot of Newhouse was com-
missioned to reform the abuses of the order
throughout England, and received royal licence
to send £^0 subsidy to Pr^montr^, but no more.'
Some similar commission about 1382 very nearly
brought a successor of his into serious trouble.
He was arrested and summoned before the king's
council on suspicion of a purpose to go beyond
seas and ' sue things prejudicial to the king.' *

In 1472 the abbot of Newhouse was censured
for not providing an abbot for the daughter-
house of Alnwick.^ Just about this time * we
learn more in detail of the actual condition of
the house from the visitation reports of Bishop
Redman.

In 1475 there were nineteen canons professed
besides the abbot, but no particular complaints
were made. It seems that the age and
increasing infirmities of the abbot, who resigned
three years later, prevented him from under-
standing fully the state of his own house and
giving a satisfactory report of it ; ' for in 1478
five of the brethren were charged with incon-
tinence and apostasy, and two of these had
conspired to break into the cellarer's chamber
and do him some hurt. At the petition of the
resigning abbot, the abbot of Barlings, and the
whole convent, all seven were respited for a time
in hope of amendment. John Swift, abbot of
Barlings, was elected abbot in place of Thomas
Ashton. He was ordered to increase the number
of canons (then fifteen only, with two novices)
as soon as possible ; to provide the ex-abbot with
a pension, a chamber of his own, and a canon to
say the divine ofEce with him ; and to supply one
of the brethren with food and fatherly affection.'

' Gasquet, op. cit. i, 3 1 .

' Ibid. 32-35.

' Pat. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 35 ; and pt. iii, m. 3.

* Ibid. 5 Ric. II, pt. i, m. zl d.
' Gasquet, op. cit. i, 94.

* The only earlier visitation recorded is one conducted
in 1343 by the abbots of Halesowen and Haganby in
the name of the abbot of Pr6montr6. They reported
a ' state of mutual peace between head and members,
and between the members themselves,' and nothing
which required correction. The house, however, was
considerably in debt (Harl. Chart. 44, E. 15).

' Ashmole MS. I 5 19, fol. 6.
' Sloane MS. 4935, fol. 50-4.

In 1482 one canon was again found guilty of
mcontinence and apostasy ; he was excom-
municated a second time. The numbers had
increased by three. Injunctions were given as
to keeping of silence, ' the very key of the
religious life,' as to drinking after compline,
regular attendance in choir, and speaking in
chapter without leave ; all faults were to be
corrected and punished, and no one was to go
out without a companion.'

In 1488 four canons were found guilty of
going out without leave, and on submission were
ordered to say the whole psalter within a week ;
if the offence were repeated they were to have
forty days of penance gravioris culpae and seven
years' banishment.^"

In 1 49 1 one of the canons excommunicated
in 1478 was declared apostate for the third time.
Another had grievously sinned with a nun of
Irford. Yet the visitor pronounced the tone of
the house generally to be good, and the abbot
and canons were living in real harmony.^^ In
1494 two canons were slightly punished for
mistakes at mass, and another for unnecessary
adornment of his habit and for wearing slippers.
The numbers had then fallen to eleven.^^ In 1497
there were again seventeen, and in this year, as
well as 1500 and 1503, the report of the house
was extremely satisfactory. By the last visita-
tion the abbey was in excellent order, both
temporal and spiritual, and the bishop expressed
his astonishment at the beauty and extent of the
new buildings which the abbot had been able to
erect.^'

It is pleasant to record an improvement so'
marked and so steady during the thirty years of
Bishop Redman's administration of the order,
and that at a time when the monasteries of
England are popularly supposed to have been in a
very bad way. There is no reason to suppose
that the standard thus attained was lost before
the dissolution ; on the contrary, the little we

' Ashmole MS. 15 19, fol. 39-44-

'" Ibid. 69-70. The common phrase in monastic
visitations, 'poena gravioris culpae,' seems to carry
much the same meaning in all religious orders. It
implied separation from the common life of the brethren
at all points : a separate place, with other signs of humi-
liation, both in refectory and choir ; a certain measure
of fasting and abstinence ; and sometimes the offenders.
were prohibited from any speech with the brethren
during the term of penance. Penalties of the kind
are found in the Rule of St. Benedict, cap. xxiv-xxv,
where there is a distinction made between culpae
leviores and graviores. The modern distinction, illus-
trated in the Constitutions of the abbey of Solesmes
(1901), is between culpae graves, graviores, and
gravissimae. The present writer was kindly informed
by the Rev. Dr. Cox that this ancient severity of
discipline is still enforced among the White Canons of
to-day, as he had found from his acquaintance with a
member of the order living in England in 1878.

" Ibid. 94-113- "Ibid. 127.

" Ibid. 134, ISS» '6o.

200

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

know is to the credit of the convent. The
last abbot but one was chosen by Archbishop
Cranmer as his suffragan, and at his death in
1534 Cranmer wrote himself to urge the
appointment of the sub-prior to the vacant post
— his own ' friend and old acquaintance.' ^

It seems probable that at the dissolution the
canons of Newhouse for the most part took
refuge in other houses of the order ; for in 1537
two young canons sent a petition to Cromwell,
in which they stated that, ' being under twenty-
four years of age, they were dismissed from their
order ' when the house was dissolved : as if their
elder brethren had fared differently.^

The original endowment of the abbey of
Newhouse included a knight's fee at Newhouse,
and lands of William de Romara at Killing-
holme and Cabourne, with the churches of
Habrough, East Halton, one-third of Saxilby
and one-sixth of Brocklesby.' Other churches
were granted later. In 1303 the abbot of
Newhouse held half a knight's fee in Kil-
lingholme, the same in Melton and Ulceby,
one-third in Brocklesby, one-quarter in Keelby,
one-quarter in Nettleton, one-sixth in Hard-
wick and East Wykeham, with smaller frac-
tions in Hundon (in Caistor), Crosby, Staple-
ford, Glentworth.* In 1346 the return was
much the same;' in 1428 again almost the same,
with half a knight's fee also in Huttoft.' In
1534, however, the clear annual value of the
abbey was only ^^99 2s. lO^dJ The Ministers'
Accounts of 1536 amount to j^ 1 82 iix. o^d.,
including the rectories of Brocklesby, East Halton,
Killingholme, Kirmington, Glentworth, Saxilby.'

Abbots of Newhouse

Gerlo,^ first abbot, 1143-60

Amblardus,^" occurs 1 1 7 7

David,^^ occurs 1177-83

Gervase ^^

Adam,^^ occurs 1 1 99

Lambert," occurs 1200-03

Walter"

GeoSrey,'^ occurs 1 2 1 9

Osbert," occurs 1226-30

' L. and P. Hen. Vlll. vii, 685, 686.

' Ibid, xii (2), 1 341.

' Dugdale, Mm. vi, 865.

' Teud. Aids, iii, 140-212.

' Ibid. 216-57. ° Ibid. 271-97.

' Vahr Eccles. iv, 74.

' Mins. Accts. (27-28 Hen. VIII), No. 91.

" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 865.

" Ibid, and Harl. Chart. 43 B, 14.

" Harl. Chart. 43 A, 22, 25. " Ibid. Jo I, 4.

■' Addy's Beauchief, 29, 39.

" Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
21.

" Harl. Chart. 50 E, 50.

'* Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Con-
cords, 1 20 ; Harl Chart. 5 2 D, I 3 ; 44 G, 24.

" Ibid. 184 ; Harl. Chart. 52 E, 40.

2 20

Thomas,^' occurs 1242-75

John de Cave,^' occurs 1278-94

Thomas de Hedon,^" elected 1296, occurs

to 1310
Ralf,^^ occurs 1327
Alan,^^ elected 1334, occurs to 1354
Robert of Thornton,^' elected 1355
William of Teleby,^^ occurs 1377-83
Hugh,^" occurs 13 95-141 9
Henry of Limber,^' elected 1420, occurs to

1435
Robert," occurs 1446-62
Thomas Ash ton,^' occurs 1475, resigned 1478
John Swift,^' elected 1478, resigned 1497
William Sawndalle,'" elected 1497, occurs

to 1503
Thomas," resigned after 1503
John Max,'^ occurs 15 18
Christopher Lord,'' occurs 1522 and 1529, died

1534

Thomas Doncaster or Harpham,'* last abbot,
elected 1534

The twelfth-century pointed oval seal of New-
sham'' represents St. Martial, bishop of Limoges,
patron saint of the abbey, full length, with
mitre and vestments partly embroidered, lifting
up the right hand in benediction ; in the left
hand a pastoral staflF. From the left hand a long
maniple of morse hangs down.

SIGILLV - CONVEn[tVS - SCI - MARCIAJLIS - APl'i
DE NEVHVSA

An early thirteenth-century pointed oval seal '®
represents St. Martial, with mitre, standing on a
corbel, in the right hand a pastoral staff, in the
left hand a book. In the field on each side an
elegant scroll of conventional foliage, and on
the right a mullet, on the left a crescent.

sigill' : ECLEsiE : scL : marcial' : d' : nevhvs

" Harl. Chart. 44 G, 48, 49, 52 ; 44H, 10 ; Close,.
5 Edw. I, 7 d.

" Ibid. 44 H, 9 ; 52 D, 20.

™ Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton, 159; HarL
Chart. 44 H, 16.

"Harl. Chart. 44 H, 21.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Burghersh, 285 </. ; CaL
of Pap. Letters, vi, 159.

*' Ibid. Memo. Gynwell, 77.

" Harl. Chart. 44 H, 29 ; Pat. 5 Ric. II, pt. i, m.
21 </. ; Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Buck. 125.

" Stafford, Exeter Epis. Reg. 263 ; Exch. Trans.
of Receipts, vol. 71, fol. 19.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Flemyng, 246.

" Ibid. Memo. Chedworth, 22, 33 d. ; Harl. Chart.
43 F, 2.

" Sloane MS. 4935, fol. 50.

^ Ibid. 51 </. ; Ashmole MS. 15 19, 52 d. fol. 56.

'" Ashmole MS. 1519, 529, 541.

'' Gasquet Coll. Anglo-Premonstratensia, i, 122.

='Harl. Chart. 45 A, II.

=" Line. N. andQ. v, 36; L. and P. Hen. nil, iv (2),.
2698.

" L. and P. Hen. mi, vii, 686.

" Harl. Chart. 44 G, 15. '= Ibid. 55.

I 26

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Another thirteenth-century seal ^ represents
St. Martial with mitre, seated on an ornamental
throne, the sides of which terminate in animals'
heads and necks, beneath a trefoiled canopy ;
lifting up the right hand in benediction, in the
left hand a pastoral staff. In the field on each
side a crescent between a group of four pellets
en losange above it, and a mullet and three pellets
fesse wise below it. In base, under a carved
arch with the foiled openings in the spandrels,
the abbot, half length, in prayer, to the right.
s'eccl'le : SCI - ma .... is : apl'i : de :
NEVHV ....
The borders are beaded.

A small pointed oval counter-seal of a thir-
teenth-century abbot ^ represents the abbot
standing on a carved corbel, in the right hand
a pastoral staff, in the left hand a book. The
field replenished with an estoile of six points
between two groups of small pellets, on the left
a crescent between two corselets, and as many
groups of pellets on the right.

t^ S' : ABBATIS : DE : NEVHVS

An early thirteenth-century seal of Abbot
Osbert ' represents on the pointed oval, obverse,
the abbot standing on a carved corbel, in the
right hand a pastoral staff, in the left hand a
book. In the field on each side a small quatre-
foil.

1^ sigill' : osb'ti : abbatis - et : conventvs ;
n' : neh'

The reverse, a small heptagonal counter-seal,
bears a dexter hand and vested arms, crossing
from the base, holding a pastoral staff. In the
field on the left an estoile of seven points.
\f^ sECRETVM : ABATIS : [d' : ive]hvs
The border is cabled.

The pointed oval seal of a later abbot* repre-
sents two saints standing in a double-arched
niche, with carved canopy and narrow central
shaft. In base, under a carved round-headed
arch, the abbot, half length, with pastoral staff,
in prayer, to the left.

II - ABBAT

55. THE ABBEY OF BARLINGS

The abbey of Barlings was founded in 11 54
by Ralf de Haya,' son of the constable of Lin-
coln Castle, and lord of Burwell and Carlton.
It was at first placed at a site called Barling

' Harl. Chart. 44 G, 47. ' Ibid. H, 3.

' Ibid. G, 27. * Ibid. H, 24.

- Dugdale, Mon vi, 9 1 5 ; Cott. MS. Faustina B, i,
108 d; Sloane MS. 4935, fol. 108. The house was
dedicated in honour of the Assumption of Blessed
Mary.

Grange, but afterwards removed to Oxney, with-
in the same vill of Barlings.* Hugh, Hamelin,
and Robert Bardolf were early benefactors of
the abbey. Maud, the wife of William Longe-
spee, gave it the manor of Caenby for the
support of four more canons, in addition to the
original thirteen. Alice de Lacy, countess of
Lincoln and Salisbury, gave the manor and
church of Swaton.'

In 1209, in a suit with Robert de Montbegon,
the abbot lost the advowson of Broughton
church, but gained that of Tuxford.* Towards
the end of the thirteenth century the abbots of
Barlings and Peterborough had some trouble in
determining the bounds of a common pasture,
and received a licence to divide it by ditches and
other landmarks.' In 1318 the abbot of Bar-
lings, like so many other religious of this period,
had to complain of trespasses upon his property.'"
During the reign of Edward III two abbots
were under the special favour of the king and
of Queen Philippa, and in aid of the re-building
of the conventual church at this time they
were exempted for several years from payment
of tenths.-"^ In 1343, nevertheless, the canons
were in a good deal of difficulty, and had to
petition for the appropriation of a church.'^ In
141 2 it was stated that there were about twenty-
seven canons in the monastery, but its revenues
were so diminished by poverty, debt, and the
burden of hospitality, that they could scarcely
be sustained, and they received an indult allow-
ing them to celebrate 'private masses called
annuals ' in the conventual church at the re-
quest of the faithful who should contribute to
their needs.'^ It seems that the abbey recovered
its prosperity somewhat during the fifteenth
century, as Bishop Redman in 1497 praised the
administration of the abbot, and noticed that it
was in good temporal estate.'*

The revenue of this abbey only, of the Pre-
monstratensian order in Lincolnshire, was above
^^200 in 1534, and it might therefore for a
while have survived the first Act of Suppression.
Popular rumour, however — in this case an excel-
lent prophet — said that the greater houses would
not stand long after the fall of their less favoured
neighbours. Abbot Mackarel therefore thought
it well to provide for emergencies, and placed in

° Dugdale, Mon. vi, 915.
' Ibid, and Cott. MS. Faustina B, i.
' Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords.
° Pat. 1 8 Edw. I, m. 46.
'» Ibid. 12 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 28^, 2^d.
" Close, 20 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 12 ; 21 Edw. Ill,
pt. ii, m. 3 ; Pat. 1 2 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 1 7. A special
protection for life was granted to Abbots Thomas
and Alexander. Pat. 15 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 14.

" Ca/. of Pap. Petitions, \, 29. The petition was
made by Queen Philippa, on the ground of the
singular devotion she, the king, and nobles had to
this house.
" Ibid, v, 545.
" Ashmole MS. 1 5 19, fol. 155.

202

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

the hands of certain trustworthy persons about
^250 in money and ;^I00 in plate, vestments &c.,
so that in case of dissolution he and his brethren
might not be left destitute. When a prisoner
in the Tower, after the insurrection of 1536,
he confessed to having taken these precautions :
he had gathered his brethren in chapter and told
them what was commonly reported, and advised
them to do as others had done ; that is, to set
apart some of their best plate and vestments, so that
they could be sold, if need were, for the benefit
of the whole convent, adding, 'I promise you
of my faith and conscience, ye shall have your
part thereof, and of every penny that I have
during my life.' ^ There will, of course, be
diverse opinions as to these proceedings ; yet it
should at least be remembered that the revenues
of the monastery had been originally granted for
the maintenance of divine service in the abbey,
and for the support of the canons there ; and if
divine service had to cease by no fault of theirs,
the canons might well feel entitled to such share
in the endowments as would keep body and soul
together till better days should come. And
hitherto, at the dissolution of the minor houses,
no one but the superior had received any pension.
The rank and file had been dismissed with 20s.
and ' capacities ' of very doubtful value. How-
ever this may be, there is no doubt that this con-
fession told heavily against the abbot at his trial,
and that the attempt was an offence unpardonable
in the eyes of the king and Cromwell, who had
other designs for the disposal of monastic pro-
perty.

As to the abbot's part in the insurrection, a
good deal has been said about it already, but it
is really impossible now to arrive at any positive
conclusions. There is not a shred of evidence,
at any rate, that he had any connexion with the
murder of the chancellor ; nor does there seem
to be any real probability ^ in the story that he
actually wore harness or joined the host in
person. His own account of his dealings with
the insurgent leaders is very similar to that given
by the monks of Bardney and Kirkstead.
Under threats he provided meat and lodging on
Wednesday night, 4 October, for a large com-
pany. On the morrow, being bidden to join
the host, he refused on the ground of his re-
ligion, but offered to go and sing the litany for
them. By Friday, after news that several of the

' Cott. MS. Cleop. E, iv, fol. 245.

' The accusation that the aiiot was in harness is
only found in Chapter House Book, n8, fol. I.
' The abbot of B. and divers of his canons '
accused by Edward Dymmoice and other gentlemen
that ' they ' were among the commons in harness.
The actual words of these depositions are not given,
and the word tAey may refer merely to the canons
generally. None of the depositions recorded speak
of the abbot as having joined the host himself, though
they dwell much on his ' comfortable words ' and
'great presents.'

neighbouring gentry had been compelled to join
the host, he took provisions to them on a large
scale, and on Saturday sent six canons.' By
Sunday, 15 October, he and his brethren were
lodged as prisoners in Lincoln Castle.* On his
way to prison he bade his servants shift for them-
selves, and save something for him if possible
out of the wreck that was coming.' His
cellarer was let out on bail later to collect rents
&c.,° but he himself was sent up soon after
Christmas to the Tower. He was examined
there twice, on 12 January and 23 March, but
neither there nor in Lincoln ever owned to
having aided the rebels any more than their
violence compelled him to do. He said he
would have fled at the beginning of the rising,
but that he feared for his house ; and denied
repeatedly having bidden the host to 'go for-
ward.' He had indeed promised to bring more
provisions later in another place, hoping thus to
make his escape.' This is his own story, and
the assertion that he encouraged the rebels and
bade them go forward rests only on the evidence
of men who, like himself, were in danger of
their lives, and strongly tempted to save them-
selves at the expense of others. It is only neces-
sary to add that the canons examined told
much the same story as their superior, and that
finally, on 26 March, 1537, he with six others
was condemned to death, and suffered the ex-
treme penalties of the law.' The attainder of
the house followed ; and the remaining canons
were dismissed with a pittance even smaller than
that accorded to their brethren already adrift
upon the world.'

Of the internal history of the abbey we know
little in detail till the end of the fifteenth cen-
tury. It was, however, evidently in good stand-
ing with the order at all times, and the abbots
were prominent among the English Premonstra-
tensians. It was in this abbey that the superiors
of the province met in 131 1 to discuss the
question of their duty to the mother house.^"
William of Kirkton, a canon of this house, was
chosen as proctor-general for the English abbots
of Lincolnshire and the abbot of Welbeck, and
made the appeal to Rome in their name against
the abbot of Pr^montr^.^^ It was to him, there-
fore, that William of Steeping, the proctor who

' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xi, 805. * Ibid. 834.

» Cott. MS. Cleop. E, iv, fol. 245. « Ibid.

' Ibid. Chapter House Book, 1 19, fol. 1 1-13 ; and
L. and P. Hen. Fill, xi, 805 ; xii (l), 702 ; Ibid.
765. The story is given at greater length from the
above sources by Gasquet, Hen. Fill and the English
Monasteries, ii, 74—80.

* L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii (i), 734 and 764 and
xiv (l), 402. The six canons were condemned at
Lincoln with the monks of Bardney and Kirkstead.
Controlment Roll, 30 Hen. VIII, m. 6.

' L. and P. Hen. Fill, -ni (l), 700 and xiii (2), 1,195.

'" Gasquet, Coll. Anglo-Premonitratensia, i, 18-20.

" Ibid, i, 22.

203

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

had been sent to Rome, wrote reporting progress
and requesting further supplies of money.^ In
1383 the abbots of Barlings and Welbeck were
visitors for the order throughout England.^

In 1488, when Bishop Redman visited Barlings,
there were twenty canons besides the abbot, and
apparently there was very little to correct.' In
1 49 1 two cases of apostasy were reported. One
canon was put to penance for incontinence.
The brethren generally were warned against the
adoption of new fashions and unnecessary orna-
mentation of their habits.* In 1494 the visitor
had nothing to censure except the disregard of
these admonitions as to the habit of the brethren,
and especially the wearing of slippers.' In 1497
very high praise was accorded to the abbot and
convent, and the good temporal estate of the
house was judged to be the result of faithfulness
to rule and to the spirit of the religious life."
When Thomas Belesby died in 1503, Bishop
Redman wrote of him to the brethren in terms
of cordial sympathy.'

The last abbot, Matthew Mackarel, was bishop
of Chalcedon and suffragan to Bishop Longlands.
He was beatified, with a number of his fellow-
sufferers, by the late Pope Leo XIII.

The original endowment of this abbey con-
sisted of the vill of Barlings and its church ;
of lands and mills in Langworth, Walmsgate,
Kirkby, Riseholme, Buslingthorpe, and elsewhere
in the county, and the churches of Broughton,
Tuxford, Scothorn, and Bungay, Suffolk.* In
the next century the manor of Caenby was
added.' In 1 31 2 Simon le Chaumberleyn of
Edlington had licence to alienate to the
abbey the manor and church of Stainton.^"
In the fourteenth century the abbey was
found in possession of manors at Barlings, Scot-
horn, Stainton, Revesby, Fulstow, Glentham,
Carlton Wildeker, Middle Carlton, South Carl-
ton, Mumby, Great Carlton, Carlton by the Sea,
Reepham, Walmsgate, and Swaton, " as well as
the churches of Scothorn, Snelland, Reepham,
Caenby, Sudbrook, with Bungay, Suffolk, Middle-
ton, Oxon, and Allington, Wilts."

In 1 29 1 the temporalities of the abbey were
worth ;^I37 1 35. 9^. a year.^^ In 1303 the abbot
held a knight's fee in Carlton Paynel, half a fee in
Carlton, and divers fractions in Mumby, Theddle-
thorpe, Boothby, Dunston, Burwell, Newbold,

' Gasquet, Coll. Anglo-Premonstratensia, i, 45.

' Pat. 6 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 2.

« Ashmole MS. 1519, fol. 70 d.

* Ibid. 94-113. * Ibid. 11^ d.-z-J.

" Ibid. 1 35-55-

' Gasquet, Coll. Angh-Premonstratensia, ii, 118-20.
His predecessor, William Lincoln, had presided with
Bishop Redman at a provincial chapter in 1479.

" Cart. Antiq. H, 20 ; Dugdale, Mon. vi, 916.

' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 916.
"• Cal Pat. 1 307-13. P- 482.
" Cott. MS. Faustina, B, i, fol. 116.
1- Ibid. 1 65 (/. " Pope Nkh. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 70 .

Stainton, Swaton.^* The only considerable addi-
tion at a later date was the manor of Riseholme.^'
In 1 5 34 the clear revenue was £2^2 5x. 1 1 ^d.^^
including the churches of Scothorn, Reepham,
Stainton by Langworth, Swaton, and Bungay ; and
the manors of North Carlton, Caenby, Glentham,
Scothorn, Swaton, Market Stainton, and Snelland
occur in the first Ministers' Accounts of the
abbey, which amount to ;^3i6 9^. 2d,^^ A large
number of bequests to the poor on the abbey
lands were duly paid till the dissolution: ^^iB
to thirteen poor persons every year in memory
of Alice de Lacy, countess of Lincoln ; 6s. 8d.
in memory of John of Gaunt and his wives ; on
Maundy Thursday and the feasts of St. Nicholas
and St. Thomas of Canterbury, to every poor
person who came to the gate, a loaf of bread
and a herring, and bequests of less interest.^*

Abbots of Barlings

Adam,^' twelfth century

Ralf,^" between 1 156 and 1 166

David 21

Akarius,^^ 11 90

Robert,^' occurs 1205 and 1216

Clement,^^ occurs thirteenth century

Robert,^' occurs thirteenth century

Ingelram,^' occurs 1267

Ralf," occurs 1277

Richard of Sutton ^* (or of Hanworth), occurs

1281 to 1317
Thomas of Edenham,^' occurs 1322 to 1340
Alexander of Ramsey,'" elected 1341, occurs

to 1367
John of Kirkton,'^ occurs 1367 to 1396
Hugh,'^ occurs 1400
Thomas Maryng,'' occurs 1403 to 1433
John Spalding,'* elected 1438, occurs to 1452

" Feud. Aids, iii, 1 33-67. " Ibid. 359.

^^ Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 130.

''Dugdale, Mon. vi, 916.

'* Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 130.

" Harl. Chart. 58 H, 4. '° Ibid. 5 1 B, 5 1

«' Cott. MS. Vesp. E, xx, fol. 38.

^ Gasquet, Coll. Anglo. Prem. ii, 29.

" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 916 ; Cott. MS. Faustina, B,
i, fol. 108.

'* Harl. Chart. J i D, 24. " Cott. Chart, xsix, 89.

"" Cott. Chart, xxvii, 60.

*' Cott. MS. Vesp. E,xx, fol. 95.

^'Ibid. Faustina, B, i, fol. 108 a'.; Sloane MS.
4934, fol. 27 ; Exch. T. R. vol. Ixxi, fol. 24.

2' Fat. 16 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 34; Cott. MS.
Faustina, B, i, fol. 1 70.

''" Pat. 1 5 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 15; Exch. T. R.
vol. Ixxi, fol. 25.

"Exch. T. R. vol. Ixxi, fol. 29-31. In Coll.
Anglo. Prem. ii, 29, mention is made of Abbot
George ante 1393 without reference.

^'- Exch. T. R. vol. Ixxi, fol. 3 1 .

*' Ibid. fol. 28, 31-2 ; Harl. Chart. 44 A, 12; and
Durham Obit. Rolls (Surtees Soc ), 105.

^^ Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Alnwick, 34 d. Harl.
Chart. 44 B, 15.

204

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

William Lincoln,^ elected 1459, occurs to

1479
Thomas Belesby,^ occurs from 1478, died 1503

William Forman,' elected and resigned 1503

John Bayns/ elected 1503

Matthew Mackarel/ last abbot, occurs 1529

The fourteenth-century pointed oval seal of
Barlings* represents on the obverse the Virgin
crowned, seated on an elegantly-carved throne,
under a canopy in form of a church with tre-
foiled arch supported on four slender columns,
and holding the Child. In the field on the left
a crescent, on the right an estoile. In base,
under a pointed arch with carved foliage at the
sides, an ox's head to the right, in allusion to the
second name of the abbey.

s' CONVENTVS : BEAT . . . RIE : DE : BARLINGE.

The small oval signet of Abbot Thomas de
Maryng ' represents in a carved border of eight
cusps, our Lord on the cross, with the letters
T . H . O . M . E in the field.

ij) IHESV • FILI • DEI • MISERERE * MEI

A small pointed oval counter-seal of the fif-
teenth century " represents the Virgin crowned,
seated in a canopied niche, in the right hand a
sceptre, on her left knee the Child standing up.
In a small niche in the canopy the Almighty
seated, lifting up the hands. In a carved niche
on the left St. John Baptist full length, in the
left hand the Agnus Dei ; in the right hand a
chalice and in the left hand a palm branch. In
the base, in a niche with round-headed arch, the
abbot, with pastoral staff, head slightly turned to
the right, kneeling in prayer, between two shields
of arms : on the left three cinquefoils, on the
right an estoile of sixteen points.

s' ABBATIS : ECCL'iE : BEATE : MARIE : DE : BARLINGIS

The pointed oval sealof Abbot Akarius' repre-
sents an ox passant guardant issuing from the
left, in front of it a long cross. The legend is
defaced.

56. THE ABBEY OF HAGNABY

The abbey of Hagnaby is said to have been
founded in iiyS by Agnes, widow of Herbert
de Orreby, in honour of St. Thomas the Martyr.^''

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Chedworth, 53 </.; Sloane
MS. 4935, fol. 51.

' Ashmole MS. 15 19, fol. 96; Gasquet, Coll.
Anglo-Premmstratensia, i, 118-20.

^ Gasquet, Coll. Anglo-Premonstratensia, \, 1 20.

* Ibid.

' L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (3), 2698.

« Harl. Chart. 44 A, 16. ' Ibid. 44 A, 11.

» Ibid. 44 A, 12. ' Ibid. 45 A, 4.

i" Sloane MS. 4935, fol. 25 ; Cott. MS. Vesp. B,
xi, fol. 9 </. Her husband is here called ' founder '
also, and is said to have been buried in the chapter-
house.

It was a colony from Welbeck Abbey. John
and Isabel de Orreby were benefactors of the
next generation." Very little is known of the
history of this house, but the name of the abbot
of Hagnaby occurs as acting in conjunction with
the other abbots of the order in Lincolnshire
during the quarrel with Adam de Cr6cy. The
abbot of Hagnaby was appointed visitor for the
English province at least once in the fourteenth
century.^^

Bishop Redman visited this house, like the
rest, towards the close of the fifteenth century,
and every time between 1475 and 1503 gave a
good report of it, both in spiritual and temporal
matters. In 1478 there was not only no debt,
but money was owing to the canons, and there
was an abundance of provisions. It was enjoined
that the abbot just resigned should receive due
reverence wherever he went, and that 20s. should
be assigned to every priest for clothing, according
to the instructions of the General Chapter.-*^ The
order of the house was again commended in 1482
and 1488, only on the latter occasion the visitor
remarked that silence might be better kept in the
refectory and cloister." In 1 49 1 several canons
who were old and infirm had to be dispensed
from certain observances. Some directions were
given as to singing, and it was ordered that the
great bell of the church should be rung at the
elevation of the Host.^^ In 1494 no corrections
were made, except that one canon needed reproof
for not saying the gospel before mass.-'^ In 1497
the injunctions as to silence were repeated, but
this was the only fault found. The cellarer was
enjoined to give in his accounts more regularly.^'
In 1500 the canons were again reminded of
their rule of silence, and certain ritual obser-
vances prescribed, as appointed by the General
Chapter. An infirmary was to be provided.^^

These visitation reports speak very well for
Hagnaby when we remember how careful and
unsparing a visitor Bishop Redman was virhen he
found anything amiss, whether it was mere
irregularity or grave fault. There were about
twelve canons during this time.

No later details of the history of the house
are as yet known. Having an income of less
than £100, it was suppressed under the. earlier
Act in 1536; the abbot received a pension of
;^i6, and the canons, six in number, 20s. each.
There were no arrears of ' wages.' ^^ It was
afterwards stated that one of the causes which
excited popular indignation at the time and
helped to bring about the Lincolnshire rising
was the irreverent manner in which the king's
officers, at the dissolution of this house, took

" Cott. MS. Vesp. B, xi, fol. 19 </. 21 d. 25.

'^ Harl. Chart. 44 E, 15. The date is probably 1 343.

"Ashmole MS. 1519, fol. 13-19 d.

" Ibid. fol. 29-45, 70. '* Ibid. 94 d.-ll^.

"=Ibid. 119^. "Ibid. 127.

'nbid. 154-5.

'' Mins. Accts. 27 and 28 Hen. VIII, No. 166.

205

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

down the pyx, containing the Blessed Sacrament,
which hung above the altar. ^

The original endowment of the abbey of
Hagnaby was probably small, and included only
parcels of land within the county, and the church
of Hagnaby. In 1291 the temporalities were
valued at ^^20 2s. ^d.^ In 1428 the abbot held
only three small fractions of a knight's fee in Skid-
brook, Maidenwell, Trusthorpe and Fulsthorp.'
In 1534 the clear value of the revenue was only
^87 Hi. 4^., including the parish church.* The
Ministers' Accounts amounted to ^160 is. 4^.'
Bells, lead, &c., were sold for ^^109 5i. 6d.

Abbots of Hagnaby

Thomas,* occurs between 1 195 and 1 2 14

William of Fultorp,^ elected 1228

Peter "

Roger of Retford,' resigned 1270

John of Barrow," elected 1270, died 1291

John,'^ elected 129 1

Alan,'^ elected 130 1

William," occurs 1 3 10

Walter," elected 131 2, occurs 1 31 6

William," occurs 1336, 1343, and 1346

John de Wynthorp," elected 1412

John Wodthorpp," elected 1440

William Anderby," resigned 1475

Robert Alford," elected 1475, occurs to 1488

John Boston,^" occurs 1491 to 1529

' L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii (i), 701.
' Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 70.
*Feud. Aids, iii, 258, 265, 297.

* Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 51.
' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 89 1.

* Harl. Chart. 54 E, 9. It seems probable that the
superiors of Hagnaby were at first priors. Thomas,
William and Peter are called priors only, and Roger of
Retford is called ' first abbot ' without explanation, in
the chronicle of the house, which gives the date
of foundation as 1 1 75 and Roger's resignation as
above.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Wells. He is only said
to be ' presented to the rule of the house,' but is called
prior in Harl. Chart. 45 C, 36, and Cott. Chart,
xxix, 72.

'Cott. Chart, xxvii, 65. Contemporary of Geof-
frey, prior of Markby, 1228-32.

' Cott. MS. Vesp. B, xi, fol. 26, where he is called
first abbot, and Alan fourth.

" Ibid. His death is recorded 20 Edw. I.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton, 9,

" Cott. MS. Vesp. B, xi, fol. 5 1 d.

" Sloane MS. 4934, fol. 27.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 241 ; and
Close, 10 Edw. II, m. 28 a'.

'^ Gasquet, Coll. Angl.-Premonstratensla, ii, 223;
Harl. Chart. 44 E, 15 ; Cal. of Pap. Letters, iii, 233.

"Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Flemyng, (>zd.

" Ibid. Memo. Alnwick, 36. The name looks
suspiciously like the preceding one ; it is possible that
the name of the abbot who died was put in by mis-
take for the one elected.

■« Ashmole MS. 151 9, fol. 24. " Ibid.

•"Ibid. 113 ; i. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (3), 2698.

John Hethncs,^' occurs 1522

Edmund Toft,^^ last abbot, occurs 1534

The fourteenth-century pointed oval seal of
Hagnaby^' represents Becket's martyrdom under
a trefoiled canopy with church-like architecture
over it. In base, under a round-headed arch
with arcading at the sides, an ecclesiastic, half
length, in prayer, to the right.

s' ABBATis : ET : coNVENTVs : e[cce] : Bl :

THOME : MATYRIS : DE : PRAXIS

57. THE ABBEY OF TUPHOLME

The abbey of Tupholme was founded some
time before 1 1 90 by Gilbert de Neville and his
brother Alan, in honour of the Annunciation ;^
Geoffrey the son of Alan was also a benefactor,^'
and Ralf de Neville in 1342 endowed the house
with the manor of Ranby.^* Henry earl of
Lancaster granted the manor of Burreth in 1329."
Burreth had been held by the Nevilles, and later
by William Tochet of the honor of Boling-
broke which the earl held. The abbey was not
very wealthy, but it had sometimes as many as
twenty-four canons during the fifteenth century.
In 1347 it was heavily burdened with debt,^^ and
it is probable that the abbot died in the great
pestilence.^'

Bishop Redman visited this house regularly
from 1475 to 1503. In 1478 one canon was
excommunicated as an apostate.'" In 1482
another was found guilty of the same offence, but
was pardoned, on his penitence, at the earnest
intercession of the abbot and convent. A debt
of ;^20 had been cleared off since the last visita-
tion, and the house was well provisioned and
had increased its numbers from eleven to six-
teen.'^

In 1488 there were as many as twenty- four
canons, including novices.'^ In 142 1 they were
enjoined to wear their hoods outside their capes,
and not to carry long knives. Leave to go
without the cloister was not to be granted as
freely as it had been.''

In 1494 the abbot was ill ; but the proctor
of Bishop Redman, who conducted the visitation,
found nothing to correct.'* In 1427 one canon

" Line. N. and Q. v, 36.

" Valor Eecles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 51.

" Harl. Chart. 44 E, 14.

'* Dugdale, Mon. vi, 870. The date must be
previous to 1 1 90, for Gilbert de Neville died in that
year.

« Ibid.

" Inq. a.q.d. File 2 1 6, No. 14.

" Ibid. File 199, No. 92.

" Cal. of Pap. Pet. i, 107.

'' There was a new abbot that year.

'" Ashmole MS. 15 19, fol. 13-19.

"Ibid. 29-45. 'Mbid. 113.

"Ibid. 9S. "Ibid. ii9d'.-28.

206

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

was found guilty of fostering contentions among
his brethren, and was ordered to recite the whole
psalter as a penance. Another, guilty of incon-
tinence, was condemned to forty days' penance
gravioris culpae and a five years' banishment to
another monastery. A third was guilty of dis-
obedience and false charges against the abbot ;
he had forty days' penance gravioris culpae and
ten years' banishment to Sulby.^

In 1 50 1 Bishop Redman was well satisfied
with the house, and his injunctions were merely
formal.^

At the dissolution in 1536 the last abbot
received a pension of ;^i8 ; his eight canons
the usual reward of 20s}

The original endowment consisted of the
demesne at Tupholme and other smaller parcels
of land ; with the churches of Burreth, Middle
Rasen, Market Stainton, Ranby, and Sturton.*
The temporalities of the abbey in 129 1 were
assessed at ^29 ()s. 4^.' In 1303 the abbot
held only a fraction of a knight's fee in Ranby
and Stainton.* In 1346 he had a quarter of
a fee besides in Burreth,' and the same in 1428.*
The clear revenue of the abbey in 1534 was
;^ioo 14J. 10^. ;' the Minister's Accounts
amount to ;^i 37 lyj. id., including the manors
of Middle Rasen, Ranby, Ashby near Horn-
castle, Brocklesby, and Gautby, and the rectories
of Stainton, Ranby, Sturton, and Burreth.^"

Abbots of Tupholme

Ivo,^^ occurs late in the twelfth century
Geoffrey," occurs 1202 to 1230
Thomas," occurs 1276 to 1289
Ralf," elected 1293
William,^* elected 1 3 10, occurs 1 3 16
Roger," occurs about 1348
Simon of Lincoln,^' elected 1349
John of Beseby,'* elected 1373

' Ashmole MS. 1519, fol. 135. The meaning of
poena gravioris culpae has been explained under New-
house, q. V.
' Ibid.

' Mins. Accts. 27 and 28 Hen. VIII, No. 166.
' Dugdale, Mott. vi, 870.
' Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 70.
' Feud. Aids, iii, 139.

' Ibid. 216, 219. ' Ibid, 280, 298.

' Valor Eccles. iv, 36.

" Mins. Accts. 27 and 28 Hen. VIII, No, 91.
" Lans. MS. 207 C, fol. 252. He was a con-
temporary of Geoffrey, son of Alan de Neville.

" Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
36, 124; Close, 14 Hen. Ill, m. T,d.

" Harl. Chart. 45 A, 14; Close, 17 Edw. I,
m. %d.
" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton, 59.
"Ibid. Memo. Dalderby, 153; Harl. Chart.
45 A, 19.
'«Harl. Chart. 45 A, 17.
" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Gynwell, II.
" Ibid. Memo. Bokyngham, 118 a'.

William of Tynton,^^ elected 1383, occurs

1385

John Spalding,^" died 1456

John Coventry, ^^ elected 1456

John Ancaster,^^ occurs 1474

Thomas Sotby,^' occurs 1488 to 1491

Thomas Gryme,^* occurs 1494 to 1509

John Sword,^* occurs 1522

John Ancaster,^* last abbot, occurs 1529

The thirteenth-century pointed oval seal of
Tupholme ^' represents the Virgin, with nimbus,
seated on a throne, with carved fontals and foot-
boards ; on her left knee the Child with cruci-
form nimbus, lifting up His right hand in
benediction, in the left hand a flower.

Legend on a bevelled edge —

^ SIGILLVM j ABBATIS ; ET ; CONVENTVS j
s' ; MARIE • DE ; TOPEHOLM

The reverse is a smaller pointed oval counter-
seal, under a trefoiled arch with church-like
canopy the Virgin, half-length, the Child, half-
length, with nimbus, on the left arm. In base,
under a carved and trefoiled arch with a pinnacle
on each side, the abbot, kneeling, in profile to
the left, with pastoral staff.

58. THE ABBEY OF NEWBO

The abbey of Newbo, between Barrowby and
Sedgebrook, was founded by Richard de Male-
bisse^^ about 1198 in honour of the Assumption
of Blessed Mary.^^

In 1227 the abbot was involved in a suit
with the prior of Thurgarton, Notts, as to the
advowson of the church of Allington. Both
parties produced charters granted by Henry Bisset,
and both of these were declared genuine. It
was not clear, however, which had been made
first ; so the abbot and prior thought it best to
place themselves upon the assize, when the jurors
gave their verdict that the prior's charter was of
earlier date.^" In 1307 the abbot had another
suit in the court of King's Bench as to the
advowson of Kneeton, Notts. He had certainly
made the last presentation ; but Joan of Knee-
ton said that the advowson was appendant to the

" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Bokyngham, 125.

" Ibid. Memo. Chedworth, l\ d. 3 3 ;/.

" Ibid.

" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, 267 ; and Ashmole
MS. 1 5 19, fol. ^d.

" Ashmole MS. 15 19, fol. 113.

" Ibid. 119.^.; Harl. Chart. 45 A, 22.

" Line. N. and Q. v, 36.

'« L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv (3), 2698.

" Harl. Chart. 45 A, 14.

'' One of the justices itinerant of Yorkshire ; he
was a leader in the attack upon the Jews of York,
1 1 90, and died 1 209 {Did. Nat. Biog.).

'^ Sloane MS. 4935, fol. 48.

^ Bractoo's Note Book, case 1 8 3 1 .

207

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

manor, and both had belonged to her and her
husband jointly. At the time of the last
presentation her husband might have protested,
but did not ; and she was then under age and in
his power, and could not. The case, however,
was given for the abbot.^

In 1310 the abbots of Langton and Sulby, in
obedience to a mandate from Pr^montr^, called
upon the abbot of Newbo to summon a general
chapter of the English abbots at Lincoln.^ He
accordingly did his part by sending a citation to
the abbots of Welbeck, Dale, Beauchief, and
those of Lincolnshire, warning them that they
would be required to pay arrears due to the
mother-house ;' but the king's writ of prohibi-
tion stopped the levying of contributions at this
time, and led soon after to the appeal made
against Pr^montr^ at the Holy See.*

In 1336 a general chapter was held in the
abbey of Newbo.^

In 1401 the monastery was almost depopu-
lated by the results of pestilence and poverty.
A licence had to be granted to the abbot in this
year to admit twelve canons regular of the order,
priests or in minor orders, who should be willing
to transfer themselves to Newbo for their life-
time, or until more novices should come to the
house.' There was evidently some difficulty in
finding enough to fill up the vacant places ; for
about the same time a further licence was
granted to the abbot to dispense twelve secular
persons from any kind of defect of birth, and to
promote them to holy orders ; they might hold
benefices or any ecclesiastical dignities.' The
indulgence of the Portiuncula was granted at
the same time to penitents visiting the conven-
tual church and contributing to its repair.* No
doubt some time passed before the abbey
recovered its numbers and prosperity ; but by
the end of the century all seems to have been
fairly well.

Bishop Redman visited this house from 1475
to 1503. In 1482 he found it heavily in debt,
and ordered a full statement of accounts to be
made to the abbot of Tupholme, who with the
abbot of Croxton was to be consulted in all
matters of business until the next visitation.
The canons were enjoined to give themselves to
study, when the weather prevented outdoor
work. All hunting-dogs were to be expelled
from the abbey, on pain of excommunication.'

' Plac. de Banco (l Edw. II), No. 171, m. SzJ.

' Gasquet, Co//. Ang/o-Premonslratensia, i, &.

' Ibid. 8. * Ibid. 9 et seq.

' Ibid. 230-2.

* Ca/. of Pap. Letters, v, 429.

' Ibid. 383. » Ibid. 384.

' Ashmole MS. 1519, fol. 29, 39, 45, 113.
Between this visitation and the next one of the
canons went out of his mind, and the abbot was
ordered by the general chapter of that year ' to put
him in prison or keep him in safe custody.' Gasquet,
Col/. Ang/o-Premonstratensia, i, 153.

In 1491 the debt was much reduced, and all was
well within the monastery.^" In 1494 the abbot
met Bishop Redman at Croxton, and was there
enjoined not to allow any drinking after com-
pline ; canons absenting themselves from mattins
were to fast the next day on bread and water."

In 1497 the visitor prohibited all games
played for money ; the canons were forbidden to
eat in secular houses ; recreation twice a week,
and on Sundays and festivals besides, was recom-
mended, but left to the discretion of the
superior.'^

In 1500 the abbot's administration was
praised, but a canon was severely punished for
leaving the monastery when leave had been
refused him, although he returned the same
night. He was condemned to fifty days' severe
penance and three years' banishment. Another
was sharply rebuked for wearing slippers. ^^ The
numbers varied during this period from eight to
twelve.

The abbey was dissolved before Michaelmas,
1536. The abbot received a pension of £i2f
the six canons had 20s. each, and a novice
6s. 8i."

The original endowment of the abbey in-
cluded the vill of Newbo, the church of Acaster,
and one-third of that of Kneeton, Notts.^* The
church of Allington was claimed by the abbot
at the beginning of the thirteenth century of
the gift of Henry Bisset ; but he had to quit-
claim it to the prior of Thurgarton.^' The
advowson of Northorpe was granted in 1379 by
John de Warrop, canon of Lincoln.^'

The temporalities of the abbot in 1291 were
assessed at ^13 15^. 2d. ;^* in 1303 he held two-
eighths of a knight's fee in Gonerby and a small
fraction besides ;^' in 1346 the same with half a
fee in Allington j^" in 1428 half a fee in
Casthorpe.^^

In 1534 the clear revenue of the house was.
^•ji 8s. lid., including the rectories of Acaster
Malbis (Yorks.), Kneeton (Notts.), and Northorpe
(Linc.).^^ The Ministers' Accounts amounted
to ^129 I OS. 3^.^^

"• Ashmole MS. 15 19, fol. 95.

"Ibid. 119-26.

" Ibid. 136. As to the money, it must be remem-
bered that every canon lawfully possessed 20/. a year
for clothing, and those who held benefices might have
other small sums besides.

" Ibid. 154. It will be noticed here, as in other
Premonstratensian houses, how severe were the penalties
for all infractions of rule.

" Mins. Accts. 27 and 28 Hen. VIII, No. 166.

" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 887.

'° Bracton's Note Book, case 183 1.

" Pat. 3 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 10.

■' Po/>e Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 70.

" Feud. Aids, iii, 144, 147.

'° Ibid. 200, 202, 206.

" Ibid. 336.

"' Fa/or Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 11 1.

^ Dugdale, Mon. vi, 887.

208

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Abbots of Newbo
Ralf,^ occurs 1227
Matthew,^ occurs 1242
William,' elected 1276, occurs 1 310
Ralf,^ occurs 140 1
Simon of Mumby,^ elected 1406
John,' elected 1 4 1 2

William Gresley," occurs 1433
William Bottesford," elected 1436
Peter York," occurs 147S to 1478
John Mownckton," occurs 1482 to 1 49 1
John Colby," occurs 1494 to 1 500
William Broil," occurs 1522
Richard Carre.^* last abbot, occurs 1529

HOUSE OF PREMONSTRATENSIAN NUNS

59. THE PRIORY OF ORFORD

The priory of Orford or Irford, in Stainton-
le-Vale, was probably built some time during the
reign of Henry II by Ralf d'Albini, in honour
of Blessed Mary/ Scarcely anything is known
of its history. There is a notice of its poverty
in 1 34 1, when the nuns were allowed to appro-
priate the church of Wragby.*

A nun of Orford was excommunicated in
1 49 1 by Bishop Redman for breach of her vow
of chastity, her partner in crime being a canon
of Newhouse.^ There are no notices of visi-
tation of this house in Bishop Redman's register,
but he issued some regulations as to. the reception
of nuns here and at Broadholme. None were
to be admitted unless they could read and sing —
and only under the form authorized for use in
the order. ^°

The house was not dissolved, as it might have
been, under the first Act of Suppression ; and
during the Lincoln rebellion the prioress was

required to furnish a horse for Dom William
Moreland, late of Louth Park, to ride upon."
There were seven nuns and a prioress when the
surrender was finally made on 8 July, 1539.^°
Dr. London made the same general remarks
about this house as he did of Heynings and
Nuncotham.^^ The prioress received a pension of
;^5, and her sisters annuities of 405. or 26s. 8d.^^
She and four others were living in 1553) ^"'^
one of them had married.^'

The original endowment is unknown. In
1 34 1 William Roos, of Hamlake, gave the nuns
the advowson of Wragby church to assist their
poverty, and it was still appropriated to their
house at the dissolution.^^ Their revenue in
1534 was £12 19^. 9^. clear, including the
rectory of Wragby.^* The Ministers' Accounts
came up to ^^25 5j. jd.

Prioresses of Orford

Julian de Redmere,^' occurs 1 34 1

Joan Thompson,^'^ last prioress, occurs 1534

HOUSES OF KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS

60. THE COMMANDERY OF MALTBY
BY LOUTH

Though the knights of St. John held a good
deal of property in Lincolnshire at the dissolution,
only a small part of it had come down to them
from their early endowment. They had but
two commanderies in the county (or perhaps
three) before 13 12, when the property of the
Templars passed into their hands. Of these the
earlier was that established at Maltby during the
reign of Stephen by Ranulf, earl of Chester,^' a

' Bracton's Note Book, case 183 1.

» Harl. Chart. 44 A, 9.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Gravesend, Sloane MS.
4934, fol. 27.

' Cal. of Pap. Letters, v, 383.

= Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Repingdon, 22.

= Ibid. 67 d.

' Dugdale, Man. vi, 936.

'Pat. 15 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 47 ; Line. Epis. Reg,
Memo. Bek, J^d.

'Ashmole MS. 15 19, fol. 94-113-

'" Ibid. 37.

" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 835-6.

2 20

considerable benefactor of many religious houses
in Lincolnshire,

This commandery does not, however, seem to
have been a very large one. Its master was
accused in 1275 of unjustly citing his men
before the warden of the hospital in London, and
of wearying them out with trouble and expenses
until they were willing to do whatever he

" Addy's Beouchlef, 22.
" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Alnwick, 29, 3 1 .
" Ashmole MS. 1519, fol. 5-21.
" Ibid. 29 a'. 95.
" Ibid. 119-54.
" Line. N. and Q. v, 36.
'» L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv (3), 2698.
Gasquet, Hen. Fill and the English Monasteries, ii>

60.

"• L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv (i), 1235.
'' Wright, Suppression of Monasteries, 213.
^ L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv (i), 1280.
" Exch. Accts. bdle. 76, No. 26.
" Pat. 15 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 47.
^' Falor Eccks. (Rec. Com.), iv, 78.
^' Close, 15 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 42 d.
'' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv (i), 1280.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

pleased. He was accused at the same time of
appropriating a free warren in Tathwell.^

In 1338 there was still a ' Bailiwick ' at Maltby,
having a squire as preceptor, and with him two
brethren, a knight, and a squire ; there were
three corrody-holders as well, dependent upon
the revenue of the commandery, which amounted
to 174 mks. 6s. 8d., and the expenses of the
house and hospitality, and other outgoings being
75 mks. 6s. 6d., there were 99 mks. 10^. 2d.
clear, to pay into the common treasury.^

The smaller commandery at Skirbeck was, it
is supposed, afterwards united with that of Maltby.

The original endowment seems to have in-
cluded the parish church of Maltby, with lands
at Maltby and Tathwell, and half a knight's fee
at Rauceby.^ At the dissolution the preceptory
of Maltby, with the advowson of churches and
of the chapel of Skirbeck, was valued at £24-*

Preceptor of Maltby
William de Hambleton," occurs 1338.

61. THE COMMANDERY OF SKIR-
BECK

The commandery or bailiwick of Skirbeck is
said to have been founded originally as an ordinary
hospital, and to have been handed over to the
hospitallers about 1 230 by Sir Thomas Moulton.'
In 1338 twenty poor people were maintained in
the infirmary ; there was a preceptor in charge,
and a chaplain to serve the house. It was

stated at that time that the endowment of the
bailiwick consisted of the manor of Skirbeck
only, with the chapel of the manor, and of Win-
stow (then let to farm) ; that its revenues amounted
only to 126 mks. 11/. 7fd., of which 118 mks.
11/. S^d. went in expenses and the support of
twenty poor according to the ordination of the
lord of Moulton, the founder of the house ; and
that it had been difEcult even to raise sufficient
for this during the last sixteen years, because
of severe inundations.' There were two corrody-
holders attached to the house, both chaplains. It
seems that the revenue had already diminished, if
it had really a few years before sustained four
priests as well as the twenty poor in the infirmary
and relieved as many as forty who came every day
to the gate.^" As time went on, and the value of
land became still less after the great pestilence,
this house apparently ceased to have a separate
existence, and became merged in the preceptory
of Maltby."

The only preceptor whose name survives is
John of Steeping, who occurs 1338.^^

62. THE COMMANDERY OF LINCOLN

In a charter dated 1257 ^' mention is made of
a house which was of the fee of the hospitallers
of Lincoln. This would seem to imply the
existence of a bailiwick or commandery there at
the beginning of the thirteenth century, but if
this is correct, it had ceased to be when the
survey of 1338 was taken.

HOUSES OF KNIGHTS TEMPLARS

63. THE PRECEPTORY OF WIL-
LOUGHTON

This preceptory was founded by Roger de
Builli during the reign of Stephen.' Simon de
Cancy was a benefactor of the same period, as
were also William de Romara, earl of Lincoln,
and his half-brother Ranulf earl of Chester ;
Hugh of Bayeux, Robert of Boulogne, Simon de
Vere, Robert de Roose, Alan d'Avenel, all added
something to the original endowment.* It seems

' Hutiii. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 336. Only the accusa-
tion is entered, as is usual on the Hundred Rolls ;
it may or may not have been true. There is nothing
to show.

' L. B. Larking, Knights Hospitallers, 59.

' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 835 ; Hund. R. (Rec. Com.),
i, 278 ; Larking, Knights Hospitallers, 57.

■* Mins. Accts. London and Middlesex, 31 and 32
Hen. Vm, No. 114.

' L. B. Larking, Knights Hospitallers, 57.

* Dugdale, Mon. vi, 804. The original dedication
is said to have been to St. Leonard.

' Ibid, and 835-6. From John Stillingflete's book.

^ Ibid.

probable that the manor of Mere formed only a
part of the endowment of this house, and did
not support a separate preceptory ; there was
not even a camera there in 1338, at which date
it merely occurs as a member of Willoughton.^^
In 1275 the brethren of this house were
accused of extending their rights without full
warrant, to the damage of the king and of the
country-side. They had made the floodgate on
their property at Bracebridge smaller than it
ought to be.^* They had impeded the flow of
water at Grimsby, raised a wall on the king's
highway, and kept a free guesthouse there, pay-
ing no tallages.^^

' L. B. Larking, Knights Hospitallers, 60.

" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 804.

" It was granted probably as parcel of the pre-
ceptory of Maltby to Charles duke of Suffolk in 1 542
(L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xvii, 137 [22]).

" L. B. Larking, Knights Hospitallers, 60.

" Cal. of Chart. R. I, 460.

" L. B. Larking, Knights Hospitallers (Camden Soc),
144-51.

'^ Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 287.

" Ibid. 292 and 401-2.

210

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

In 13 12, when the order was suppressed, and
the lands of the Templars taken into the king's
hands, the corrody- holders were placed for a
time under the charge of a warden.' By 1338,
however, the preceptory had passed to the Knights
Hospitallers, and was held by a preceptor, who
was also its chaplain, with a squire as his com-
panion ; there were then three corrody-holders.^
There were two small camerae or cells of this
house at Horkstow and Bottesford at this time,'
but by the dissolution their revenues had been
merged in those of the preceptory.

In 1 41 5 the preceptories of Willoughton and
Eagle were under the charge of the same brother,*
but at the dissolution they again had separate
rulers.

The original endowment of the house was
considerable, including nearly the whole of the
vill of Willoughton, with a moiety of the advow-
son of the church, the churches of Hareby, Goul-
ceby, Thorpe, Bottesford, and Gainsborough, with
lands at Cawkwell, Goulceby, Hareby, Kirkby,
Bottesford, Bracebridge, Caenby, and Grimsby.'
In 1338, when the house came to the Hospitallers,
it still held the churches of Gainsborough, Goulce-
by, Thorpe-in-the-Fallows, and half Willough-
ton, with lands at Cawkwell, Thorpe, Ingham,
Cabourn, Limber, Saxby, Mere, Waddington,
East Keal, Claxby, Thimbleby, Gainsborough,
and Walcote, valued at ^£284 3J. 5^/., and charged
with reprisals, amounting to ^^82 lOi. 8^^.*

In 1534 the clear income was £\1 \ \\s. ijd.,
including the churches of Gainsborough, Goulce-
by, Horkstow, and half Willoughton. Alms were
daily distributed to the poor at the door and in the
hall of the preceptory to the value of ;ri 3 6s. SdJ

Preceptors of Willoughton

Thomas de Thurmeston,* occurs 1338
Henry Crownhall,^ occurs 1 41 4
John Sutton,'" occurs 1534

64. THE PRECEPTORY OF EAGLE

The preceptory of Eagle is said to have been
founded by King Stephen, who presented the
manor on which it was built to the Templars.''

This house also passed to the Hospitallers in
1312 ; a preceptor and a chaplain were living

' Close, 6 Edw. II, m. 12 and 7.

' L. B. Larking, Knights Hospitallers (Camden Sec),

I +4-5 J-
Mbid. 116.

* Cal. of Pap. Letters, vi, 354.
'' Dugdale, Mon. ii, 835-6.

* L. B. Larking, Knights Hospitallers, 144-51.
' Falor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 137.

* L. B. Larking, Knights Hospitallers, 144.
' Cal. of Pap. Letters, vi, 354.

■° Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 137. Preceptor also
of Beverley, Yorks. {L. and P. Hen. VIII, vii, 620).
" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 835.

here in 1338.'^ About twenty years later the
administration of Eagle, Temple Bruer, and
Beverley (Yorks.), were committed to one knight,
John of Anlaby, by the general chapter of the
order ; but he was afterwards despoiled of this
office by the prior of the hospital, whereupon he
appealed to the pope. The causes of the diffi-
culty are not stated in the petition made in

1359"

It seems to have been a common thing as time
went on to put one commander or preceptor in
charge of two or three houses of the order ; in
141 5 Willoughton and Eagle are thus coupled
together.'* Shortly before the dissolution the
title, ' Bailiff of the Eagle,' seems to have been
little more than a title of honour, not implying
residence at the commandery, which was left
in charge of a steward, or farmer."

The original endowment included the manor
of Eagle, with the churches of Eagle, Swinderby,
and Scarle ; lands at Mere were either given at
the same time or added afterwards.'^ In 1338
the revenue was ;ri22 lis. 10^., the expenses
j^55 1 8 J. ^d., leaving 100 marks to the treasury
from the manor of Eagle, the churches of Eagle
and Swinderby, and lands." At the dissolution the
preceptory of the ' Olde Eagle,' with the manors
of Old Eagle, North Scarle, and Swinderby, and
the rectory of Swinderby, was valued at i ooj. 2d}^

Preceptors or Bailiffs of Eagle

Robert Cort,'° occurs 1338
John of Anlaby,^" occurs 1359
Henry Crownhall,^' occurs 141 5
William Langstrother,^^ occurs about 1454
John Babington,^' died 1534

65. THE PRECEPTORY OF
ASLACKBY

This preceptory was founded early in the reigra
of Henry II ; for Hubert of Rye presented tO'
the Templars the church of Aslackby with its
chapel ' in the year when Thomas archbishop

" L. B. Larking, Knights Hospitallers (Camden Soc),
157-

" Cal of Pap. Pet. i, 347.

" Cal. of Pap. Letters, vi, 345.

"The ' bayleage of the Egyl' is called one of the
'dignities of our nation' in 1539, by Sir Giles Russell,
who was then turcopolier ; and seems to have been
held jointly with the commandery of Temple Bruer,
Dalby, Rothley, &c. (L. and P. Hen. VIII, vii, 620,
and xiv (2), 625).

''^ Dugdale, Mon. ii, 835.

"L. B. Larking, Knights Hospitallers, 157.

"Mins. Accts. Line. 38 Hen. VIII, i Edw. VI,
No. 37, m. 30.

"'L. B. Larking, Knights Hospitallers, 157.

"'Cal.ofPap.Pet.{,ii^j.

"' Cal. of Pap. Letters, vi, 354.

^^D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 14; 1-74. fol 21

''L.andP.Hen.Vin,v\,6io.

211

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

of Canterbury departed from the king at North-
ampton ; ' ^ that is to say, in 1 1 64. Margaret
de Percy was also a benefactress of the house,^
and so was John le Mareschall in 1 1 94.^

The Templars here were accused in 1275 of
holding lands in Rippingale to the prejudice of
the king, and of withholding sheriff's aid in
Dowsby and Rippingale and Gautby.^

The house was taken into the king's hands in
131 2,' but was never made into a new com-
mandery by the Hospitallers. They held at
Aslackby in 1338 a capital messuage, 2 carucates
of land and a church, which were farmed to
Henry de la Dale, secretary to the Earl of
Lancaster.' This property was afterwards made
part of the endowment of Temple Bruer.'

66. THE PRECEPTORY OF SOUTH
WITHAM

The Templars seem to have had a small
house here, with the advowson of a moiety of
the parish church, for it was taken into the king's
hands in 131 2 as part of the possessions of the
order.* It was then charged with one corrody.^
The Hospitallers probably could not afford to
support a commandery here ; they held in 1338
a messuage, 8 carucates, and a moiety of the
parish church, which was farmed to Sir Richard
de Ty,^" and eventually the bailiwick was merged
in the preceptory of Temple Bruer.^^

67. THE PRECEPTORY OF TEMPLE

BRUER

The preceptory of Temple Bruer was founded
late in the reign of Henry II ^^ by William of
Ashby, who was admitted soon afterwards into
the fraternity of the house, and increased the
original endowment before his death.^' Other

' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 835. Stillingflete's Book adds
• nota quod verba sic continentur in Carta eiusdem
Huberti.'

'Ibid. 827 and 835.

' Ibid. 800 (from Tanner).

*Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 253, 255.

' Close, 6 Edvif. II, m. 25 and m. 9. The house
was then charged with two corrodies and a pension
to the prior of Belvoir.

^ L. B. Larking, Knights Hospitallers, 1 60.

'In 1 4 1 5 John Seyvill was master of the house of
Temple Bruer and Aslackby, and in 1543 Aslackby is
mentioned as part of Temple Bruer commandery
(L. and P. Hen. VUl), xviii (l), 982, p. 546).

* Close, 6 Edw. II, m. 25. Stillingflete gives it the
endowments of Aslackby, which is obviously incorrect.

» Ibid.

'° L. B. Larking, Knights Hospitallers, 1 60.

" L. and P. Hen. Fill, xix (l), 646, and Mins. Accts.
Line. 38 Hen. VIII, I Edw. VI, No. 37.

'^ Sloane MS. 4937, fol. 73, contains a reference
to a charter of Hen. II granting a market to the
brethren here.

" Ibid. 6j, 76. William granted the church in
1195.

benefactors were Maud deCauz, John d'Eyncourt,
Robert of Everingham, William de Vescy, Gilbert
of Ghent, &c.^* The house seems to have been
of considerable size and importance ; the brethren
were allowed to crenellate the great gate in
1306,^' and in 1312 there were nine corrody-
holders dependent upon its revenues for support.^^

In 1338 the hospitallers had established a
commandery of their order at Temple Bruer ;
it was under the same preceptor as the house at
Eagle, and there was a squire also in residence.^'

During the reign of Henry VI Thomas de la
Laund made an effort to recover the church of
Ashby from the Hospitallers, by virtue of his
descent from those who granted it originally to
the Templars, but died before he could prove his
case.-'* In 1493, however, Thomas de la Launde
began a fresh suit as to Ashby Heath, alleging
that the commander, Sir John Boswell, 'by
reason of his great might and power,' had
enfeoffed his own bastard son, William Boswell,
with a part of it, which was the lawful in-
heritance of Thomas.^^ In 1503, however, it
was held by the new commander. Sir Thomas
Newport, who claimed that it was part of the
original estates of his commandery.^" The suit
was still going on in 1 5 3 1 .^^

At the death of Sir John Babington in 1534 ^^
Sir Giles Russell was made commander, being
at that time lieutenant-turcopolier of the
order. His letters show that he did not reside
at Temple Bruer ; but finding that the house
was in a ruinous condition he made some
effort to get it repaired and put in a better con-
dition.^' In 1539 he was made turcopolier,
being at the time in Malta, on business of the
order ; ^* so that he probably saw little of his
commandery before its dissolution in I54i.

The original endowment included lands in
Ashby, with the parish church and pasturage
for sheep; lands at Rowston, Heckington,
Burton, and elsewhere, with the church of

"Dugdale, Mon. vi, 835 ; and Hund. R. (Rec.
Com.), i, 242.

" Sloane MS. 4937, fol. 74.

" These corrodies vary with the amount granted to
the brethren by the corrody-holder. Some have zd.
a day for food, others ■^d. ; one has food and 5/.
wages for a groom as well as himself, and an ' old
garment of the brethren at Christmas ' ; a woman
(Alice, daughter of Robert of Swinesthorpe) was to
receive for life seven white loaves, three esquire's
loaves, five flagons of the best beer, five dishes of
meat and fish every week (and an extra dish on the
principal feasts), three stone of cheese yearly, and an
old garment of the brethren at Christmas (Close,
6 Edw. II, m. 25).

'^L. B. Larking, Knights Hospitallers, 154-6.

'^ Sloane MS. 4937, fol. 76.

''Ibid. 78.

=° Ibid. 80. "Ibid. 85.

''■L. and P. Hen. Vlll, vii, 620.

*'Ibid. xiv (2), 62, 404-5.

^'Ibid. 625.

212

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Rowston,' and possibly others besides,^ were
granted by benefactors of the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries. In 1338 the revenue of the
house was ;^i 7 7 "]!. ^d., including the churches
of Ashby and Rowston, the free chapel of Bruere,
with lands at Bruere, Rowston, Wellingore,
Ashby, Brauncewell, and North Kirkby ; the
expenses were ^84 os. 2d? The clear value of
the house at the dissolution was £\b igs. lo^d.,
including the bailiwick of South Witham and
the farm of half the rectory and the grange of
Holme in Heckington, with perquisites of a
court.*

Preceptors or Commanders of Temple
Bruer

John Wolf,' occurs 1221
Robert Cort,° occurs 1338
John Seyvill,' occurs 14 1 5

John Boswell," occurs 1493

Thomas Newport," occurs 1503

John Babington,i'= occurs 1531, died 1534

Giles Russell," last commander, occurs 1539

The fifteenth-century seal of the preceptor of
Temple Bruer " is a pointed oval representing a
castle elaborately designed, with outer wall of
masonry embattled, circular keep embattled, and
on it an Agnus Dei, reguardant.

gencie hospitalis.

Another pointed oval seal of the fifteenth
century " is similar in design, but the details are
differently executed. In the topmost tower is
a niche or window in which is a bell.

siGiLLV : indulgencie : tri :

SANCT : PETRI.

This seal was used by two of the brethren as
procurators of the indulgence in 141 4.

FRIARIES

68. THE AUSTIN FRIARS OF BOSTON

The king having licensed the Austin Friars
1 January, 13 16-17, to acquire five acres of land
in Boston to build a house,* they obtained in
part satisfaction of this grant a messuage con-
taining I a. ir. of land from Andrew son of
Robert atte Gote, or Gotere, in 1318,^ 2a. ir.
from John de la Gotere in 1327,^° and a messu-
age containing half an acre from John de Multon,
parson of the church of Skirbeck, and John Mosse
of Leek in 1342.^^ Thomas deWike and others
gave them three acres in Boston in 1361.^^^
There were twenty friars here in 1328.^^

'Sloane MS. 4937, fol. 6y, 76 ; HunJ. R. (Rec.
Com.), i, 242 ; Dugdale, Man. vi, 835.

' Stillingflete's lists of benefactions to the temple
and the hospital are so arranged that it is difficult to
Icnow how to divide them among the preceptories.
The names of several Lincolnshire churches follow
the benefactions to Temple Bruer ; but they are not
included in its revenues in 1338.

'L. B. Larking, Knights Hospitallers, 154-6.

'Mins. Accts. Line. 38 Hen. VIII, i Edw. VI,
No. 37, m. 31.

'Sloane MS. 4937, fol. 70.

'L. B. Larking, Knights Hospitallers, 154.

' Cal. of Pap. Letters, vi, 354.

" Pat. 10 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 34. The king asked
for papal confirmation of the grant 4 April, 1 3 19.
Rot. Rom. 12 Edw. II, m. 8. The house is said to
have been founded by one of the Tilney family.
P. Thompson, Hist, of Boston, 3 ; Leland, Collec-
tanea, i, 122 ; cf. Gibbons, Early Line. Wills, 83.

* Ibid. 2 Edw. II, pt. i, m. I ; 12 Edw. II, pt. ii,
m. 16 ; Inq. a.q.d. 1 30 (8).
'" Ibid. I Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 26.
" Ibid. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. I ; Inq. a.q.d. 258

'Mbid. 25 Edw. Ill, pt. 1, m. 17; Inq. a.q.d.
34 Edw. Ill, 25.
" P.R.O. Exch. Accts. bdle. 383, No. 14.

Legacies were left them by Sir Henry Asty,
kt., justice of the Common Bench (1383),
John de Ravenser, rector of Algarkirk (1385),
William de Thimelby (1385), William de
Waltham, canon of York, &c. (141 6), Ralph
Lord Cromwell (15 11), John Chove of Fleet,
Edward Hevyn of Tattershall (151 1), William
Bornett of Alford (1525), and others.-"

Leland notes that he was unable to visit the
library of this friary on account of the pestilence
there raging.^^

In January, 1539, ^^^ Black, White, and
Austin Friars were in great straits, ' piteously
lamenting their poverty, and knowing not how
to live till their houses be surrendered. The
devotion of the people is clean gone, their plate
and implements sold, so they have nothing left
but the lead,' which they would have plucked
down and sold too if they had not been pre-
vented.^^

The bishop of Dover received the surrender
of the four houses in February, 1539 — 'very
poor houses and poor persons,' but ' all meetly
leaded.' The lead the visitor estimated at four
score fother or more in the four houses. He
urged Cromwell to let the friars have their
capacities, for ' the bishops and curates be very
hard to them without they have their capacities.' ^^

" Sloane MS. 4937, fol. 78. ■* Ibid. 80.

•' Ibid. 85 ; L. and P. Hen. mi, vii, 620.

" Ibid, xiv (2), 404.

"Add. Chart. 20, 679.

''Cott. Chart, iv, 31.

^'' Gibbons, £arly Line. Wills, 26, 68, 81, 142, &c.
Test. Ebor. ii, 197 ; P. C. C. Fetiplace, fol. i, 5 ;
Line. N. and Q. i, 4.

'' Royal MS. App. 69, fol. 7.

^'' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv (l), loi.

^'Wright, Suppression of the Monasteries, 192; L.
and P. Hen. VIII, xiv, (i), 348, 413.

213

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

The site, estimated at ten acres, lying near
St. John's churchyard, together with a tenement
at St. John's Bridge, was leased to Thomas
Browne of Boston, 2 June, 1 541, at a rent of
J 8s. Sd. a year, subject to the obligation of keep-
ing in repair 10 ft. 'in le Sitdike versus \eWha.rSe
Holmes,' and Soft. * de la frontage apud le
haven,' and was bought by the town in 1544—5.^
The materials of the houses were probably used
to keep up the sea walls.^ In 1573 the site was
leased to Anthony Kyme.'

69. THE BLACK FRIARS OF
BOSTON

The Dominicans had settled in Boston before
1288 ; for in that year* some miscreants, during
the fair of St. Bottlph, having set fire to the booths
of the merchants, a great part of the town was
burnt, including the church, refectory, and other
houses of the Friars Preachers, The king gave
them eight oaks for timber out of Sherwood
Forest, 16 September, 1290.* In 1291 the
abbot and convent of Kirkstead and these friars
exchanged some land in Boston. ° In the next
year the friars acquired a plot of land 100 ft. by
1 8 ft. (worth 1 3^. ^.d. a year) from John de
Sutton and Petronilla his wife, and another plot
containing 44 perches by 3 perches (worth 4^. a
year) from Peter Gode of Boston ; both plots
were held ultimately by the Earl of Richmond.'
By 1309 they had rebuilt their church and were
licensed by Bishop Dalderby to have their altars
dedicated by any Catholic bishop.* Dalderby
granted an indulgence in 1314 to those who
assisted in repairing the church of the Friars
Preachers.' They had royal licence to construct
a subterranean aqueduct from Bolingbroke to
their house for the use of themselves and others
in 1327, and in 1330 Bishop Burghersh granted
an indulgence to those who helped in this work.^"

In 1300, the provincial, while presenting to
the bishop, for licence to hear confessions, twenty-
one friars from the convent of Lincoln, presented
only two from Boston."

' Mins. Accts. 30-1 Hen. VIII, No. no, fol. 83
(Line); Partic. for Gts. file 143 ; 1. and P. Hen. Fill,
xvii, 696.

^ Cf. L. and P. Hen. Fill, xlv (i), No. 342 ; Stowe
MS. 141, fol. 37.

' P. Thompson, Hist, of Boston, iii.

* Reliq. xxii ; Bart. Cotton, Hist. Angl. 1 70 ; Ann.
Men. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 315 ; Walsingham, Hist. Angl.
(Rolls Ser.), i, 30; Lanercost Chron. 122, &c.; Pat.
17 Edw. \, m. 2Z d, \6 d. ; 18 Edw. I, m. 11 d. &c.

* Close, 18 Edw. I, m. 3.

* Pat. 20 Edw I, m. 29.

' Ibid. m. 12, Inq. a.q.d. 18 (20).

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, fol. 129^.

' Ibid. fol. 276.

" Pat. I Edw. Ill, pt. ill, m. 14 ; Line. Epis. Reg.
Memo. Burghersh, fol. 228.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, fol. 19^. Cf.
fol. I lb.

In 1300 Edward I came to Boston and gave
the Friars Preachers 19^. 8^. through Friar
William de Basyngham for two days' food.-"^
Edward II in 131 2 sent them \2s. for one day's
food.^^ Edward III, passing through Boston
12 September, 1328, sent an alms of 95. \d.
to the twenty-eight brethren for one day's
food.i*

When Richard de Bernesley of Halton died,
there came to this convent, probably by his
bequest, £p.(y 13;. 4^., which the crown owed
him for four sacks of wool at 10 marks a sack ;
the money was paid to the prior out of the
exchequer in 1343."

A commission of oyer and terminer was issued
to William de Thorpe and others 10 December,
1345, on complaint of Robert de Kyrketon,
prior, and Simon of Boston, friar of this house,
that John Baret, parson of the church of Boston,
Robert de Pykworth, chaplain, Walter Baret,
William le Cook, and others, assaulted the said
Friar Simon at Boston, so that his life was
despaired of, and carried away his goods. ^^

Some thirty years later, November, 1376, the
body of Sir William, lord of Hunyngfeld, or
Huntingfield, was being buried in the church of
the Black Friars of Boston." The bishop wished
to be present, but the friars to the number of 200,
according to the account in the bishop's register,
closed the chancel of the choir and defended it
against him with swords and arrows, and refused
to let him or any other bishop come to services
in their churches without leave of the friars them-
selves. Only the discretion of the bishop and
the humanity of the nobles present prevented
bloodshed.

The next day the bishop came to celebrate
mass for the dead in the same church, but the
friars assembled round the belfry or tower built
over the entrance to the choir, armed with heavy
stones to throw down on people entering the
choir. The prior and some other friars came to
the bishop and refused to allow him to receive
the oblations due to him and enjoyed by his
predecessors, and said they would rather die than
permit this. The nobles seeing the dangers
which must ensue, resolved to abstain from all
oblations, and made a public proclamation of the
fact, and of the insult paid to the bishop and to
all his fellow-bishops throughout England.
Letters on the subject were sent to the arch-
bishop of Canterbury, and to the provincial of the

" Rellq. xxii, 88 ; Liber Quotid. &c. 28 Edw. I, 36
(ed. Topham).

" Ibid. Lib. Gard. Reg. 5 Edw. II ; Cott. MS.
Nero C. viii.

" Exch. Accts. bdle. 283, No. 14.

" Relij. xxii, 88 ; Exit. Scacc. Easter, 17 Edw. Ill,
m. 17, &c.

'^ Pat. 19 Edw. Ill, pt. ill, m. 9.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham, fol. 142,
The entry is not dated, but see Dugdale, Baronage, ii.
7-8.

214

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Friars Preachers. This account comes from the
bishop's side.'

Soon afterwards the friars were again in
trouble. A commission was issued lo Novem-
ber, 1379,^ to Robert de Willoughby and others
to inquire touching the persons who, led by
certain rebellious friars of the order, by night
scaled with ladders the walls of the house of the
Friars Preachers of Boston, broke their doors and
windows, assaulted the prior, Roger Dymoke,
and his friars in their beds, so that they were
obliged to ring their bells to raise the commonalty
of the town to come to their aid, and to cry fire
for rescue — the evil-doers assaulting the constables
and resisting arrest, besides carrying off the prior's
goods ; the commissioners were empowered to
arrest oiFenders. Roger Dymoke, D.D., of
Oxford, was afterwards regent of the Black
Friars Schools in London, and an opponent of
the Lollards.'

In 1396 Friar Hugh was elected prior here,
and the election confirmed in 1397 by the
master-general, as Thomks Palmer was no
longer provincial, and could not act. The
master-general at the same time confirmed to
Friar John Birck all graces conceded to him by
his superiors, and the chamber granted to him in
this house. He also allowed one Friar Robert
here to hold his rank according to his seniority,
notwithstanding that his lectures on the sentences
had been cursory. He transferred an Irish friar,
John Pole, from Trim to Boston, and allowed
him to assist at the obsequies of Lady Isabel of
Friskney.^ In 1422 Isabella widow of Sir
Thomas de Friskney, kt., was buried in this
convent.^ Ralph Lord Cromwell, by will dated
December, 145 1, and proved February, 1455—6,
left ten marks to these friars.*

Leland inspected their library about 1538,
and noted the following books' : Turpin's His-
tory of Charles the Great ; a volume containing
Chronica summorum pontificum et imperatorum,
De gestis Troianorum, Historia Graecorum,
Historia Britonum, Albertus de mirabilibus (this
was to be set aside for the king, and is now
in the British Museum) * ; Peter of Tarantaise
(' Lugdunensis ') on virtues and vices, on the
epistles of St. Paul, and the fourth book of the
sentences ; and Gorham on St. Luke.

' Leland, Itin. vi (p. 53), notes that one of the
Huntingfeldes was buried here, ' and was a late taken
up hole and a leaden Bulle of Innocentius Bishop of
Rome about his nek.'

* Pat. 3 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 19 dorso.

' Reliq. xxii, 89, Tanner, Bibl. 242.

* Ibid. 90, from Reg. of the Master of the Order
preserved at Rome ; cf. Pat. 18 Ric. II, m. 34.

' Gibbons, Early Line. Wills, 150.

^ Test. Ebor. ii, 197. For other legacies see
Gibbons, Early Line. Wills, 26, 44, 68, 81, 83, 87,
142 ; Line. N. and Q. i, 4 ; P- C. C. Fetiplace, fols.

i> 5. 7-
' Royal MS. App. 69, fol. jb.

» Ibid. 1 3 A.V.

The poverty of the Black Friars on the eve of
the surrender of the house to the bishop of Dover,
February, 1539, has already been mentioned.'
The site comprising about five acres was valued
at 2is. a year: a tenement with garden within
the monastery was let to Thomas Crowe, chap-
lain, for 13^. 4^/. a year, and a house and two
gardens were let to William Spynke, John Bate,
and John Nele, at rents of 4;., 5^., and 3^. 4^.,
respectively — the total annual value being
46i. 8^.'° The property was granted 10 March,
1 540-1, to the Duke of Suffolk." It was situated
in South Street between Shodfriars Lane and
Spain Lane. A portion of the friary adjoining
the custom house was used as a granary, and
pulled down about 1 820. The burial ground
appears to have been in Shodfriars Lane near the
grammar school.'^

70. THE GREY FRIARS OF BOSTON

' Merchants of the Steelyard,' says Leland, ''
'were wont greatly to haunt Boston; and the
Grey Friars took them in a manner for founders
of their house, and many Esterlings were buried
there.' Among them was Wisselus de Smalen-
berg, merchant of Munster (1340), the slab of
whose tomb is now in the parish church.'* The
date of the foundation is uncertain. The house
was built before 1268, when one Luke de
Batenturt complained that the wine and other
goods which he had deposited in the church had
been removed. '* In 1300 the king gave them
205. i^d. by the hands of Friar Gilbert of Lons-
dale ; '* there seem to have been thirty friars in
the house at this time. Edward III gave a pit-
tance of lis. Sd. to the 35 friars here in 1328.''

In 1322 William and Robert de Masham
granted them a messuage and half an acre of
land for the enlargement of their dwelling-place; '^
and they received a further addition to this land
from John le Pytehede in 1348.'' In or before
1354 they lost some of their muniments and other
goods owing to a sudden inrush of the sea.^"

' See under Austin Friars.

'" Mins. Accts 30-1 Hen. VIII, No. no, fol. 83
(Line); Partic. for Gts. file 1080.

" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xvi, m. 678-9.

'^ Reliq. xxii, 91-2; P. Thompson, Hist, of Boston,
109. Some remains of the friary are incorporated
in the new buildings of the Boston Club.

" Leland, Itin. vi, 53.

" Murray, Lines. 138 ; Thompson, Hist, of Boston,
I iz.

^^ Jbbreziiatio Placitorum (Rec. Com.), 176. See
alsoMagd. Coll. Archives (Oxford), 'Swaby A. 150'.

" Liber Quotid. &c. 28 Edw. I (ed. Topham), 36.
Simon Jorz was lecturer to the convent in 1 300
(Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, fol. 15).

" P.R.O. Exch. Accts. bdle. 383, No. 14.

" Inq. a.q.d. 218 (11); Pat. 6 Edw. Ill, pt. i,
m. 12.

"Tanner, Not. Mon. 'ex. rec. 22 Edw. III.'

'"Pat. 28 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 12.

215

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

The friary, which was situated in the south-
east part of the town, was in the custody of
York.i

In 1 391 John Dunning, a vagabond apostate
friar, was, with the help of the secular arm,
restored to this house from which he had
absconded.^

The tombs of one of the Mountevilles and
six or seven of the Withams were noted here by
Leland.' Richard Temper was buried here in
1515.^ Bequests were made to these friars by
Sir Henry Asty, kt., Ralph Lord Cromwell,
and others." By old custom the lords of the
honour of Richmond granted to them annually
eight quarters of wheat ; these were valued in
1534 at 32J.«

John Tynmouth alias Maynelyn, friar minor
of Lynn and titular bishop of Argos, was vicar
of Boston 151 8-24, but does not seem to have
had any connexion with the Grey Friars of
Boston.'

John Perrot, or Porrett, warden of this house,
took the degree of D.D. at Oxford in 1526.'

The Grey Friars, though very poor at the
time of surrender, February, 1539, do not seem
to have lamented their poverty and inability to
live, like the other friaries.' The site, valued at
44J. a year, was first reserved for the king, and
subsequently, 1544—5, purchased by the town,
subject to the obligation of keeping in repair
40 ft. of the sea-dyke, and 20 ft. on 'le
frontage.' ^^

71. THE WHITE FRIARS OF
BOSTON

In 1293 the Carmelites obtained a licence
from Bishop Sutton to have a chantry in the
oratory at Boston, and in the same year Master
GifFred de Vezano, papal nuncio and rector of
the parish church of Boston, consented that the
friars might have a church, houses, and church-
yard in his parish, might celebrate divine service,
and bury their brethren in the churchyard,

' Eubel, Provinciale VetmAsslmum.

' Pat. 15 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 14 a'.

^ Leland, I tin. vi, 5 3 : Leland was unable to inspect
the library owing to the absence of the 'prior' ; Royal
MS. App. 69, fol. ji.

' P.C.C. Holder, fol. 2.

' Gibbons, Earfy Line. Willi, 26, 44, 68, 8 1, &c.;
Test. Ebor. ii, 197 ; P. C. C. Fetiplace, fol. i, J ;
Line. N. and Q. i, 4.

" P. Thompson, Hist, of Boston, 1 1 3.

' Cooper, Athenae Cantab, i, 3 1 ; Little, Gre;j Friars
in Oxford, 271.

* Grey Friars in Oxford, 277.

' Wright, Suppression, 192 ; L. and P. Hen. VIII,
xiv (i), loi, 342, 348.

'» Partic. for Gts. file 143 ; Mins. Accts. 30-1
Hen. VIII, No. 1 10, fol. 83 (Line). For the subse-
quent history of the site see Thompson, Hist, of
Boston, 113.

provision being made as to the rector's rights to
ofFerings.^^

Edward I gave them I2s. for two days' food
in 1300 ; this would be the allowance for eighteen
friars.^^ There were twenty-two. friars of the
house in 1328.^'

In 1305 the king pardoned them for having
acquired in mortmain a messuage, adjoining
their area, from Robert de Wellbek of Boston.'*
This pardon was repeated in 1307 by Edward II,
who at the same time gave the friars permission
to erect a church and other buildings.^' This
perhaps refers to the new site, on the west side
of the river, which they acquired at this time.
For in October, 1307, Clement V ordered
Bishop Dalderby to license these friars to transfer
themselves to another place in the parish of St.
Botolph, granted to them by William de Ros ;
the bishop's licence was issued in 1308.'^ In this
year the friars acquired a plot of ground from
John Parleben ; '' in 13 15 another measuring
81 ft. by 25 ft. from John Hervy of London and
Boston, and Avice his wife ; '* and another in
1316 containing 18 perches by 2^ perches from
Simon Gernon of Boston.'' In February, 1349-50^
Simon Lambert of Boston gave them three mes-
suages to enlarge their house and graveyard ; the
messuages, held of Lord Roos, were of small
value, ' because they are fallen ' and in a deserted
lane.^" Sir John de Orreby, 1350, gave the
friars four acres, and was afterwards reputed
founder of the house.^'

For bs. 8d. paid by these friars in the hanaper
they obtained licence in 1400 for the alienation
to them in mortmain by Sir Ralph de Cromwell,
kt., of five acres of land in Skirbeck adjoining
their house, held of Ralph earl of Westmoreland,
as of the honour of Richmond.^^ Ralph de
Cromwell left them 10 marks by his will made
in 1451.^'

John Hornby, who wrote among other works
a defence of his order against the attacks of
John Stokes, was prior of the White Friars of
Boston in 1374.^* George or Gregory Ripley,
the author of lives of St. Botolph and St. John
of Bridlington, is said to have been an inmate of

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton, fol. 80, 8'}6.

" Liber Quotid. &c. 28 Edw. I, 36 (ed. Topham).

" P.R.O. Exch. Accts. bdle. 383, No. 14.

" Pat. 33 Edw. I, pt. ii, m. 22.

'* Ibid. I Edw. II, pt. i, m. 11, sched.

'° Cal. Papal Letters, ii, 30; Line. Epis. Reg. Memo.
Dalderby, fol. 109^.

" Pat. 2 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 15 ; Inq a.q.d. 66 (14).

" Ibid. 9 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 14.

" Ibid. m. 25.

'" Ibid. 24 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 36 ; Inq. a.q.d.
2 3 Edw. Ill, No. 21.

*' Ibid. 24 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 23 ; Speed, Hist.
fol. 1061 ; Harl. MS. 539, fol. 143.

" Ibid. 2 Hen. IV, pt. i, m. 30, 29.

^' Test. Ebor. ii, 197.

" Tanner, Bibl. 414 ; MS. Bodl. E. Mus. 86,
fol. 176 ; Harl. MS. 3838, fol. 76^.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

this house about 1400.^ Friar John Viude of
Boston was provincial of the English Carmelites
in 1482, and was buried in his native convent.^
Leland noted about 1538 there were many
books here, but they either contained matter
already printed, or they did not relate to divinity
or the history of antiquity.' He does not mention
any by name.

The town in 1544-5 purchased the site of
' le White fryers,' containing five acres, together
with a tenement in the tenure of Thomas
Waltehewe, fishmonger, of Boston, and a pasture
in Skirbeck in the tenure of John Turpham, the
whole property being at that time demised to
William Heydon at a rent of ^4 a year, and
subject to the obligation of keeping in repair
1 30 ft. of the dyke towards ' le WharfFe.' *

72. THE GREY FRIARS OF
GRANTHAM

The Franciscans were settled here before
1290, for on 27 November of that year Pope
Nicholas IV * granted an indulgence of one year
and forty days of enjoined penance to penitents
visiting the church of the Friars Minors at Gran-
tham on the four feasts of the Virgin, and those of
St. Francis, St. Anthony, and St. Clare. The
convent was in the custody of Oxford.^ Ed-
ward I gave these friars 12s. Sd. for two days'
pittance and 2is, for three days' pittance by the
hand of Friar J. de Jarewell or Gerewell, at
Grantham in 1 300 ; ' there were probably about
twenty friars at the time. Bishop Dalderby
admitted four friars of this house to hear con-
fessions in 1300,^ and in 131 1 dedicated four
altars in this church and one in the infirmary.'
John de Warenne, earl of Surrey (1304) granted
the friars 32J quarters of corn each year from
his mills at Grantham ; the grant was renewed
by his grandson in 1313 and confirmed by the
king.^'' Ralph of Barneby gave them a spring of
water at Gonerby, and in 1314 Richard Kel-
law, bishop of Durham, authorized them to

' He does not appear to be identical with George
Ripley, alchemist, who was canon of Bridlington,
and died f. 1490, Tanner, BiiL 634; Diet. Nat. Biog.
xlviii ; Ripley's Life of John of Bridlington is inserted
in Capgrave's Nova Legenda Anglie.

' Stevens, Mm. 1 59 (from Bale).

' Royal MS. App. 69, fol. lb.

' Mins. Accts. 30-1 Hen. VIII, No. no, fol. 83
(Line); Partic. for Gts. file 143 (36 Hen. VIII);
L. and P. Hen. VIII, xv, No. 1032. For the later
history of the site see Thompson, Hist, of Boston, 1 10.

' Cal. of fapal Letters, i, 521.

* Eubel, Provinciale Vetustissimum.
' P.R.O. ExcL Acct. 357 (4); Add. MS. 7966 A,

fol. 23^.

* Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, fol. \\b, 18.
=• Ibid. fol. %\%b.

'" Pat. 1 1 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 8 ; Close, 19 Edw. II,
m. II.

bring the water to their house by leaden pipes,
and to dig the ground in the common pasture to
lay and repair the pipes on condition that they
put back the earth. '^

In 1355 John de Warenne, earl of Surrey, had
permission to grant the Friars Minors a messuage
lying to the east of their house.^^ He bequeathed
(j20 to them by his will, 1347.^'

In 1339 a murderer took sanctuary in the
church of St. Francis at Grantham,^* and early in
the next century a similar event led to a dispute
between the friars and the town. On the
Sunday after Ascension Day, 1419, Thomas
Couper of Botleston, brasier, and William
Drusthorpe, locksmith, killed Thomas May of
Botleston, and fled for sanctuary to the Grey
Friars' church. On Whitsunday the bailifF
carried them o£F by force to Lincoln, and on the
appeal of the friars to the king in council, a jury
was sworn before the justices of gaol delivery
and declared that the church of the friary was a
sanctuary. The prisoners were handed on to
Friar Thomas Kyrton and brought back to the
Grey Friars." A provincial chapter of the
Premonstratensian Order was held in this church
in 1492.^^ Among the benefactors of the house
were Ralph Basset lord of Sapcote (1377),
Richard de Evyngeham rector of Ewerby,
Robert de Westburgh of Grantham (1397),
Nicholas Tye (141 0), Thomas Ingham of Corby
(1415), Thomas Sleeford (1417), Robert Wyn-
tryngham canon of Lincoln (141 5), and Queen
Catherine of Aragon.^'

In 1513 Henry VIII granted to these friars
full pardon for all kinds of transgressions or
crimes, including treason, murder, rape, which
they might have committed before 8 December
1510.^^

In July, 1535, Richard Hopkins the warden
and other brethren were accused by one of the
friars, John Colsell, of using seditious language.
The Earl of Rutland by Cromwell's instruction
investigated the matter. John Colsell was himself
aged eighteen, and his principal witness was a
novice, William Nobull, aged thirteen years, who
on being called to give evidence charged Colsell,
who was his schoolmaster, with having tutored
him to bear false witness. The warden and his
friends seem to have cleared themselves." At
the same time John Colsell was accused of

'' Reg. Pal. Dunelm. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 1255, iv, 385.

'- Pat. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 2 ; Inq. a.q.d. 226
(2).

" lest. Ebor. i, 43 ; another bequest, ibid. 28.

" Pat. 13 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 24.

" Add. MS. 4938, fol. 13. (Peck MSS. vol. v).

'" Colkctanea Anglo-Premonstrat. (Camden Soc), i,
167.

" Gibbons, Eaii;) Line. Wills ; L. and P. Hen. VIII,
iv, No. 61 21.

'» Add. MS. 4938, fol. 20.

" L.andP. Hen. VIII, viii, 1149 ; ix, 179, 740 ;
Hist. MSS. Com. P.ep. xii, pt. iv, 25.

217 28

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

' using the deceitful art of magic and astronomy.'
Gervase Tyndall, schoolmaster at Grantham, was
* employed in the business of certain friars who
were about to practice necromancy,' and became
so unpopular in the town that the boys were
driven away from his school.^

The bishop of Dover received the surrender of
the house about the end of February, 153 8-9, and
reported the convent so poor that the king would
receive nothing but the lead, bells, and a chalice.^

The friary with its lands was granted in 1 54 1
at a rent of 71. ()d. to Robert Butcher, gentle-
man, and David Vincent, one of the royal pages ;
in the grant were included the church, belfry,
cemetery, and aqueduct, a garden of one acre,
a small close called Paradise, a close of 5 acres
and a number of other gardens, kilnhouse, ' malto-
flores,' stables, and other tenements. Some of
these were already let to tenants. These
grantees sold the site in 1542 to Austin Porter
of Belton.'

73. THE AUSTIN FRIARS OF GRIMSBY

William Fraunk obtained licence, 22 Novem-
ber, 1293, to alienate to the prior and Austin
Friars of Lincoln a messuage in Grimsby, and
became responsible for the payment of bd. a
year which was due from this messuage at the
Exchequer by the hand of the bailiffs of
Grimsby.* By 1300 the friars had built an
oratory without licence of the bishop and in
spite of the opposition of the Austin Canons of
Grimsby." In 1305 they were allowed by the
king to enclose two plots of ground in the town,
which they had acquired from William de
Dudale and Edmund de Fal, though the king
would thereby lose \J^d. a year which the bailiffs
of the town were wont to render for the farm
of the land.* The friars in 1 31 5 received a
messuage adjacent to their house from John atte
See of Ravenserod — the king consenting to the
grant at the request of the queen.' William le
Tollere conferred on them another adjacent plot
in 1319.* In 1325 Bishop Burghersh granted
an indulgence to those visiting their church.'

' L. and P. Hen. VIII, ix, 740.

» Ibid, xiv, (I), 348, 413 (cf. No. 3); Wright,
Suppression, 192.

'' Add. MS. 4938, fol. 16 ; cf. Stowe MS. 141,
fol. 37. Mins. Accts. 30-31 Hen. VIII, No. no,
fol. 84 (Line.) ; Partic. for Gts. file 21 1 ; L. and P.
Hen. VIII, xvii, 71 (34), 1154 (18).

* Pat. 22 Edw. I, m. 29 ; Inq. a.q.d. 19 (2). He
was mayor of Grimsby 1287, 1289 ; Hist. MSS. Com.
Rep. xiv, App. viii, 288. On the site, see Oliver,
Monumental J ntiq. of Great Grimsby, no.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, fol. 26.

" Pat. 33 Edw. I, pt. ii, m. 24 ; Inq. a.q.d. v,

54 (22)-

' Ibid. 8 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 8; Inq. a.q.d. 137(15).

* Ibid. 12 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 22 ; Inq. a.q.d. 137

(15)-

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Burghersh, fol. 1 40 3.

They further acquired plots of land from Simon
of Grimsby in 1333^" and from William de
Brocklesby, king's clerk, in 1337.^^ For these
various tenements they paid to the mayor and
commonalty towards the farm of the town 8;. a
year till 1342, when Peter atte See, burgess,
granted to the town a like rent from his lands
that the friars might hold their lands rent free.'^

In 1339 Walter de Belesby, the prior, com-
plained that Thomas de Skirbeck of Grimsby, and
many others, including a butcher and a tailor,
had assaulted Simon of Grimsby, a friar of the
house ; ^' a commission of oyer and terminer was
issued to Richard de Willoughby and others,
and shortly afterwards a writ of protection for
one year was granted to the friars and William
Bray, their attorney, who were threatened with
disturbance in the prosecution of their business.'*

Bequests were made to these friars by Richard
Ravenser, archdeacon of Lincoln " (1385), John
of Waltham, bishop of Salisbury '° (i395)> John
Enderby of Grimsby" (1472), Richard ]3urgh,
who left 1 2d. to every friar of the house '*
(15 1 2-3), John Lyttyll of Grimsby" (1530).
John Cotes, esq.^" was buried in the church and
left two good oxen to the brethren (1421).

John Daniel was prior in 1419.^'

In the reign of Henry VII (;') some of the
inhabitants attacked the Austin Friars ' on riotous
wise ' and indited certain of the brethren without
reasonable cause to their * unportable ' charge and
cost, and were ordered by the king to desist. ^^

Leland saw many old MSS. in the library but
found nothing worth recording.^'

During the short Lincolnshire rebellion in
October, 1536, the prior of this house, who had
been recently appointed, came riding with the
warden of the Grey Friars to the commons and
gave them money, and lent the warden some
money to give them. He seems to have acted
to some extent under compulsion, a hint having
been given to the friars that ' it were alms to
set your house of fire.' ^*

" Pat. 7 Edw. Ill, m. 22 ; Inq. a.q.d. 226 (9).

" Ibid. 2 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 34.

" Ibid. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 27 ; Inq. a.q.d. 258
(15), 263 (3). A petition from these friars probably
of the time of Edw. Ill, for leave to purchase ' three
acres of void place' is in P.R.O. Anct. Petitions,
No. 2408.

" Ibid. 13 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 32^.

"Ibid. 12-14 Edw. Ill, m. 12 (26 Sept. 1339).

" Reg. Courtenay (Lambeth), fol. 217^.

"P.C.C. Rous, fol. 32.

"Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 271.

'"P.C.C. Fetiplaee, fol. 18.

"Hist. MSS . Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 274.

"Lansd. MS. loya, fol. 2353.

" Chan. Warr. File 1767, No. 5.

'^ Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 243. The
date is doubtful.

'' Royal MS. App. 69.

'*L. and P. Hen. VIII, xi, 593.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

John Freeman, an agent of Cromwell, visited
the friary in October, 1538, and found that most
of the friars had run away. He made the prior
keeper of the house for the king, with a promise
of five marks at his departing.^ The surrender
was made to the bishop of Dover at the end of
February, 1538-9 ; he found the house poor, but
estimated the lead at about 20 to 22 foder.
The mayor and aldermen paid most of his costs
and desired to have the friary as a common house
for ordnance and other necessaries for defence.
It stood well for the purpose, near the water and
open to the sea. The bishop urged Cromwell
to favour their suit, and committed the house,
lead, and bells to the mayor.^ The site, contain-
ing about five acres, was, however, granted to
the dean and chapter of Westminster, August,
1542, and purchased by Austin Porter of Belton
(Line.) and John Bellow 27 July, 1546. It

was then valued at 20s. a

year."

74. THE GREY FRIARS OF GRIMSBY

The Friars Minors probably settled here
before 1240, for Eccleston notes that their place
was ' sufficiently enlarged ' while William of Not-
tingham was provincial (1240-54).* Henry III
granted them twenty oaks in Sherwood Forest
in 1255.^ They paid a rent for their land to
the Knights Templars till 1305, when they
were relieved from this obligation by the gene-
rosity of Robert le Eyr of Grimsby.* In
13 1 3 they received pardon for acquiring with-
out licence a plot of land measuring 12 p. by
9 p. 8 ft., from Elias de Pestur or le Pescur ; ' and
in the same year Edward II authorized them to
make a subterranean conduit from Holm to their
house in Grimsby, through the king's land in
Grimsby and that of John Yornborough and
Ralph de Skirbeck in Holm.' A plot of land in
Grimsby 14 p. 7 ft. by 6 p. 14 ft. adjacent to their
area was granted to them in 13 17 by William,
' parson of a fourth part of the church of
Brocklesby.' ' The area of the friary contained

* L. and P. Hen. VIIl, xiii, pt. ii, No. 567.

* Ibid, xiv, i, Nos. 348, 413. Wright, Suppression,
192.

' Mins. Accts. 30-1 Hen. VIII, No. no, fol. 84
(Line); Partic. for Gts. 893 ; L. and P. Hen. Fill,
xvii, 394.

* Mon. Trane. (Rolls Ser.), i, 55. 'This monastery
is supposed to have been situated in or near a field
by the present haven, known by the name of the Kiln
Garth.' OliYer, Monumental Jntiq. of Great Grimsby,
108.

' Close, 39 Hen. Ill, m. 3.

° Inq. a.q.d. 52 (22) ; Pat. 33 Edw. I, pt. i,
m. 2.

' Inq. a.q.d. 93 (13) ; Pat. 6 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 2.

« Pat. ibid.

' Pat. II Edw. II, pt. i, m. 22 ; Inq. a.q.d. 130
(12).

twenty-three tofts, for which the friars paid
lis. hd. a year to the crown. ^^

Thomas de Mussenden, esq., desired to be
buried here before the high altar (1402) and left
100;. to place a stone over his body, his best
mazer to the friars, and his red garment of cloth
of gold to the high altar.'^ Small legacies to
these friars are contained in the wills of Beatrix
Haulay (1389), William of Humberstone, rector
of Belgrace (1394), John of Waltham, bishop of
Salisbury (1395), Constance lady of Skelton
(1402), William of Waltham, canon of York
(1416), William Alcock (1416), John Enderby
(1497), and John Lytyll (1530), all of Grimsby.
Richard Burgh (15 1 3) left 12a'. to every grey
friar of Grimsby and los. to Friar William
Dowsun.-'^ The convent was in the custody of
York."

Leland inspected the library before the dis-
solution, but found nothing worth recording.-'*

The warden rode out to the rebels 4 October,
1536, and gave them some money which he
borrowed from the prior of the Austin Friars.^^

John Freeman dissolved the Grey Friars here
8 October, 1538, and sent the plate, weighing
22 oz., to London ; the house ' was not very
chargeable to the king, and yet there were nine
friars in the same.' The surrender, however,
was signed only by six friars, including Adam
Howeton, the warden. To the king's use there
remained the bells and lead, estimated at ;^8o.^*
The site, estimated at three acres, was at once
let to Thomas HatclifF, and granted in October,
I543> to John Bellow and Robert Brokesby ; it
was at that time in the tenure of the relict of
Thomas Hatcliff.^^

75. THE AUSTIN FRIARS OF LINCOLN

Leland noted the ruins of the Austin Friary
on the south side of 'the suburb to Newport
Gate.'^' The friars settled here under royal
protection about 1269-70," and obtained from
Bishop Sutton licence to have their church and
area consecrated in 1291.^° Gilbert de Stratton

'" Oliver, ut sup. no.

" Lansd. MS. 207,A, fol. 232.

" Gibbons, Early Line. Wills ; Test. Ebor.; Hist.
MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 271, 274. P.C.C.
Rous, fol. 32 ; P.C.C. Fetiplace, fol. 18.

" Eubel, Proz'inciale Vetustissimum.

" MSS. Royal, App. 69, fol. 6.

" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xi, 593.

'* Ibid, xiii (2), 567, 572 ; Monastic Treasures
(Abbotsford Club), 10.

" Mins. Accts. 30-1 Hen. VIII, no, 184 (Line);
L. and P. Hen. Fill, xviii (2), 185 ; Stowe MS. 141,
fol. 37; cf. Tanner, Not. Mon.

" I tin. i, 32.

•' Pat. 54 Hen. Ill, m. 25; cf. Close, 54 Hen. Ill,
m. 9 ; 8 Edw. I, m. 2 (grants of timber).

*° Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton, fol. 363.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

granted them a messuage in the suburb of Lin-
coln in 1292.^ Next year a messuage in
Grimsby was given to "them where a new friary
was founded.^ There were probably thirty
friars here in 1 300 when Edward I gave them
20s. for two days' food.' In 1328 the friars
numbered twenty-eight,* and in 1335, thirty-
six.'

A provincial chapter of the order was held
here in 1307/ and another in 1332, to the
expenses of which Archbishop Melton gave two
marks.'

William de Bliton, John de Merkyate, and
Thomas Felisson gave these friars three tofts in

1367-'

Bequests were made to them by Adam de
Lymbergh, rector of Algarkirk (1338), Thomas
Beck, bishop of Lincoln (1346), Simon, rector
of Stanton (1346), Sir Henry Asty, kt. (1383),
William de Belay, citizen of Lincoln (1383),
Sir John de Multon, kt. (1388), Robert
Appleby of Lincoln (1407), John de Kele, canon
of Lincoln (14 16), William of Waltham, canon
of York and Lincoln (1416), William of Aln-
wick, bishop of Lincoln (1449), Ralph Lord
Cromwell (145 1), John Colynson, archdeacon
of Northampton (1482).' Richard Burgh left
8d. to every friar of the four orders in Lincoln
(1513).!° The will of Juliana Lufchild, 1 41 8,
was written by Thomas Everard, sub-prior of
this house."

Leland reports on the library, ' There are
some books here but either in common use
or printed, or such as do not bear on our
subjects.' '^^

Richard bishop of Dover received the surrender
of the four friaries in February, 1538—9 ; all
were poor houses, nothing being left but stones
and poor glass, but 'meetly leaded.' ■'^ The site,
containing about four acres, was let to Robert
Dighton, esq., at a rent of i2s. a year, and seems

' Pat. 20 Edw. I, m. 8.

' Ibid. 22 Edw. I, m. 29. See under Grimsby.

' Liier Quotid. 28 Edw. I (ed. Topham), 37 ; cf.
39-40. The king gave them 61 s. \d. for four
days' food in Sept. 1 301. Add. MS. 7966, A,
fol. 27.

*■ P.R.O. Exch. Accts. bdle. 383, No. 14.

^ Ibid. bdle. 387, No. 9.

^ Rymer, Toedera, i, 10 16 (Record Com.).

' Dixon, Fasti Ebor. i, 432. In 1336 William
son of William le Clerk of Kyme acknowledged a debt
of j^40 to these friars. Close, 10 Edw. Ill, m. 431/.

* Inq. a.q.d. 41 Edw. Ill, No. 5 ; Pat. 43
Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 10.

' Gibbons, Early Line. Wills, 6, 26, 107, 128,
142 ; Test. Ebor. i, 24, 28 ; ii, 197 ; P.C.C. Rous,
fol. 9-10 ; Logge, fol. 33 ; Stafford Reg. fol. 178^,
(Lambeth).
" P.C.C. Fetiplace, fol. 18.
" Gibbons, Early Line. Wills, 151.
'^ Royal MS. App. 69, fol. 3 b.
" L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv (l), 348, 413 ; Wright,
Suppression, 191.

to have been purchased in 1545 by John Bellow
and Edward Bayliss."

76. THE BLACK FRIARS OF LINCOLN

The Dominicans settled in Silvergate,-" outside
Pottergate," before 1238. Henry III gave them
timber, 13 June, 1238,^' and lOOs. towards the
expenses of their provincial chapter to be held
here 14 September, 1238.^* Another provincial
chapter met here 14 September, 1244, to which
the king contributed £10.^^ The Burton an-
nalist, while telling the story of St. Hugh of
Lincoln, denounces the Friars Preachers for try-
ing to save unbelievers from death.^" A royal
grant often oaks for timber in 1255 shows that
building was still going on.^^ In 1260 the friars
obtained leave of the abbot and monks to enclose
a spring in the territory of a cell belonging to
the abbey of St. Mary, York, without the suburbs
of Lincoln, and thence to carry water as far as
the highway running from Greetwell to Lincoln ;
the king allowed them to carry their conduit
along the highway to their house, and to repair
it when necessary .^^ In 1263 the king gave
them a hogshead of wine to celebrate masses.^'

In 1275 there is mention of a plot of ground
two acres in extent, called ' la Batailplace,' where
the men of the city were accustomed to have
their games, the friars to preach, and all to have
their easements.^*

The friars from time to time enlarged their
bounds, till at length they had acquired about ten
acres.^' In 1284 they obtained a messuage and
garden in Lincoln from John Cotty, and three
small messuages from other benefactors.^^ Next
year they were allowed to enclose with a stone
wall a small vacant plot to the north of their
dwelling ;^' and in 1292 to enclose a lane passing
through their area from south to north in the
parish of Holy Trinity under the Hill.^^ In 1290
they received 100^. from the executors of the

" Aug. Off. Mins. Accts. 30-1 Hen. VIII, Line,
no, fol. 83 ; Partic. for Gts. file 121, m. 24, 25.
The principal entry relating to this friary is crossed
out in the original.

" Harl. Chart. 47 D, 47.

^° See Palmer's article in the Reliquary, xxv, 10, 14.

" Close, 22 Hen. Ill, m. 12.

" Liberate R. 22 Hen. Ill, m. 14.

" Ibid. 28 Hen. Ill, m. 7.

'" jinn. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), i, 346-7 ; see Lanereost
Chron. 24.

" Close, 39 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 3.

'^ Ibid. 44 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 1 5 ; Pat. 44 Hen.
Ill, m. II.

'' Ibid. 47 Hen. Ill, m. 8. sched.

" Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 312, 320, 398.

"P.R.O. Aug. Book, 211, fol. 77; Mins. Accts.
30-1 Hen. VIII, no.

'"Pat. 12 Edw. I, m. 8.

'' Ibid. 13 Edw. I, m. 12 ; Inq. a.q.d. 8 (3).

*' Ibid. 20 Edw. I, m. 3.

220

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

late queen;' in 1293, lOOs. from the king for
the provincial chapter to be held there on
15 August,^ and in 1300 ;^I0 for another
chapter.' In May of the same year the king
gave them 3IJ. i\.d. for two days' food ;* the
number of the friars was probably forty-seven.
In January, 1 300-1, the king gave them an
alms of 71^.,^ and in January, 1302-3, 451. for
three days' food.'

The friars were now rebuilding their church.
Edward I gave them twelve oaks to make shingles
in 1284, and four oaks for their church in 1290.'
The church and churchyard, together with the
altars in the chapel of the Virgin Mary, were
consecrated in 13 11.* Friar Walter Jorse,
archbishop of Armagh, made the Black Friars
of Lincoln his residuary legatees in 1320, and
was buried in this church opposite the tomb of
T. le Draper.' His executors, Friars Thomas
de Eyncourt and Walter de Belton were licensed
by Alexander de Waynflete, the prior, to receive
probate.

Some parish priests of Lincoln about 1298 re-
sisted the claims of the friars to hear confessions,^"
and in 1300 Bishop Dalderby objected to
licensing as penitentiaries so many as twenty-
one friars of this house, whom the provincial
friar presented : •'' but the number licensed seems
to have remained considerable.'^ The prior of
Lincoln was among the eight friars deposed in
the general chapter held at London in 1314.''
In 1325 a provincial chapter met here, to which
Edward II (27 June) contributed ;^I5 for three
days' food.'* Edward III gave 12s. 8d. to the
thirty-eight friars of this house in September,
1328,'^ and i6j. to the forty-eight friars in
May, 1335.'^ In 1330 the prior was one of
the papal commissioners appointed to decide a
dispute about the bishop of Durham's juris-
diction in Osmotherly."^ Friar John Grym of
Lincoln, who had thrown off his habit, was
taken by Edmund de Lisle, another friar of this
house at Ipswich, in 1338, and brought back
to his convent.'* Friar John of Lincoln, con-
fessor to John de Warenne, earl of Surrey, was
recommended by the king for election to the

' P.R.O. Exch. Accts. 352 (27).

' Ibid. Wardrobe, 21 Edw. I. (l m.).

' Liier Quotid. &c. 28 Edw. I. (cd. TophamJ, 44.

* Ibid. 37. ' Add. MS. 7966 A, fol. 23 b.

* Reliq. XXV, 12, from Wardrobe Acct. 31 Edw. I.
' Close, 12 Edw. I, m. 8 ; 18 Edw. I, m. 11.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, fol. l<)lb.

" Gibbons, Ear/y Line. Wills, 6.
'° Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton, fol. 2 1 7.
" Ibid. Memo. Dalderby, fol. \^b.
" cf. ibid. fol. 365.

" Men. Old. Praedicatorum Hist. (ed. Relchert), iv, 73.
"Close, 19 Edw. II, m. i<) d. Liber Quotid.
Contrarot. Gard. 18 Edw. II, m. 7 (P.R.O.).
" P.R.O. Exch. Accts. 383 (14).
'« Ibid. 387 (9).
" Cal. of Pap. Letters, ii, 321.
" Pat. 12 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 22.

bishopric of St. Asaph in 1345, but was not
elected : '^ in the service of the earl he provoked
the malice of certain persons, and being in bodily
fear of them, had from the king special pro-
tection, 21 June, 1346, and permission to retire
to King's Langley when he left the earl's
service.-" In 1356 John Lyperyng, O.P., a
malefactor and disturber of the peace, was
handed over to the prior of Lincoln by the
king's sergeant-at-arms.^'

The friars obtained three messuages in the
suburb of Lincoln in 1342 from Robert de Kele,
Alan Faukes, and William Garvyn.^^ Several be-
quests to them about this time are recorded,
namely from Adam de Lymbergh, rector of
Algarkirk (1338) ; Simon, rector of Staunton,
(1346); Thomas Beck, bishop of Lincoln (1346) ;
Isabel, widow of William son of William de
Elmley, kt., lord of Elmley and Sprotborough,
(25 July, 1348) ; William de Belay, citizen of
Lincoln (1383) ; Henry Asty, kt., judge of
the Common Bench (1383).^' Richard Ravenser,
archdeacon of Lincoln, in 1385 left 2j. to each
friar chaplain, and is. to each friar not being a
chaplain.^*

A provincial chapter assembled here in 1388
passed some statutes regulating the promotion of
friars to degrees in the universities, and appointed
a number of friars to lecture on the sentences
at Oxford and Cambridge.^^ In 1 390 the master-
general declared Friar John Muren guiltless of
a theft committed in the convent at Derby,
made him master of the students at Lincoln, and
assigned to him the chamber which Friar Ralph
of Louth built in the Lincoln friary.^' At the
same time he appointed Friar Richard of Helms-
ley, who received the master's degree by papal
authority, lector in this house for three years,
with the right to choose and change his socius :
in 1393 he renewed this appointment, and
warned the prior not to impede Friar Richard in
his office.^' The convent was in the visitation
of York.28

The history of the house during the fifteenth
century is almost a blank, save for a few
legacies.^' The city was accustomed to pay the
friars 2s. a year for a wax light before the high
altar.'" Leland inspected the library, and noted two

" Close, 19 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 12 a'.

'° Pat. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 38 ; pt. i, m. 4.

" Ibid. 30 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 2 2<^.

^Ubid. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 5.

^ Gibbons, Early Line. Wills, 6, 26, 31; Test.
Ebor. i, 24, 28, 50.

" Reg. Courtenay (Lambeth), fol. zijb.

" Add. MS. 32446, fol. 5.

'' Ibid. fol. lb. " Ibid. fol. zb.

" Wore. Cath. Libr. MS. Q. 93.

*' Gibbons, Early Line. Wills, 107, 128, 142. Also
William of Alnwick, bp. of Line. (Reg. StaiFord
[Lambeth], fol. 178^.), Ralph, Lord Cromwell {Test.
Ebor. ii, 197), J. Colynson, archdeacon of North-
ampton (P.C.C. Logge, fol. 33), etc.

'■' Hist. MS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 27.

221

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

books, namely, Alexander on the Proverbs of
Solomon, and the Historia Anglorum of Henry
of Huntingdon.^ The latter volume is now in
the British Museum.^

The house surrendered to the Bishop of Dover,
February, 1538-9 : it was poor but well-leaded.^
The site, containing some ten acres, was let on
lease to Thomas Burton of Lincoln for 33/. 4^.
a year, 12 August, 1539.* William Rotherham
of Lincoln, merchant, seems to have desired to
purchase it, as the property was rated for him
18 September, 1545 ; but it was sold to John
Broxholme and John Bellow, 30 September of
that year.'

77. THE GREY FRIARS OF LINCOLN

According to Leland^ the founder of the
Grey Friars was Reginaldus Molendinarius, mer-
chant, of Lincoln. The first founder, however,
appears to have been William of Beningworth,
subdean of Lincoln, who about 1230 granted to
the citizens of Lincoln a place near the Guildhall
to house the Friars Minors.' The city then con-
ferred on them part of the area on which the
Guildhall stood, and this grant was confirmed
7 February, 1 2 30- 1, by the king.^ Henry III,
17 September, 1237,° asked the men of Lincoln
to give 'the place where their pleas are held,'
and which used to be the Guildhall, to the friars
minors, promising the citizens another place in
the town. The old Guildhall was accordingly
assigned to the friars, 5 October, 1237, by the
mayor and bailiffs.^"

It does not appear what the attitude of these
friars was to the attack on the Jews in 1255 ; it
is said ^^ that Friar Adam Marsh alone opposed
the popular clamour, and forbade that the Jews
should be put to death. His protest was probably
made in London. He was buried in Lincoln
Cathedral in 1258.^^

In 1258 the king, after an inquiry by the
mayor, bailiffs, and citizens, gave the friars per-
mission to block up a postern in the city wall,
and enclose a lane which led to the postern on
the north side of their area.^' In the great inquest
in 1275 the jurors stated that the friars had
blocked a postern, and enclosed a lane 1 4 ft.
wide and 20 perches long, ' from the gable of

' Royal MS. App. 69, fol. 3.

' Ibid. 1 3 B, vi. The friary received a number of
books from Giles de Redmere, canon of Lincoln, 1347.
Dixon, Fasti Ebor. i, 434-5.
^ L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiv, 348.
' P.R.O. Aug. Off. bk. 211, fol. 77 ; Mins. Accts.
30-31 Hen. VIII, no, fol. 83 (Line).
' Partic. for Gts. 194 ; Reliq. xxv, 12.
^ I tin. i, 33. ' Pat. 15 Hen. Ill, m. 4.

» Ibid. ' Close, 21 Hen. Ill, m. 3.

'" Ibid. m. 2. " Lanercost Chron. 24.

" Ibid. 58 ; Grey Friars in Oxford {Oyii. Hist. Soc),
138.
'^ Pat. 42 Hen. Ill, m. 2.

Robert Cotty on the north to the postern on the
south,' running apparently under the city wall,
and they had planted their houses and church on
the wall, thereby injuring the defences of the
city. These encroachments had been made
between ten and thirty years ago, according to
the different accounts.^*

Building was going on in 1268 ;" and in
February, 1283-4, Edward I gave the friars
timber for their church." Alice de Ros was
buried in this church in or before 1286.^' The
Grey Friars' church, of which the choir still
remains,^* seems to have been built about the
middle of the thirteenth century. The under-
croft or vault, which divides the choir into two
stories, was a late addition, made perhaps before
1 300 ; by this means the floor of the choir would
be raised high above the floor of the nave (as is
the case in the Franciscan church at Ltibeck).
The arrangement would afford more room, which
was urgently needed. In 1288, 1293, and 1295
provincial chapters were held in this friary.^'
Towards the expenses of that held on 15 August,
1293, Edward I provided 100s. A grant by the
same king of 35^. 4^. for two days' food for the
convent in 1300,^" probably means that the friars
in the house numbered fifty-three, though in 1328
the number had fallen to forty ,^^ and in 133S to
thirty-seven.^^

The area of the friary was small, being
bounded by Broadgate on the east, the present
Silver Street on the north, and perhaps the
present Free School Lane on the west, while
the marshy bank of the river would prevent any
extension on the south. Encroachments on the
city wall led to disputes with the city ; for in
1 32 1 the friars complained that the mayor and
bailiffs, for the better protection of the city, had
broken the enclosures of the friars which pre-
viously joined the wall and certain private
chambers contiguous to it.^' At the same time
they obtained a royal command to the mayor,
bailiffs, and men of Lincoln to deliver up to
them all charters and muniments touching the
friary which were in the custody of the city.^*
Thomas Cobham, bishop of Worcester, con-
servator of the privileges of the friars minors in
England, interfered on behalf of the Lincoln

^* Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 3115, i, 31 8/5, 319a

325. 398.

"* Close, 52 Hen. Ill, m. 3.

'^ Ibid. 1 2 Edw. I, m. 9 ; cf. ibid. 8 Edw. I, m. 2.

" Dixon, Fasti Ebor. i, 335.

'* Line. N. and Q. i, 193-202. See also report on
the building by W. Watkins & Son, architects, in the
possession of the corporation.

"P.R.O. Wardrobe Acct. 21 Edw. I.; Camb.
Univ. Lib. MS. Ee. v, 31, fol. 29*?, 66b.

'" Liber Quotid. 28 Edvi'. I (ed. Topham), 37 ; cf.
40. A royal grant of £\ \s. was made in Sept. 1 301,
for four days' food. Add. MS. 7966 A, fol. 27.

" P.R.O. Exch. Accts. bdl. 383, No. 14.

"" Ibid. 387 (9).

'' Close, 15 Edw. II, m. ^z d. '* Ibid.

222

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

minorites,^ and the king took them under his
protection 26 August, 1321.^ A commission of
oyer and terminer was issued to Roger de Beler
and others in August, 1324, on complaint of the
warden that, while he was under the king's
protection, John de Bevercotes and Margery
his wife, Alexander Boteler of Lincoln and
Eglentina his wife, and others, broke his close and
carried away his goods.'

The friars had the usual quarrels with the
parish priests. In 1298 Bishop Sutton ordered
the rural dean of Lincoln to consider with
discreet men the action of some priests in Lincoln
who accused the friars preachers and minors of
' forging apostolic letters,' and spoke evil of their
parishioners for seeking licence to confess to the
friars.^ The bishops were generally favourable
to the friars; thus Bishop Dalderby in 13 18
admitted sixty-two Friars Minors to hear con-
fessions in the diocese of Lincoln.' Admissions
of smaller numbers frequently occur in the
episcopal registers. About this time Friar Adam
of Lincoln, formerly master of the friars at
Oxford, was buried in the church here and
' wrouglit wonders.' ^

In 1350 John de Pykeryng of Scopwick
granted these friars a messuage.' In 1379
Robert de Swanlound of Lincoln, indicted for
murder, fled for sanctuary to the Grey Friars'
church, but some of his friends came with an
armed force by night and rescued him.*

According to Leland, Henry Lacy, earl of
Lincoln (who died 131 1), and Nunny, or
William Namy, his almoner, were great bene-
factors to this house.' Among other benefactors
were John nephew of Thorold, citizen of Lincoln
(1280),''* Adam de Lymberg, rector of
Algarkirk (1329),^' Thomas Beck, bishop of Lin-
coln {1346),^^ Sir Henry Asty, kt., justice of the
common bench (1383),^' Richard Ravenser,
archdeacon of Lincoln (1385),^* Margaret Vaysey
of Stowe Park (1391)," Richard de Evyngeham,
rector of Ewerby (1396),^* John de Kele, canon
of Lincoln (14 16), Robert Ratheby, merchant of

' Wore. Epis. Reg. Cobham, fol. 66^.

' Pat. 15 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 16.

' Ibid. 18 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 30 a'.

* Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton, fol. 2 1 7 ; cf. Wore.
Epis. Reg. Thoresby, fol. 29.

' Ibid. Memo. Dalderby, fol. 368.

" Mon. Franc. (Rolls Ser.) i, 537 ; Grey Friars in
Oxford, 160 (Oxf. Hist. Soc.).

' Pat. 24 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 14.

' Ibid. 2 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 20 a'.

° I tin. i, 33 ; cf. Dixon, Fasti Ebor. i, 358.
" Line. N. and Q. iv, gq.
" Gibbons, Ear/y Line. Wills, 6.
" Test. Ebor. 1, 24.
" Gibbons, Early Line, mils, 26.
" Reg. Courtenay (Lambeth), fol. 2 1 jb.
" She directs that ' my pair of bedes de gete and
furrura de squirell ' be sold and the proceeds be given
to the friars minors (Gibbons, Early Line. Wills, 83).
" Gibbons, Early Line. Wills, 44.

Lincoln (1418),^' William Alnwick, bishop of
Lincoln ( 1 449)," Ralph Lord Cromwell (i 45 1 ),"
John Colynson, archdeacon of Northampton
{c. 1482),'"' Richard Burgh (<:. 1513)," Joan Kay
of Stixwold, widow of William Kay, gent.
(1525).^^

The abbots of the Premonstratensian Order
held their provincial chapters in the Grey Friars'
church in 1459, 1476, and 1489.^'

In September, 1534, the warden of the Grey
Friars had licence from the city to take freely
as much stone as he wanted for the reparation
of his house and church from the ruinous
churches of St. Augustine and Holy Trinity
'at the Greece foot.' ^^ On 27 January, 1534-5,
the city authorities ordered that the church of
the Holy Trinity at the Greece foot and the
church of the Holy Trinity at the Grey Friars
should be taken down and everything sold to
the use of the common chamber, the chancels
only excepted ; ^' the stones of Trinity Church at
the Grey Friars were to be used ' for dyking
and setting the commons ' between the city and
Burton. ^^ Licence was given to the warden of
the Grey Friars 8 April, 1535, to lay his conduit
in the common ground of the city, where he
shall think most convenient, and he was to have
the licence under the common seal given to him
of charity.^' In July, 1535, the timber roof of
St. ' Bathe ' Church — perhaps St. Peter ad Fon-
tem — was given ' freely for charity ' to the war-
den for the upholding and maintaining his house. ^*

The house surrendered to the bishop of Dover
in February, 1538-9. The Grey Friary was
poor, but had a goodly conduit which the mayor
wanted for the city, and the visitor promised to
write to Cromwell in support of this claim.^'
The site, containing about four acres, was let on
a yearly tenancy for 121. a year to William
Monson of Ingleby, who obtained a twenty-one
years' lease in January, 1540. It was one of the
parcels included in the particulars for the grant
to John Bellow and Edward Bayliss in 1544—5,
but does not seem to have been purchased by
them.'" It was the property in 1568 of Robert

" Gibbons, Early Line. Wills, 128, 134.

'* Abp. Strafford Reg. fol. 178^.

" Test. Ebor. ii, 197.

™P. C. C. Logge, fol. 33.

" Ibid. Fetiplace, fol. 18.

^ Line. N. and Q. viii, 73.

"^ Col. AngL Premon. (Camden Soc), (ed. Gas-
quet), i, 136, 139, 160.

" Hist. MSS. Com. ReJ>. xiv, App. viii, 33.

'' Ibid. '' Ibid. 34.

" Ibid. 33. On the conduit see Leland, /ri». i, 33 ;
Line. N. and Q. vii, 195.

'« Ibid. 34-

^ Wright, Suppression, 191 ; L. and P. Hen. VIII,
xiv (I), 348.

*• Mins. Accts. 30-31 Hen.\'III, 1 10, fol. 83 (Line);
Panic, for Gts. file 121, m. 24, 25 (entry relating to
this friary is crossed out). L. and P. Hen. Fill,
XV, 561.

223

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Monson, recorder of Lincoln and later justice of
the Common Pleas, who in that year established
a free school here at his own charges,^ and in
1574, in consideration of the grant to him of the
parsonage of Hanslope, Buckinghamshire, for divers
years, conveyed to the mayor and commonalty
of Lincoln the site of the Grey Friars, with
the Free Grammar School and the conduit
which had recently been a subject of dispute.
Monson reserved to himself the use of the
property during life or for twenty years.^ He
died in 1583. The friars' lands were let in
1598 for twenty-one years, and in the same
year the common chamber gave orders that the
fairest free stones in the friars should be piled
and laid up in the vaults under the schools. In
1 61 2 it was decided that the vault should be
used as a house of correction, and ' that malt
querns and such other provision as shall be fit
to set poor on work should be provided.' Some
years later a factory for woollen goods was set
up in the precincts of the friary.'

Leland noted among the MSS. of this friary a
history of the Albigensian heretics ; Haymo,
bishop of Halberstadt, on Isaiah ; Breviarium
(Romanae historiae) Eutropii ; De origine et
gestis Francorum ; Phrygius de Bello Troiano —
the last three in one volume.^

The pointed oval seal of the house in the
thirteenth century represents on the left St,
Francis (?) holding a staff, on the right a winged
seraph standing on an uncertain object.^

78. THE WHITE FRIARS OF LINCOLN

Leland mentions as first founder of the White
Friars in Lincoln ' Gualterus called Dorotheas,
dean of Lincoln,' ^ but no dean of Lincoln of
this name is known. According to Richard
Hely, prior of Maldon, the house was founded
by Odo of Kilkenny in 1269.' In this year
Henry III granted the Carmelite Friars of
Lincoln six beech trees for a kiln.* Edward I
authorized them, 26 November, 1280, to receive
lands adjacent to their own for the increase
of their area ; and this was confirmed by
Edward III in January, 1348-9.^ In 1287

■ Hist. MSS. Com. Ref. xiv, App. viii, 62.

^ Line. N. and g. vii, 196.

' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 73, 75, 90,
97, 99, &c.

' Royal MS. App. 69, fol. 3 ; cf. Royal MS. 1 3 C iv,
and Leland's account of the library of the White Friars
(below).

' B. M. Seals, Ixvii, i.

* Itin. i, 33. ' Harl. MS. 539, fol. 12.

" Close, 5 3 Hen. Ill, m. 8 ; cf. Close, 4 Edw. I,
m. 10, grant of timber (1276).

^ Pat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 10. It is singular
that the grant does not appear in the patent rolls of
Edw. I, but there is a grant of the same date and in
similar terms to the Carmelites of Oxford. Cal. Pat.
1272-81,415.

'on the Day of the Exaltation of the Holy
Cross (14 September) the Carmelite Friars
changed their habit at Lincoln,' adopting white
capes, probably in a provincial chapter.'" Ed-
ward I gave them i8j. ?>d. for two days' food
in 1 300, when the number of friars was probably
twenty-eight." There were thirty friars in
1328,'^ and thirty-four in 1335."

The tenth provincial prior, Richard Blyton,
was buried here about 1325.'^ A provincial
chapter was held here in 1343, at which the
general, Peter Raymond, was present.'*

' There lay,' says Leland, ' in a chapel at the
White Friars a rich merchant called Ranulphus
de Kyme, whose image was thence taken and
set at the south end of the new castle of the
conduit of water in Wikerford.' '° William de
Belay, citizen of Lincoln, left 335. 4«f. for a
window in the Carmelite church at Lincoln,
1383.'' John Boston of Lincoln was buried in
the church 143 1.'*

Richard Misyn, S.T.B., was prior of this
house in 1435 ; he translated into English some
works of Richard Rolle or Hampole at the
request of Margaret Hellingdon, a recluse.'*
The library of these friars seems to have been
of considerable value. Leland ^^ noted in it
Chronica Martini de gestis pontificum et
inperatorum ; Vita sancti Edwardi Anglorum
regis et confessoris edita per Ethelredum
abbatem Rivallis ; Dialogus Osberni Glouces-
terensis Monachi de quaestionibus in libris
Genesis, Exodi, Levitici, Numeri et Deutero-
nomii, and Tractatus ejusdem super librum
Judicum ; ^' Historia Romana per Paulum Dia-
conum ; Historia Anglorum per Henricum
Huntingdon ; ^^ Vincentius [Bellovacensis] de
morali principis instructione et de puerorum
nobilium eruditione. Several of these volumes
were appropriated by Henry VIII. A volume

'° Lanercost Chron. 122 ; cf. Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.),
iv, 312 ; Harl. MS. 18 19, fol. 59 ; cf. Harl. MS.
3838, fol. 57. Will. Hanaberg, provincial 1278-99,
held a chapter at Lincoln.

" Liber Quotid. 28 Edw. I, 37 ; cf. 39.

'' P.R.O. Exch. Accts. bdl. 383, No. 14.

" Ibid. 387, No. 9.

'* Stevens, Monast. ii, 159 ; Bale, MS. Harl. 3838,
fol. 633, says he died 1 361.

'° Pat. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 29.

'^ Leland, Itin. i, 33. One of this name fi. 1322.
Cal. Pat. 1 32 1-4, p. 117. Bequests to this house in
Test. Ebor. i, 24, ii, 197.

" Gibbons, Early Line. Wills, 31-2.

'Mbid. 157.

" Preserved in Corpus Christi Coll. Oxf. MS. 236
(sec. xv), published by the Early Eng. Text Society,
1896. Richard Misyn afterwards became bishop
probably of Dromore. Diet. Nat. Biog. xxxviii, 57.

»" B.M. Royal MS. App. 69, fol. zb.

'■ This is no doubt Royal MS. 6 D. ix. It is num-
bered ' 1240,' but does not contain a note of
ownership.

^^ Possibly MS. Bibl. Advoc. Edin. 33, J, 4.

224

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

among the Royal MSS. in the British Museum
(13 C. iv) belonged to this house ; it contains
the Roman histories of Eutropius and Paulus
Diaconus, besides other works, and is doubtless the
MS. mentioned by Leland.^

The friary was surrendered to Richard, bishop
of Dover, in February, 1538-9 ; ' like the rest of
the Lincoln friaries it was poor, but well leaded.
The bells and lead were taken for the king's
use. Part of the land and a chamber near
' le Garners' had been let in 1520 to Thomas
Gells for sixty-one years at a rent of 2s. The
rest, estimated at four acres, was let to Henry-
Sapcotts for 13J. ^d. a year. In 1544 the whole
area, including the chamber of Thomas ' Welles,'
was sold to John Broxholme of London.'

79. THE FRIARS OF THE SACK OF
LINCOLN

The Friars of the Penance of Jesus Christ
or Friars of the Sack settled here before 23 June,
1266, when Henry III granted them a vacant
place next their houses.* This is probably
identical with ' the vacant place of the common
pasture of the city which the friars had of
the commonalty of Lincoln.' ^ Their area,
measuring 540 ft. by 420 ft., and situated in the
suburb in Thornbridgegate Street,' included
eight other tenements conferred on them by
different benefactors, namely, John de Parham,
Arnold de Wyrsop, Mabel and Christiana de
Gamel, William Brande, John atte Loft or John
son of Gilbert de Solario, Robert de Cotty,
Alan Brown, and John son of William de Paris.
From each of the nine tenements i^. a year was
paid towards the ferm of the city, and most of
them were held of the king.' In 1268 the
king gave them thirteen oaks towards the fabric
of their church.' The order was suppressed,
i.e. forbidden to admit new members, by the
Council of Lyons in 1274. In 1279 the prior
brought an assize of novel disseisin against
William Brond or Brande, one of the bene-
factors of the house.' There seem to have been
four friars of the Sack remaining here in 1300,
when Edward I gave them 2s. ^d. for two days'
food.^" They had ceased to occupy the house in

' Numbered * 1 139.' See also Leland's account of
the Grey Friars' Library.

' L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiv (i), 348 ; Wright, Sup-
pression, 191.

' Mins. Accts. 30-31 Hen. VIII, no, fol. 83
(Line.) ; Partic. for Gts. file 193 ; L.andP. Hen. Fill,
xix, (2), 166 (40).

' Pat. 50 Hen. Ill, m. 12. ° Inq. a.q.d. 68 (9).

' Ibid. 94 (9). ' Ibid. 68 (9), 94 (9).

" Close, 52 Hen. Ill, m. 3.

' Pat. 7 Edw. I, m. zzd.

^^ Liber Quoiid. &c. 28 Edw. I (ed. Topham), 31,
cf. 40. In the next year they also had zs. and
<)s. zd. of the royal alms. Add. MS. 7966, A, fol.
2\b, 27.

2 22

1307, when the Premonstratensian abbey of
Barlings sought to acquire the site.^^ The jurors
to whom the question was referred declared that
it would be to the serious injury of the city if the
abbot and canons obtained the site, for they
intended to pull down the church and set up
warehouses in which to store their tanned hides,
wool, corn, and other products until they could
sell them at a profit like common merchants.
The jurors valued the house and site at 1 1 6^. i^d.
The canons of Barlings did not secure the site,
though a meeting of the abbots of the Premon-
stratensian Order in England was held in this
church in 1310.^' In 13 13 an inquiry was held
as to the advisability of granting the site to
Philip de Kyme. The jurors, some of whom
had sat on the previous inquest, returned a
favourable answer, and declared the place to be
worth YOsy^

The chapel was still in existence in 1327,
when Master William de Bayeux and John
Gernoun granted lands and rents to the dean and
chapter of Lincoln to support two or three
chaplains to celebrate divine service in it.^* In
1359 Joan, wife first of William de Kyme (son
of Philip), and then of Nicholas de Cantilupe,
had leave to found a chantry of five priests in
honour of St. Peter, to pray for the soul of her
second husband, on the ground where this friary
had formerly stood. ^^ The memory of these
friars lingered long in Lincoln, for in a deed of
1455 mention is made of 'a stone wall lately
belonging to the friars lately called Sekfriars,
called le Stamp.' "

80. THE AUSTIN FRIARS OF
STAMFORD

According to Leland ^^ one Fleminge, a very
rich man of Stamford, founded the Austin Friary
here. The first founder appears to have been
Robert de Wodehouse, archdeacon of Richmond,
who in 1341 and 1342 obtained leave of the
king and the pope to found and build a house for
twelve Austin Friars in the west suburb of the
town near St. Peter's Gate, on land formerly
occupied by the friars of the Sack.'' In 1343
the bishop of Lincoln gave his consent. '' Robert
de Wodehouse was buried in the choir of the
church under a marble slab, probably in January,
i344-5> and left to the friars all his goods

" Inq. a.q.d. 68 (9).

" Collectanea Anglo-Premonstratensia (Camden Soc),
vol. i, 7, 13, 14.

" Inq. a.q.d. 94 (9).

" Pat. I Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 21 ; cf. Pat. 5 Edw. Ill,
pt. ii, m. 26.

"Pat. 32 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 30; cf. Dugdale,
Baronage.

'' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 16.

" I tin. vi, 25.

'* Cal. Pap. Letters, iii, 69 ; Inq. a.q.d. 259 (8).

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Beek. fol. 35 a'.

5 29

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

within their enclosure, besides leaving ^20 of
silver for funeral expenses.-' The prior and
convent of the order of Sempringham in 1372
granted these friars ten acres adjacent to their
dwelling. The land, which was held of Edmund
of Langley, lay between the wall of the friars
and ' le grene Dyke,' and was worth 6s. 8d.
a year.^ Among the brethren of this house were
Thomas Winterton, D.D., of Oxford, provincial
prior, 1382 : William Egmond or William of
Stamford, suffragan to the bishop of Lincoln,
c, 1390.'

The house was surrendered 6 October, 1538,
to Dr. John London by Richard Warnar, prior,
and five brethren.* Dr. London sold all the
glass, else it would have been stolen, for the
house stood outside the town.^ The church
was well leaded.^ In 1548 Austin Friars was
granted to Edward Lord Clinton : it consisted
of the site of the friary with the house, about
two acres ; a close of five acres in the tenure of
William Wilton ; one acre adjoining the close
in the tenure of Thomas Gedney ; total annual
value 37^. 8^. In 1598 it was in the possession
of William Cecil Baron Biirghley.'

81. THE BLACK FRIARS OF
STAMFORD

No records of any grants of land to the
Black Friars at Stamford seem to have been
preserved. The first mention of them occurs
in the will of William de Paveli, who, I Novem-
ber, 1 24 1, left them 2s. ^ They must have
been here already for some years, for in February,
1243-4 Henry III gave them ten oaks for their
refectory, and in July of that year fifteen marks
for making a conduit ; ' the spring for the supply

' Test. Ebor. i, 13 ; Gibbons, Early Line. Wills, 22 ;
Line. N. and Q. i, 24 ; cf. Test. Ebor. i, 48.

^ Inq. a.q.d. 379 (12) ; Pat. 46 Edvvr. Ill, pt. ii,
m. 2 ; cf. Pat. 25 Plen. VI, pt. ii, m. 8 ; cf. Peck,
Annals of Stanford, xi, 2 5 : ' Several antique pieces of
sculpture in stone representing divers birds, beasts,
fruits, flowers, &c., and now inserted in a new court
wall belonging to the late Mr. Feast's house, were
not originally part of Sempringham Hall, but more
truly dug up in the Austin Friars (when the seal of
Thomas bishop of Elphin was discovered there)
and for ornament removed hither by the aforesaid
Mr. Feast.'

' Tanner, Bibl. 781,256; Fasclc. Zlzan. (Rolls Ser.) ;
Diet. Nat. Blog. Ixii, 226.

* L. and P. Hen. nil, xiii (2), 546.

5 Ibid. 719. Mbid. xiv (i), 3.

''Line. N. and Q. i, 23 ; P.R.O. Aug. Off. Deeds of
Purchase and Exchange, H. 3 ; Mins. Accts. 30-31
Hen. VIII, no, fol. 84 Line.

* Madox, Form. Jngllc. 424. The will is
dated ' on the feast of All Saints after the death of
St. Edmund archbishop of Canterbury.' Edmund
Rich died 16 November, 1240, and was canonized
1 1 January, 1 247.

' Liberate R. 28 Hen. Ill, m. 14, 7. Rellq. xxi, 135.

being in Northamptonshire the pipes must have
crossed the River Welland. Henry III fre-
quently made them grants of fuel or timber.'"
In August, 1247, ^^ ordered the sheriff of
Lincoln to supply them with three days' food
for their provincial chapter at Stamford, and
gave them two casks of wine.'^ For a provincial
chapter held here October, 1 26 1, the bailiff of
Stamford was ordered to supply food for one
day.^^ The chapter was also held here in 1276,
when Edward I gave ten marks for necessaries
on the first day.'^ He also gave them, 1293,
three oaks for making their stalls.'* From the
executors of Queen Eleanor they received lOos.
in 1 29 1 and 34^. 2d. in addition, probably in
connexion with her funeral rites.'* When
Edward I passed through Stamford in 1299 and
1300 he gave them alms: on one occasion 28j.
for two days' food, on another 7 ox. for five days'
food, and again 13J. \d. for one day's food."
The friars numbered about forty or forty-two at
this time. When the court was at Stamford
the Crosses of St. Neot and the Holy Thorn were
kept in the Black Friars' church, and attracted
worshippers and oblations.^'

Among those buried in the church were
Thomas son of William de Fortibus, earl of
Albemarle, soon after 1260,'* and Emma wife of
Geoffrey de St. Medard, 1278." The church
was rebuilt before 1 3 1 0, when licence to dedicate
the new church was given by Bishop Dalderby,^"
who also admitted friars of this house to hear
confessions.^' Edward II lodged in this friary in
August, 1 309,^^ and gave 12s. 8d. to thirty-eight
brethren here i December, 1314;^^ and Queen
Isabella, in 131 5, made an offering of a cloth of
gold at the high altar.^* The provincial chapter
again met here 8 September, 1320 ; the king
gave ^^15 towards the expenses for three days.^*

'" Liberate, 29 Hen. Ill, m. 7531 Hen. Ill, m. 8 ;
33 Hen. Ill, m. 3 ; Close, 35 Hen. Ill, m. 3 ;
45 Hen. Ill, m. 6 ; 46 Hen. Ill, m. 6.

" Liberate R. 31 Hen. Ill, m. 3.

" Close, 45 Hen. Ill, m. 2 ; cf. P.R.O. Anct.
Corresp. iii, 146.

'^ Liberate, 4 Edw. I, m. 2 ; cf. Close, Edw. I,
m. 5 (fuel).

'* Close, 21 Edw. I, m. 9.

'^ P.R.O. Exch. Accts. 352 (27).

'« Exch. Q.R. Wardrobe 8-1 1 (37 Edw. I) ; Liber
Quotld. &c. 28 Edw. I (ed. Topham), 32, 34, 44 ;
Add. MS. 7966 A, fol. 233.

" Liber Quotld. &c. 35.

" Dugdaie, Baronage, i, 65. There is no evidence
to support Pecic's surmise {Annals, viii, 4, 37) that
this earl was founder of the house.

'' Tanner, Not. Monast.

'" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, fol. 1 79.

'' Ibid. fol. 11 d, ijd, igd. In 1 301 sixteen of
these friars were presented to hear confessions.

" Close, 3 Edw. II, m. 24,/. Sched.

»' P.R.O. Wardrobe Accts. 8 Edw. II.

" Rell^. xxi, 137.

'^ Rymer, Foedera (Rec. Com. ii, 433) ; Re^j. xxi ;
Exit. Scac. Easter, 13 Edw. II, m. 5.

226

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

In 1324 Edward II was again at Stamford, and
gave a pittance to thirty-eight friars preachers,
who presented him with sixty pears.^ Edward III
spent Easter, 1332, in this friary, and on 14 May
paid fifty marks to the friars for damages done by
the royal household.^ In 1335 Edward III was
again entertained here, and on several occasions
gave the friars pittances ; there were thirty-eight
friars in March, 1335-6, thirty-four in June,
1337.' In 1340 the king gave ^^15 towards
the expenses of the provincial chapter here,^ and
the like sum in 1370 ; on the latter occasion the
grant was not paid till March, 1373-4.*

Bishop Gynwell, 21 January, 1352-3, licensed
Friar Roger de St. Liz, D.D., of this house, to
hear confessions within the convent and grant
absolution in episcopal cases.*

In 1373 the prior was troubled with suits
brought against him for contracts into which his
friars had entered without his knowledge, and for
loans which had never gone to the use of his
house. He obtained a royal writ, 30 October, to
the bailiffs of the town commanding them to
desist from such suits except when the contracts
or money had been for his use or the use of his
house.'

Friar Henry of Aldwinkle, of the convent of
Stamford, was imprisoned for a carnal sin, escaped,
and appealed to Rome without the permission of
his superiors. The master-general imposed a
penance on him, and assigned him as student of
theology to the convent of Cologne. In Feb-
ruary, 1395-6, the master ratified Friar Henry's
right of succession to the chamber in the Stam-
ford priory which Friar Richard then held. Two
years later he restored him to all the graces of the
order, and forbade the English friars ever to
allude to his offence.* In 1399 this friar was
appointed by the master chaplain and confessor
' in the monastery of St. Mary in the isle of
Rowlandswerde of the nuns.' ' The convent of
Stamford was in the visitation of Cambridge.'"

In 141 6 Henry Wolsey and Nicholas Grene,
' websters,' of Stamford, were charged with as-
saulting and beating Friars John Leverington
and William Spenser of this order.''

The Despensers had a chapel in this church.
Sir Hugh le Despenser, kt., directed in his will,
1 400, that this chapel, ' where my uncle lies, be
made longer and a marble stone placed there for

' Reliq. xxi, 137.

' Ibid. Exit. Scac. Easter, 6 Edw. Ill, m. 4.

^ Reliq. xxi, 137.

* Ibid. Exit. Scac. Mich. 48 Eivi. Ill, m. 28.

' Ibid. 48 Edw. Ill, m. 28.

" Peck, Annals, xi, 50.

' Close, 47 Edw. Ill, m. 12 ; Reliq. xxi, 138.

' Reg. of Raymond de Vineis, Add. MS. 32446,
fol. ii, 3, 83. ; Reliq. xxi, 138.

" Ibid. fol. 9. Probably Nonnenwerth near Roland-
seek on the Rhine, south of Bonn.

'° Wore. Cath. Lib. MS. Q. 93.
" Inq. a.q.d. 4 Hen. V, 21.

my father and mother and another for my wife
and myself.' '^

Among benefactors of the house were Sir
Thomas Chaworth, kt., 1347 ; Sir Anketill
Mallore, kt., 1390, who was buried before the
altar of the Virgin on the north side ; Sir W. de
Thorpe, 1391 ; Robert Fcreby, 1392; Robert
Flower of Oakham, 1424 ; Elizabeth, widow of
Richard Grey of Codnore, 1444 ; Agnes, widow
of John Brown, esq., of. Stamford, 1470 ;
Sir Thomas Fisher, vicar of Gilden Morden,
15 18; Sir William Fitzwilliam the elder of
Milton, Northamptonshire, kt., 1534."

A sermon in Stamford Church, 22 August,
1535, in favour of justification by faith produced
fierce replies from some Dominicans."

The house was surrendered to Dr. London
7 October, 1538, by William Stafforde, S.T.B.
prior, and eight brethren.'* Dr. London sold the
glass in the church and the brewing vessels, and
sent the plate to London. The church was well
leaded." The site, containing 10 acres, with the
conduit, was valued at \os. a year ; a close or
meadow with garden and pools was let to
Geoffrey Villers for 20J. ; 2 acres of waste land
were held by David Vincent at 161^. ; total
annual value, 6 1 J. 4^. David Vincent, 25 March,
1539, became tenant of the whole, but never
actually paid rent, and being a page of the bed-
chamber, had all given to him and Robert Butcher,
with other monastic lands, in recompense for his
faithful services, 25 January, 1541-2."

The house stood in the south-east suburb near
the water-gate, and the grounds extended to the
river. Some remains are shown in Speed's plan
of Stamford. The proprietor in 1727 was
Savil Cust, esq. Nothing was left of the house
at that time.'*

The seal, pointed oval, shows the Virgin half-
length with Child on the left, and a saint, perhaps
St. Dominic, half-length on the right ; over them
a head ; underneath a friar kneeling.'^

82. THE GREY FRIARS OF
STAMFORD

The Friars Minors must have been settled in
Stamford before 1230, for Henry III made them
a grant of fuel 13 January, 1229-30.^° In 1235

" Gibbons, Earl;j Line. Wills, 98.

" Ibid. 5 7, 79, &c. ; Test. Ebor. i, 47 ; P. C. C. Rous,
fol. 46 ; Reliq. xxi, 138, 139 ; Dugdale, Baronage, i,
711.

" L. and P. Hen. Fill, ix, 61 1.

" Ibid, xiii (2), 552 ; Def. Keepei^s Rep. viii, App. ii,
42.

" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii (2), 719 ; xiv (i), 3.

"P. R.O. Mins. Accts. 30-31 Hen. VIII, no,
fol. 84; 32-33 Hen. VIII, 78 ; Partic. for Gts. 211 ;
Pat. 33 Hen. VIII, 8, m. 1 1 ; StoweMS. 141, fol. 37.

" Peck, Annals, viii, 38.

" B.M. Seals, Ixvii, 39 ; cf. Reliq. xxi, 139.

*' Close, 14 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 18 ; cf. ibid. 16
Hen. Ill, m. 14 ; 18 Hen. Ill, m. 29.

227

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

the king supplied them with timber to make
stalls.^ A provincial chapter was held here in
September, 1239 ; Henry III ordered the sheriff
of Lincoln to give the friars 1 00s. for one day's
expenses.^ At a chapter held here a few years
later, probably in 1247 o"" 1249, ^^^ Franciscans
formally welcomed the Austin Friars to England.'
In 1244 the king gave them iooj. for their
church from the revenues of the bishopric of
Chester (Lichfield).* They also received several
grants of fuel of the royal alms.' The sixth pro-
vincial minister was John of Stamford.*

In or about 1293 a provincial chapter was
held here,' and another in 1300 ; in support of
the latter Edward I gave ;^io.*

When passing through Stamford several times in
1299 and 1300 the king gave alms to these friars,
from which it appears that the number of inmates
of the friary varied between 39 and 46.'

The convent was in the custody of Oxford,
and the special studium for the friaries of the
custody was at Stamford in 1337. It is possible
that this was a temporary arrangement, connected
with the attempt to establish a university here.^"

In 1365 the friars sought to acquire 7 acres of
land contiguous to their dwelling-place from
Sir Thomas le Despenser, kt., and Master Henry
le Despenser, but the townsfolk claimed right of
common on this land, and opposed the grant.^^

The house stood in the east suburb near
St. Paul's gate ; the boundary walls were still
standing in Peck's time, ' whereby it appears that
the church, monastery, and gardens took in a
great compass of ground.' ^^ ' Out of the ruins,'
the Stamford antiquary continues, ' have been
frequently dug many fine pieces of carving in the
memory of several persons yet alive. And in the
outgoing wall down from St. Paul's to St. George's
gate is yet to be seen part of a figure of a woman
with dishevelled hair,' ^^ which was dug up here.

Thomas Holland, earl of Kent, who died

' Close, 19 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 4.
' Liberate, 23 Hen. Ill, m. 7.
' Mon. Franc. (Rolls Ser.), 1,71.

* Liberate, 28 Hen. Ill, m. 6.

' Ibid. m. 7 ; Close, 36 Hen. Ill, m. 26 ; 52
Hen. Ill, m. 3.

^ Mon. Franc, i, 537.

' Camb. Univ. Lib. MS. Ee. v, 31, fol. 483. Pro-
bably, however, the year is wrong, and should be 1295 ;
cf. P.R.O. Wardrobe Acct. 21 Edw. I.

* Liber Quotid. &c. 28 Edw. I (ed. Topham), 44-5.
(3 Sept.).

' P.R.O. Exch. Acct. 357 (4) ; Liber Quotid. &c.
28 Edw. I, 32, 35 ; Add. MS. 7966 A, fol. 23*.

'» Bodl. MS. Can. Misc. 75, fol. 78 ; Trans. Roy.
Hist. Soc. viii. John of Berwick, S.T.P. of Oxford, was
at Stamford in 1300, probably as lector (Line. Epis.
Reg. Memo. Dalderby, fol. 16 d.).

" Inq. a.q.d. 357 (19).

" ?eck, Jnna/s, viii, 55.

" Engraved in Peck, Jnnals, xii, 12. Peck suggests
it may have been part of the monument erected by
Richard II to his mother.

28 December, 1360, was buried in a chapel ad-
joining the Grey Friars church of Stamford ; "
and in January, 1385-6, his wife Joan, the fair
maid of Kent, who after his death married the
Black Prince and became the mother of Richard II,
was buried here ^^ near her first husband ' in a
sumptuous chapel recently built next the choir.' "
The king kept the chapel in repair."

Blanche, daughter of Henry, earl of Lancaster,
and widow of Thomas, Lord Wake of Lydell,
desired, 1380, to be buried in this church 'between
my cousine of Tatteshale et le degreez.' ^' Her
confessor, Friar William Folville, D.D., of Cam-
bridge, was buried here in 1 384." Robert Fereby
was buried in the church in 1392, and left
40J. to the convent.^" Sir Robert Holland, kt.
(1372), Sir William Thorpe, kt. (1391),
John de la Warre, kt. (1397), were among the
benefactors of the house.^^

Among the Franciscans implicated in treason-
able practices against Henry IV was Friar John
Leycestre of the convent of Stamford, 1402.^^
William Russell, a Grey Friar, maintained in a
sermon at Stamford in 1424 that a religious
might lie with a woman without sin.^'

In May, 1520, Henry VIII granted j^io to
the Friars Minors for their provincial chapter to
be held at Stamford.^*

Some of the Observant Friars, Francis Lybert,
Abraham, Hugh I*Jorrysse, were sent to the friary
at Stamford and treated as prisoners after the
suppression of the Observant houses.^^

The friary was surrendered to Dr. London
8 October, 1538, by John Schewyn, the warden,
and nine other friars.^* The visitor dispatched
the friars all well contented, and made what he
could of the movables. He left the friars their
brewing vessels, and could get only 8j. for all the
kitchen stuff; he sold the church ornaments and
glass. The church was well leaded. At the
Grey Friars, however, was left as yet unsold ' a
goodly image of copper and gilt, and the bed laid
upon marble, made for Dame Blanche duchess
of Lancaster. It is very weighty ; I reserved it
to know if the King's grace would occupy it.' ^^

A few days after the surrender Dr. London, by
Cromwell's order, gave the custody of the house

" Dugdale, Baronage, ii, 78, 94.

" Ibid. 94<J ; Diet. Nat. Biog. xxix, 393 ; Walsing-
ham. Hist. Angl. ii, 130.

'« Bodl. MS. Dodsworth 140, fol. 4*.

'' Rymer, Foedera, vii, 527 (orig. ed.).

" Gibbons, Early Line. Wills, 83.

" Bale, Index Script, (ed. Poole).

" P.C.C. Rous, fol. 46.

" Gibbons, Early Line. Wills, 52, 79, 105.

«' Pat. 3 Hen. IV, pt. ii, m. li d.

'" Grey Friars in Oxford (Oxf. Hist. Soc), 257 ;
Peck, Annals, xiv, 2.

"* L. and?. Hen. Fill, iii, 1541.

" Ibid, vii, 1607 ; viii, I 307.

*Mbid. xiii (2), 564; Rymer, Foedera, xiv, 61 1 j
Weever, Fun. Mon. no, 1 1 1.

'' L.andP. Hen. VIII, xiii (2), 613, 719 ; xiv (i), 3.

228

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

to Mr. Vincent, but within three hours the Duke
of Suffolk wrote that he trusted to have that
house. Dr. London thought that the town would
be helped by the duke lying there.^ The friary
was granted to the duke in 1541. Thesite and
grounds comprised 1 1 acres, besides the orchard ;
and the whole, including kiln-house, making-
chamber, two leaden cisterns with conduit, was
valued at 41^. a year. The principal buildings
had already been levelled with the ground.*

The seal represents the Assumption of the
Virgin, in a vesica-shaped frame, upheld by angels
over an embattled tower.^ R. de Falle was
warden here about 1253,* Baldwin Gubaud
warden 1276,° and John de Codington 1300.^

83. THE WHITE FRIARS OF
STAMFORD

The White Friars settled here in the east
suburb shortly before 1268, when Henry III
granted them six oaks for the fabric of their
church.' The house claimed to be a royal
foundation ; one of the gates bore the royal
arms, and the English kings and princes are said
to have lodged in the friary in their journeyings
to and from the north.* The establishment of
the friary was perhaps due to Henry de Hanna,
the second provincial prior, 1254—71.' He is
said to have been prior of Stamford, and was
buried in the choir of the White Friars here in
1299.^° His successor, William Ludhngton,
S.T.P. of Oxford, and friar of Stamford, was
elected provincial prior in 1300 at the provincial
chapter held here (to the expenses of which
Edward I gave £10), and was likewise buried at
Stamford."

In 1 3 1 9 again a chapter was held here at which
Richard Blyton was elected provincial.-'^ It would
seem that the convent was of special importance
in the province at this period. The royal alms

' L. and P. Hen. VUI, xiii (z), 613.

' Mins. Accts. 30-31 Hen. VIII, no, fol. 84
(Line.) ; Partic. for Gts. File 1080 (no date) ; L.
and P. Hen. VUI, xvi, 678 (9) ; cf. Stowe MS. 141,
fol. 37.

' B.M. Seals, Ixvii, 40.

' Mm. Tram. (Rolls Ser.), i, 35;.

' Close, 4 Edw. I, m. 14 d.

^ Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, fol. 16 d.

' Ibid. 52 Hen. Ill, m. 3 ; cf. Ibid. 55 Hen. Ill,
m. 4, and 18 Edw. I, m. 3. Ric. Hely, Carmelite
prior of Maldon, mentions as the founders Edw. I,
Henry Sampson, and Walter Fleming, 1276 (Harl.
MS. 529, fol. 143).

' Peck, Annals, viii, 44 ; xi, 29.

' Bale, Harl. MS. 3838, fol. 22^, 55,5.

'" Peck, Annals, ix, 12 ; Harl. MS. 3838, fol. 22^,

" Ibid. 43 ; Add. MS. 7966 A, fol. zdb ; Harl. MS.
3838, fol. 58.

>» Bale, Harl. MS. 3838, fol. z%b, 62 ; Peck,
Annals, x, 14.

granted to these friars between 1298 and 13 14
show that there were from twenty to twenty-six
brethren in the house.^'

The White Friars obtained three messuages in
Stamford in 1285 from Master Henry Sampson,
Peter son of Robert le Clerk of Berham, and
Reginald le Chapeleyn ; and small pieces of land
from Roger de Rowell and William de Corne-
stall." In November, 1317, they had licence
from the king to acquire in mortmain eleven
plots of land to the north of their dwelling-place
and measuring 400 ft. by 230 ft. Eight of these
plots had already been granted, and were now
confirmed by royal authority," namely, a croft or
piece of ground given by Walter Flemynge son
of Andrew of Stamford ; a plot of land given by
William son of Andrew of Cornestall ; i id. of ,
rent in Stamford from Robert de Stokes, mer-
chant ; a plot of land in Stamford from Roger de
Rowell ; houses in the parish of Holy Trinity
without the east gate between the houses of
William de la Chekere and Walter Be, weaver,
granted by Peter son of Robert le Clerk of Ber-
ham ; houses in the east suburb bought from
William de la Chekere by Adam de Sancto Laudo
and given by him to the friars ; a tenement in
the parish of Holy Trinity lying between the
tenements of William son of Andrew of Corne-
stall and Simon the apothecary, granted by
Master Henry Sampson, rector of the church of
Eston by Stamford ; and lastly a remise by
' Table de Repynghale ' to all claim in a plot of
land lying without the east gate of Cornestall,
between the area of the friars and a lane stretch-
ing from the street of Cornestall to the east gate
of Stamford. These grants were confirmed by
Edward III in 1333," and in 1336 the friars had
licence to acquire the three remaining plots,
measuring 60 ft. in length and 230 ft. in breadth,
from Clement de Haconby, Richard le Mele-
mongere, and Master Robert de Berudon.^' In
1350 they obtained a toft and three gardens
from William de Shilvington.^*

There seems to be very little evidence now
extant to support the tradition that the educational
eminence of Stamford in the early part of the
fourteenth century was mainly owing to the
Carmelites.-'^ John Burley, D.D., of Oxford,
was an inmate of this house, where he is said to
have died 1332.*" Walter Heston, D.D., of
Cambridge, is said to have succeeded Ludlington
as prior at Stamford and to have lectured in the

" P. R. O. Exch. Wardrobe Acct. 27 Edw. I ; Liber
Quolid. Sec. 28 Edw. I (ed. Topham), 44 ; P. R.O.
Wardrobe Accts. 8 Edw. II ; Add. MS. 7966 A, fol.
23^.

" Pat. 13 Edw. I, m. 16.

'^ Ibid. II Edw. II, pt. i, m. 14.

" Ibid. 7 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 27.

" Ibid. loEdw. III,pt. ii,m. 22; Inq.a.q.d. 238(10).

'* Ibid. 24 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 4.

" Cf Oxf. Hist. Soc. Collectanea, i, 3 et seq.

^»Harl. MS. 3838, fol. 58.

229

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Carmelite schools here.^ A house standing east
of the parsonage house in St. George's parish,
pulled down by the Earl of Exeter about 1720,
was known in the sixteenth century as the White
Friars School ; ^ it was within the walls of the
town and at some distance from the friary.

The friary is said to have been a magnificent
structure, famous for its beautiful church and
steeple ; and the grounds appear to have been
nearly a mile in circumference.^

In 1348 many brave knights, according to
Bale, entered the order, among them Geoffrey
Suthorpe at Stamford.* Johnde Repingale,S.T.P.,
confessor to John Gynwell, bishop of Lincoln,
and author of many sermons, was a friar here
1359.* Ralph of Spalding, D.D. of Cambridge,
and a supporter of Wyclif, lived here about 1390
and was buried at Stamford.* The council of
Stamford in 1392 met at the White Friars.'
The Carmelites held a provincial chapter here in
1444, when Nicholas Kenton was elected pro-
vincial.*

Dr. John London, 8 October, 1538, received
the surrender of the house, the deed being signed
by John Kyrtun the prior and six brethren.' The

church was well leaded.^' Richard Cecil seems
to have promptly taken possession of the house
and site, and there was some talk of the king
having the Grey and White Friars for his lodg-
ing, ' which be scant meet to lodge his dogs.*
Cecil obtained a lease of the site in 1542 for a
rent of 50J." It was granted to Lord Clinton in
1552."

The seal of the friary was pointed oval, repre-
senting a saint full-length, in a canopied niche
with tabernacle work at the sides ; a palm branch
in the right hand.''

84. THE FRIARS OF THE SACK OF
STAMFORD

The house of the Friars of the Sack, or Friars
of the Penance of Jesus Christ, must have been
founded here before 1274, when the council of
Lyons decreed the suppression of the order.
Edward I gave a pittance for four friars of this
house in 1300." The ground which they had
occupied was in 1342 conferred on the Austin
Friars.^'

HOSPITALS

85. THE HOSPITAL OF HOLY INNO-
CENTS WITHOUT LINCOLN

The hospital of Holy Innocents may well
claim to be the earliest foundation of this kind
within the county, as it evidently dates from the
beginning of the twelfth century. If, as it has
been alleged by some, it was built by Bishop
Remigius,'" the date of foundation would be
before 1094 ; but an inquisition taken during the
reign of JEdward III named King Henry I as
founder, on the ground of charters produced at
that time.^' Ranulf, earl of Chester, was another
benefactor of the hospital, and Henry II confirmed
all benefactions made before his reign.'^

This hospital was commonly called ' La Mala-
derie ', and was intended to receive ten lepers of
either sex, under the charge of a warden and

' Peck, Annals, x, 14. Heston was buried at
Stamford, Karl. MS. 3838, fol. 70^.

' Ibid, xi, 25.

' Ibid, viii, 44. The Ear/y Line. Wills contain a
number of bequests to this house, but none of special
interest.

* Ibid, xi, 45 ; Karl. MS. 3838, fol. 31.

' Karl. MS. 3838, fol. 70; Peck, Jnnals, x, 2 ;
xi, 59.

" Peck, Annals, x\\, 22 ; Harl. MS. 3838 fol. 83^.
' Peck, .(/«W/,xii, 26;faj«V. Zizan. (Rolls Ser.), 343.

* Peck, Annals, xiv, i o, 1 8 ; Diet. Nat. Biog. xxxi, 28.
" L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii (2), 565 ; Rymer, Foed.

xiv, 612.
" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 627. " Ibid. Charter!, I.

'^ Ibid.

two chaplains ; patients might be recommended
by the mayor and good men of Lincoln, and
the consent of the king and the chancellor had
to be obtained for their admission.^' Such were
the terms of the foundation ; but the royal
patronage extended to the house proved much
more of a hindrance than a help. For the office
of warden was constantly given, probably as a
reward for services of a very different kind, to
the royal clerks ; and these, not being obliged to
reside, left the house in charge of others who
proved unworthy of the trust. So, near the
end of the reign of Henry III, John of Col-
chester, the warden, had committed the custody
of the hospital to one Walter Otre, who so mis-
managed it that in 1274 John was ordered to
put a faithful and discreet man in his stead,
unless he himself wished to be credited with the
maladministration of his deputy. The goods of
the house had been so wasted and dispersed that

" L. and P. Hen. VIII. xiv (i), 3.

" Stovire MS. 141, fol. 37 ; L. and P. Hen. VIII,
xvii, 700; Mins. Accts. 30-31 Hen. VIII, no,
fol. 84 (Line).

" P.R.O. Aug. Off. Deeds of Purchase and Exchange,
H. 2.

'* B.M. Seals, Ixvii, 4 1 .

" Liber Quotid. &c. 28 Edw. I (ed. Topham), 44.
See also Add. MS. 7966, A. fol. 23^, zs. addressed
to these friars by the hand of Friar Th. de Burn,
19 Jan. 1 300-1.

'* Cal. Papal Letters, iii, 69.

" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 627.

230

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

it was feared at the time that the brethren would
have to beg for maintenance elsewhere unless
some speedy remedy were applied.^ The ap-
pointment of a new chaplain followed in the
next year -^ but time after time the same com-
plaints were repeated. In 1284 the house had
to be placed under the custody of the sheriff ;
he was to apply its goods to the maintenance of
the chaplains, brethren, and sisters, but might not
remove any except for misconduct ; when a
vacancy occurred the fact was to be notified to
the chancellor. Separate houses were to be
assigned to the chaplains, the brethren, and the
sisters.* In 1290 a new chaplain was appointed
with an exhortation to do better than his prede-
cessors, from whose carelessness the house had
suffered so much.* There were licences for the
brethren to beg alms in 1294 and 1297.^ ^'^
1 30 1, however, the house was still 'in decay
for want of good rule,' and vacancies had been
filled without reference to the chancellor.^
There were fresh licences to beg alms in 1303
and 1309.' In 1327, rents which should have
helped to support the house had been allowed to
fall into arrears.* In 1334 William de Gerle-
thorp, appointed to the custody of the house,'
was accused of burdening it with corrodies be-
yond its ability. He was replaced by Simon of
Barlings, a former master, who had been his
accuser j^" but it was reported to the king that
Simon's own rule was no better, and a visitation
was held to find out the true state of the case.
There were then nine brethren and sisters, of
whom only one was a leper, and he had bought
his place there for iooj., contrary to the terms of
foundation ; the seven women in the house had
not been admitted by charity, but for payment.^^
Matters, however, did not improve ; in 1 34 1
and 1342 there were fresh complaints of men
and women admitted contrary to the terms of
the foundation.'^ In 1345 there was another
visitation ; the brethren and sisters were to be
examined separately, and the good men of Lin-
coln asked to say what they knew as to all
lapses of rule and squandering of revenues.'*
Alms were again requested of the faithful in the
following year.'*

In 1422 it was stated that there had been

' Close, 2 Edvi'. I, m. 8.

' Pat. 3 Edw. I, m. 36.

"' Ibid. 12 Edw. I, m. 16.

* Ibid. 18 Edw. I, m. 10.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton, 119 </., 188 </.

" Pat. 29 Edw. I, m. 24.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 59 ; Pat.
2 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 9.

' Pat. 1 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 6.

' Ibid. 8 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 7.
'» Ibid. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 10.
" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 627.

•' Pat. 15 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. ^d.; 16 Edw. Ill,
pt. I, m. 34^'.
" Ibid. 19 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. z^ d.
" Ibid. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 18.

great waste of books, \estments, and all the
goods of the hospital, through the carelessness of
past wardens ; and that the number of chaplains
and of brethren was diminished.'* Finally, in
1 46 1 the king granted the house with its appur-
tenances to the master of the order of St.
Lazarus for ever, on condition that he and his
successors should maintain any three of the
king's servants or tenants who happened to be
afflicted with leprosy.'*

The value of the revenue in 1534, when the
hospital was parcel of Burton Lazars, was
j^30 13;. 4(/." It came to an end as a matter
of course with the suppression of the order of
St. Lazarus.

Masters of the Hospital

John of Colchester,'^ occurs 1274
Richard of Codington," appointed 1275
Andrew Fraunceys,^" appointed 1290
John of Calnhill,^' appointed 1301 ; occurs

1309
Johnof Carlton,^^ appointed 1313, occurs 13 15
William Clif,^* appointed 131 9
Robert de Spynye,^* appointed 132 1
Robert of ClifF,^° appointed 1322
Thomas of Sibthorpe,^^ appointed 1325
Richard of Skerington," appointed 1325
William of Carlton,^' appointed 1327
Adam of Clareburgh,^' appointed 1330 ; occurs

1331
Thomas of Portington,*" appointed 1332 ; re-
signed 1334
Simon of Barhngs,*' appointed 1334
William de Gerlthorpe,*^ appointed 1334
Simon of Barlings,'* appointed 1335
Hugh of Codyngton,** appointed 1 34 1
John of Codyngton,*' appointed (by exchange)
1341 ; resigned 1345

'^ Pat. I Hen. vi, pt. i, m. 27 d.

"^ Rot. Orig. I Edw. IV, m. 49 ; Pat. 35 Henry I\",
pt. ii, m. 9.

" Falor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv.

" Close, 2 Edw. I, m. 8.

■^ Pat. 3 Edw. I. m. 36.

^"Ibid. 18 Edw. I, m 10.

" Ibid. 29 Edw. I, m. 24 and 2 Edw. II, pt. i,
m. 9.

^^ Ibid. 6 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 2, and 9 Edw. II,
pt. ii, m. 29.

^^ Ibid. 12 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 27.

^* Ibid. 14 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 6.

^° Ibid. 16 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 24.

'" Ibid. 18 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 22.

" Ibid. 19 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 35.

*" Ibid. I Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 34.

^ Ibid. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 12.

™ Ibid. 6 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 5.

" Ibid. 8 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 19.

'' Ibid. 8 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 7.

'^ Ibid. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 10.

^ Ibid. 15 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 48.

^ Ibid. m. 40.

231

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Simon of Barlings,^ appointed 1345 ; re-
signed 1345
Richard of Doncaster,^ appointed 1345
John of Nesfield,' appointed 1347
William Benet,* appointed 1406
Gilbert Thimbleby/ occurs 1534

There is a late twelfth-century seal ° of this
hospital representing a leper walking to the left,
holding out his right hand.

s'f R RV COLIE

86. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. MARY

MAGDALENE, PARTNEY

Another of the early hospitals of Lincolnshire
was that dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene at
Partney. The church of St. Nicholas and the
chapel of St. Mary Magdalene at Partney were
granted by Gilbert of Ghent to Bardney Abbey
at its foundation, and confirmed to the monks
there by his son Walter in 1 1 1 5 ;' and the hos-
pital must have been built shortly after this, either
by Walter or by the first abbot of Bardney, for
its endowments were confirmed by King Stephen
and by Robert of Ghent the son of Walter.^

It had a master of its own during the reign
of John ; but seems to have been always de-
pendent upon Bardney Abbey. It is uncertain
whether it was intended for the sick or for the
aged poor. By the fourteenth century it had ceased
to be a hospital at all, and was regarded as a small
cell to the abbey, which might occasionally pro-
vide a home for an abbot at his resignation.^

The only name of a master which can at
present be recovered is Osbert, who occurs 1208
and 1 209.'"'

87. THE HOSPITAL OF BOOTHBY

PAGNELL

The hospital of St. John Baptist, Boothby
Pagnell, was founded towards the end of the
twelfth century, either by John Paynell " or by
Hugh of Boothby.^^ The latter, if he was not
the founder, was a considerable benefactor of
the house, which was intended for poor leprous
women. He gave to it 4J bovates of land in
Morton, which Baldwin Wake had given to his

' Pat. 19 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 28.

^ Ibid. pt. ii, m. 20 d.

'■' Ibid. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 20.

* Karl MS. 6962, fol. 38.
' Fakr Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv.

* Harl. Chart. 44 A, 29.
' Cott. MS. Vesp. E, XX, fol. 8, 278 d.

* Ibid. fol. 56 a'. \i\d.
' Dugdale, Af««. i, 628, Chart, xx.

'" Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
82 ; Cott. MS. Vesp. E, xx, fol. 45.

" Chant. Cert. 33, No. 104.

'^ The charters given in Lansd. MS. 207 A, fol.
l49</.-l62, are all granted by Hugh and Osbert of
Boothby. Hugh the son of Osbert was a minor in 1 2 3 o ;
he says the hospital was founded by his ancestors.

232

brothers. Osbert of Boothby and Hugh his
son added lands in Boothby.^'

In the chantry certificate it is stated that the
house had had no incumbent for two years j
and it seems at that time to have been used for
some time only as a parochial chapel for the ham-
let. Its revenues amounted only to ^^3 I gx. i^d}^

Chaplains of Boothby Pagnell

Giles"

William,^' occurs 1309

88. THE HOSPITAL OF GLANFORD
BRIDGE, OR WRAWBY

This hospital was probably founded by Adam
Paynell towards the end of the twelfth cen-
tury,'' and placed in charge of the abbot of
Selby, Yorks. The abbot undertook to send one
of his canons, whom Adam or his successors
should choose, to be warden of the hospital for
life. It was to be an almshouse for the poor ;'*
but its dedication is unknown.

In 1236, however, Ralf Paynel complained that
the abbot had turned the house to his own uses,
contrary to the terms of the foundation, and at
his wish Bishop Grosteste published a bull of
Pope Gregory IX for the purpose of restoring it
to its original uses. The abbot acknowledged
the foundation charter and promised in future to
abide by its terms.'' It is not at present known
how long this agreement had elFect, as the
institutions of masters do not appear in the
episcopal registers.

Another hospital was founded at Glanford
Bridge in Wrawby by Sir William Tyrwhitt
in 1422, which apparently had no connexion
with the old hospital. The foundation charter
speaks of it as ' lately built ' by Sir William, and
it was dedicated to St. John Baptist. It was to
provide maintenance for seven poor men living
in the hospital, and two chaplains, of whom one
was to be master ; they were to pray continually
for the souls of King Henry VI and the founder.^*

Neither the first nor the second hospital
appears in the chantry certificate.

" Lansd. MS. 207 A, fol. I49a'.-i62.

"Ibid. fol. 163 </. The Chant. Cert. 33, No.
104, says: 'The said chantry was builded for a
Spitall house, as doth appear by divers old writings ' ;
showing that it had not been so used within the
memory of any then living.

" Giles belongs to the thirteenth century, being
contemporary with Osbert, son of Hugh de Boothby II.
Lansd. MS. 207 A, 1 63.

'* Ibid. 151. He is only called chaplain of the
chapel ; so that perhaps it had already ceased to be a
hospital.

" Adam Paynell occurs in the Red Book of the
Exch. (Rolls Ser.), vol. i, from 1194 to 1201.

" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 688 (from the Rolls of
Grosteste).

>5 Ibid. *" Pat. 20 Hen. VI, pt. i, m. 7.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

89. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. GILES
WITHOUT LINCOLN

This hospital was probably founded some time
during the thirteenth century. The name of
the original founder is unknown ; but some
time before February, 1280, Oliver Sutton, then
dean of Lincoln, assigned the house with its
revenues to the support of the vicars choral of
the cathedral. '^ It had been intended for the
reception of the poor ; and in the fourteenth
century Gilbert d'Umfraville, earl of Angus,
added something to its endowments in order that
servants of the cathedral past work might be
admitted there in preference to other applicants.^
Richard de Ravenser, archdeacon of Lincoln, to
whom the earl had granted the manor of Sturton,
ordained that twelve poor ministers and servants
of the cathedral might be supported in the
hospital, receiving ^d. daily for their food, and
4x. yearly for their clothing, and the dean and
chapter confirmed the ordinance in 1384.
During Richard's lifetime he was to fill all
vacant places ; after his death the right reverted
to the dean and chapter.'

In 1428 the master of the hospital held one
knight's fee and three-eighths of another in
Sturton.* But by 1 45 3 the value of the pro-
perty seems to have diminished, for the warden
received permission in that year to collect alms
for the support of the hospital.^

The hospital of St. Giles is not mentioned in
the chantry certificate ; but the chapter acts of
Lincoln Cathedral occasionally allude to it as a
place of refiige for poor clerks, until the
eighteenth century, when it fell into ruins.

Masters of St. Giles's Hospital

Henry Willensi,* occurs 1428
John Tyler,' occurs 1453

houses of his at Mere, worth ;^io.^ The
patronage of the house was in the hands of the
bishops of Lincoln ; and this hospital was one of
the few which survived the Reformation."

Wardens of Mere

Thomas,^^ appointed 1247

Richard, occurs 1289^^

Nicholas de Belowe,*' resigned 1 341

William le Hunte " of Tratincton, appointed
1 341, occurs to 1349

Adam of Limber,^' appointed 1361

John Forest," resigned 1398

John Ordy,^' appointed 1398

Roger Warde,^* resigned 1405

William Newton,^' appointed 1405, resigned
1420

Robert atte Kyrke,^° appointed 1420

Gagwin Hodshon,^^ appointed 1558

91. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN
BAPTIST WITHOUT BOSTON

The hospital of St. John Baptist without
Boston was founded before 1282, and at that
time had sufficient revenues to maintain several
poor men.^^ The advowson in the fourteenth
century was in the family of Moulton ;^' but in
1480 it was granted by the abbot and convent of
St. Mary's York to the prior of the hospital of
St. John of Jerusalem.^* It is said by Leland to
have been still in existence in his time.^*

90. THE HOSPITAL OF MERE

The hospital of St. John Baptist at Mere in
the parish of Dunston also belongs apparently to
the thirteenth century. Simon de Roppele gave
half a fee in Mere to a chaplain and thirteen
brethren before 1243 ^'^^ ^^^ earliest institution
of a chaplain is dated 1247.'

In 1343 the master complained that the prior
of St. Katharine's and others had taken five

' Dugdale, Moti. vi, 766 ; Pat. 9 Edw. II, pt. ii,
m. 13.

' Pat. 19 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. I.
' Ibid. 7 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 4, 3.

* Feud. Aids, iii, 280, 305.

"^ D. and C. Line. Chapter Acts, 1451-74, fol. 12.

* Feud. Aids, iii, 305.

' Chapter Acts of Line. bk. E. 35, fol. 12.

* Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 325. Line. Epis. Reg.
Rolls of Grosteste. A copy of the Foundation Charter
is said by Tanner to have once been at Cambridge.

2 2

92. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. LEONARD
WITHOUT THE CASTLE OF
LINCOLN

This hospital, which was intended for lepers
and other sick persons, was certainly in existence
before 1300, when Bishop Dalderby called upon
the rectors and vicars of Lincoln and Stowe to
make collections in aid of it.^* Another in-
dulgence for its support was granted in 1 3 1 1 .
Nothing further is known of its history.^'

' Pat. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 28 a'.
'" The later history is given in the account of
Lincoln Grammar School.
" Harl. MS. 6950, fol. 72^.
" Assize R. Line. 503, m. 33 <^.
"Pat. 15 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 8.
" Ibid, and Cal. of Pap. Letters, i, 155.
" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Gynwell, 99 d.
'« Ibid. Inst. Beaufort, I. " Ibid.

'' Ibid. Inst. Repingdon, 6. " Ibid.

"* Ibid. Inst. Flemyng, 23.

" Ibid. Inst. White and Watson, 1554-9, f°'- 49-
-' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 766.

^' Close, 15 Edw. II, m. 8, and 9 Edw. Ill, m. 33.
^* Pat. 20 Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 10.
^' Leland, Itin. vii, 39.
^^ Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 25 </.
" Ibid. 209 d.

33 30

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

93. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. MARY
MAGDALENE, LINCOLN

This hospital, which seems to have been an
almshouse for the poor, and contained a master
and brethren of number unknown, was in
existence before 131 1, when King Edward II
sent one of his old servants to receive the
necessaries of life there.^ The house was still
standing in 1402, when Laurence Allerthorpe,
king's clerk, was made master at the death of
William.2

94. THE HOSPITAL OF GRIMSBY

The hospital of St. Mary Magdalene and
St. Leger at Grimsby was another of those
founded within the thirteenth century. It was
intended for lepers male and female ; ' and its
revenues seem from the first to have been
scanty and insufficient. In 1 29 1 Bishop Sutton
issued an indulgence to those who should con-
tribute to the 'supreme need of the miserable
poor lepers ' of St. Mary Magdalene at Grimsby ;*
Bishop Dalderby gave them four similar in-
dulgences between 1300 and 1314.° The last
mention of the hospital is in 1336, when the
king granted protection to those collecting alms
on its behalf.^

95. THE HOSPITAL OF LOUTH

There was a hospital for lepers at Louth in
1 3 14, when Bishop Dalderby granted an in-
dulgence for their support.' Nothing fiirther is
known of this house.

96. THE HOSPITAL OF SPALDING

The hospital of St. Nicholas at Spalding was
intended for the lepers of the neighbourhood,
and may perhaps have had some connexion with
the priory, as it had the same dedication. Indul-
gences were granted for its support in 13 13'
and 1323," but there is no later mention of it.

97. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. BARTHO-
LOMEW WITHOUT LINCOLN

The hospital of St. Bartholomew was intended
for the reception of lepers and other sick persons.
Like that of St. Leonard, it was 'without the

^ Close, 4 Edw. II, m. 7 d.

' Harl. MS. 6962, p. 38, from Pat. 3 Hen. IV.
These two notices suggest that the house was, or
came to be, a royal foundation.

' Pat. 8 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 11.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton, 251^.

* Ibid. Memo. Dalderby, 21, 84k 128, 283.

" Pat. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 23.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 284.

« Ibid. 246 d.

^ Ibid. Memo. Burghersh, 1 1 3 <i?.

castle ' of Lincoln. There was a master and
brethren here as early as 13 14, but they are not
heard of after 1331. Like many other such
foundations, the house had fallen into poverty
about this time, and we know of its existence
only by the numerous licences for asking alms
which were granted by the bishop ^^ or the king ^^
between the dates given above.

98. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN
BAPTIST AND ST. THOMAS
THE MARTYR ON STAMFORD
BRIDGE

This hospital was certainly in existence from
1323 until the eve of the Reformation,'^ but
its founder and its purpose are alike unknown.

99. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. GILES,
STAMFORD

This hospital, which was built outside Stam-
ford, was intended for lepers. It was under-
going repair in 1304'' and 1319,'* and again in
1332 '* indulgences were granted for the purpose
of increasing the alms of the faithful.

100. THE HOSPITAL OF ALL SAINTS,
STAMFORD

The hospital of All Saints was founded by
William Brown, merchant of the staple of
Calais, for the support of two chaplains, and for
the distribution of alms to twelve poor persons,
who should pray for the soul of the founder.'*
The endowment consisted of the manors of
Swafield and North Witham, and these now
belong to the hospital, which is still in existence.''
This was in 1485 ; and in 1534 the terms of
the foundation were still observed, and the sum
of ^18 4J. was still distributed to the poor of the
hospital.'*

There is a seal of the hospital " of the fifteenth
century, in shape a pointed oval, and representing
the Trinity seated in a canopied niche with
tabernacle work at the sides. In addition to the

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 2821/. ; ibid.
Memo. Burghersh, 52.

" Pat. 9 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 14 ; ibid. 5 Edw. Ill,
pt. ii, m. 24.

" The first mention is in Line. Epis. Reg. Memo.
Burghersh, 124 ; the last ibid. Memo. Longlands, 20.
It is several times ealled the hospital of St. John
Baptist a»J St. Thomas, showing that it was but one
house with a double dedieation.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 69 </.

" Ibid. 394.

'^ Ibid. Memo. Burghersh, 247.

'^ Pat. 2 Rie. Ill, pt. ii, m. 14.

" Vtdn, Jntiquities, p. 20 of Appendix ; and Wright,
Domus Dei (Hospital of William Browne).

'* Valor Eccks. iv, 142.

" B.M. Seals, Ixvii, 42.

234

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

figure of our Lord on the cross, held between
the knees of the Almighty, the Father is repre-
sented holding a cloth in his hands containing
three heads, busts, or figures, emblematic of the
three persons of the Trinity. In the base,
under a round-headed arch, with masonry at the
sides, there is a half-length figure of an eccle-
siastic in prayer. In the base is a shield of arms,
ermine two bars within a bordure ermine (?)

SIGILLU : COMUNE : DOMUS : ELEOSINARIE :
STAUNFORD

loi. THE HOSPITAL OF WALCOT

There was a hospital for lepers at Walcot,
dedicated to St. Leonard, in 131 1, when Bishop
Dalderby issued an indulgence for its support. ^

102. THE HOSPITAL OF LANG-
WORTH

There was another hospital for lepers at
Langworth, dedicated to St. Margaret, in 1313.
One of the numerous indulgences granted by
Bishop Dalderby in this year was intended for its
support.^

103. THE HOSPITAL OF THORNTON

There was a hospital in 1322 'without the
walls of Thornton Abbey.' An indulgence was
granted that year for the repair of the chapel of
St. James within the hospital, so that it must
have been in existence for some time then.' It
is uncertain whether it was intended for the poor
or the sick.

104. THE HOSPITAL OF HOLBEACH

This hospital was founded, in honour of All
Saints by Sir John of Kirton, knt., in 1351,
to sustain a warden and fifteen poor people.* He
increased the foundation somewhat in 1359,° and
obtained a confirmation of his grant from the
pope in 1362.* It had ceased to exist, however,
before the suppression of chantries and hospitals.

105. THE HOSPITAL CALLED
'SPITTAL ON THE STREET'

The hospital called ' Spittal on the Street '
was built in 1396 by Thomas Aston, a canon
of Lincoln, and connected with the chapel of
St. Edmund,' where a chantry had been founded

' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 205 d.

' Ibid. 248 </. ' Ibid. Memo. Burghersh, 57 </.

* Pat. 26 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 15.
' Ibid. 32 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 30.

* Ca/. of Pap. Pet. i, 385.

' Pat. 19 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. I, and pt. i, m. 20 ;
Cal. of Pap. Letters, iv, 510.

in 1343 by John Vendour, vicar of Thimbleby.''
Thomas Aston also obtained permission from the
pope to appropriate to the new hospital the
churches of Little Carlton and Skellingthorpe, of
which he was patron.^ A warden and a certain
number of poor persons were to be maintained in
the hospital, which was to remain under the
patronage of the dean and chapter of Lincoln.
This house was not suppressed among the
hospitals generally.

In 1858 a scheme was enrolled in the court of
Chancery for building and endowing the Aston
School at Market Rasen, altering the Grammar
School at Lincoln, &c.

Masters of the Hospital

Henry Lightborough,^" resigned April, 1435
Henry Sibbe,^^ resigned September, 1435
John Smith,^^ resigned December, 1435
Richard Saunderson,'' appointed December,

1435 ; resigned December, 1436
John Wylton,^* appointed December, 1436
Robert,^* occurs 1472

106. THE HOSPITAL OF GRANTHAM

The hospital of St. Leonard ' by the Spittel-
gate ' of Grantham was in existence in the
fifteenth century, and wardens were appointed
to the custody of it until 1500. It is not
mentioned after this date, nor does it appear
amongst the chantries connected with Grantham
in the Chantry Certificate.

Wardens of Grantham Hospital

William Tapyter,'' resigned 1428

Robert Herring,^' presented 1428, resigned

1431
William Walsone,^^ presented 1 43 1
William Ashby," resigned 1445
John Stretton,^** admitted 1445
Thomas Isham,^"^ died 1500
Philip Meautes,^^ admitted 1500

' Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Bokyngham, 141 d. ;
Pat. 16 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 28. The chapel at this
time was already called ' the chapel of St. Edmund,
Spittal of the Street,' though the foundation was only
a ehantry to be served by a single chaplain, and no
hospital was then in existence. It seems most pro-
bable, therefore, that there had been a hospital there
at a still earlier date, which had given its name to the
place, and perhaps suggested the later foundation.
' Col. of Pap. Letters, v, 168.

'" D. and C. Lincoln Chapter Acts, 1424-43,
fol. 104.

"Ibid. fol. 109. 'Mbid. fol. 112.

"Ibid. "Ibid. fol. 119 </.

" Ibid. 1465-78, fol. 115.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Flemyng, 32.

" Ibid. '» Ibid. Inst. Gray, 2.

" Ibid. Inst. Alnwick, 95 ^. =» Ibid.

" Ibid. Inst. Smith, 40. '' Ibid.

235

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE
COLLEGES

107. THE COLLEGE OF SPILSBY

The college of Spilsby was founded in 1347 by
John Willoughby Lord de Eresby, in connexion
with a church which he had built close by the
original chapel of Spilsby. It was his purpose to
endow it for the purpose of supporting a master
and twelve chaplains, to sing for ever for the
souls of the founder, his ancestors, and successors.
The master was to have full powers of correc-
tion, and statutes were to be drawn up for the
use of the chaplains ; and the churches of
Eresby, Over Toynton, and Kirkby were to be
appropriated to the college, that it might have an
income of 80 marks.^

The scheme was approved by the pope in
1347, and by the king in 1349,^ but the founder
died before it was fully carried out. His son,
John, in 1351 obtained a fresh licence from the
king to complete his father's work,' but it seems
doubtful whether the college was ever served by
twelve chaplains.* The master in 1378 was
presented by eight chaplains,' the one in 1422 by
five,^ and the one in 1443 by two only.' Sir
William Willoughby, who died in 1503, left
j^200 to the fabric of the church, and j^6 a year
for a chaplain to sing for his soul there ; ' it seems
probable that before his time the revenues of the
college were much diminished, and the original
foundation no longer observed as at first, for in
1547 ^^ '^^ reckoned as the founder. From
his death till the suppression of chantries and
colleges there was a master at Spilsby, assisted by
three chaplains.'

At the outbreak of the Lincoln rebellion one
of the insurgent leaders came to Spilsby and rang
the bells, and sware the master and all whom he
found there ' to be true to God, the king, and
the commons.'^" They were not, however,
brought to trial.

The clear value of the lands belonging to the
college in 1547 (when the advowson had been

' Cal. of Pap. Pet. i, 126. The church of Eresby,
to which the chapel of Spilsby was appendant, is not
named in the Papal Petition, but it appears in the
Patent Roll, and was finally appropriated in 1384.
Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham, 284. The
dedication of the chapel was to St. James (Ibid.
Memo. Beaufort, 36), but the college was dedicated
to the Holy Trinity.

' Pat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 40.

2 Ibid. 24 Edw. III.

*■ It was stated in 1377 that the scheme had not
yet taken effect, as the churches were not yet appro-
priated. Ibid. I Ric. II, pt. i, m. 4.

* Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham, 931/.

^ Ibid. Memo. Flemyng, 16.

' Ibid. Memo. Alnwick, 91.

" Dugdale, Baronage, ii, 87.

° Duchy of Lanes. Cert, of Coll. No. 2.
" L. and P. Hen. Fill, xi, 967 (ii).

granted to Katharine, duchess of SuflFolk) was

Masters of Spilsby College
William of Scrafield,^^ resigned 1378
John Atte Howse of Hagworthingham,^' pre-
sented 1378
William Hardegray," resigned 1414
John of Scotton," presented 1 414, died 1422
William Styrope,^' presented 1422
John Garard,^' resigned 1443
John Forman,^* presented 1/^2
Richard Shaw," died 1532
Thomas Maltby,^** presented 1532, occurs 1547

108, CANTILUPE COLLEGE

The Cantilupe College was founded in 1367
by Nicholas, third Baron Cantilupe, and founder
also of Beauvale Priory in Nottinghamshire. Its
object was simply to secure a perpetual comme-
moration of the souls of the founder and his wife.
A house was provided close by the cathedral for the
accommodation of a warden and seven chaplains,
who should celebrate masses daily at the altar of
St. Nicholas. They were to have a common
refectory, to sing the divine office together in
choir, and to be habited as secular vicars ; the
warden was to have £b a year, and the others
lOOi. each.^' The church of Leake was to be
appropriated to the college for its maintenance.^^

A dispute arose in 1422 between the vicar of
Leake and the chaplains of the college as to the
share in the rectory house and lands which
ought to be assigned to the former. The vicar
in consequence complained to the bishop, who
issued a commission of inquiry into the matter. ^'

When Bishop Alnwick visited the cathedral in
1437 he found that by the neglect of the dean
and chapter the sums appointed for the salaries of
the chaplains had not been regularly paid, and
that the value of the lands assigned for their
support had greatly diminished through floods
and other causes, so that in those days there were
only two priests serving the chantry instead of
eight.^* He gave orders for the salaries to be
paid in future, but it is improbable that the
number of chaplains was ever increased again
before the suppression of chantries.

" Duchy of Lanes. Cert, of Coll. No. 2.
" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Bokyngham, 93 </.
" Ibid. " Ibid. Inst. Repingdon, 71.

'' Ibid. '' Ibid. Inst. Flemyng, 16.

" Ibid. Inst. Alnwick, 91. " Ibid.

'^ Ibid. Inst. Longlands, 34.

*" Ibid, and Duchy of Lanes. Cert, of Coll. No. 2.
" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Bokyngham, 21, 22.
'^ Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1456.
^ Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Flemyng, 22% d.
** Henry Bradshaw, Statutes of Line. Cathedral, ii
(ii)» 494-5-

236

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

109. THE COLLEGE OF TATTERS-
HALL

The college of the Holy Trinity, Tattershall,
was founded in 1439 by Ralf, Lord Cromwell,
then treasurer of the realm. The parish church
of Tattershall which was to be rebuilt, was,
with the king's permission, at that time trans-
formed into a college for seven priests, six lay-
men, and six choristers ; and an almshouse
for thirteen poor people of either sex was
attached to it, and placed under the charge
of the same warden. The chaplains were to
maintain divine service continually, and to pray
for the king alive or dead, and for the souls of
the founder and his grandmother, Dame Matilda
Cromwell.^

The manors of Washingborough, Leaden-
ham, Fulbeck and Driby, with the advowsons of
the churches of those manors, the manors of
Brinkhill, Fulletby, Baston, Ashby Puerorum,
Withcall Zouche, Withcall Skipwfith, Binbrook
called North hall, Wood Enderby, Moorby,
Wilksby, Coningsby and Haltham, the moiety
of the manors of Swinhope, Willoughton, Bil-
linghay and Walcote, and the advowson of the
church of Swinhope, and another moiety of the
manor of Swinhope after the death of Matilda
widow of John Keuermond, were assigned to
the master and the chaplains of the college
and almshouse.^ The manors of Woodthorpe,
Maltby by Louth and Cherry Willingham were
also assigned to them.'

In 1478 the manors of Manton and Tixover,
Rutland, once the property of the abbey of
Cluny, were granted to the college of Tat-
tershall,* and a part of the endowments of the
alien priory of Burwell, Lincolnshire, was about
the same time assigned to its maintenance.^

The college was subject to visitation by the
bishops of Lincoln, and in 150 1 Bishop Smith
ordained new statutes for the master and fellows.*
In 1 5 1 9 Bishop Atwater visited Tattershall, and
required the chaplains to show their letters of
orders. He remarked that the chorister boys
were only taught to sing, whereas they ought
also to be instructed in grammar. The chap-
lains also were in the habit of dressing like
laymen ; he ordered them in future to dress as
priests, according to their statutes. In all other
respects the college was in a good and prosperous

' Pat. 17 Hen. VI, pt. ii, m. 19.

' Chan. Inq. p.m. 32 Hen. VI, No. 33.

' Inq. a.q.d. 33 Hen. VI, No. 9.

*Pat. 18 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. 13. These manors
had been seized into the king's hands in 141 6, and
granted to William Porter, who passed them on to
Bishop Alnwick ; Lord Cromwell bought and pre-
sented them to Tattershall.

* Burwell manor and church were granted to
Charles duke of SuiFolk as part of the endowments of
Tattershall in 1545. Pat. 36 Hen. VIII, pt. xi, m. 39.

* Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Smith, 62 d.

condition, and there were no other reforms
necessary.'

The last master, George Heneage, signed the
Acknowledgement of Supremacy in 1534, with
six other chaplains.* In 1536 he was accused
of having sent victuals to the insurgents ; and
one of the examinates after the rebellion related
how Sheriff Dymoke bade the warden to send
his 'tall priests' to the host, all but one. It
does not seem, however, that they were com-
pelled to serve.'

The college was dissolved 4 February, 1545.^"

Wardens

John Gygor," occurs 147 1
John Constable,^^ occurs 1522

There is a fine seal of 15 15 ^' representing the
Trinity in a heavily canopied niche between
two smaller niches with tabernacle work at the
sides, each containing a saint with nimbus. In
the base under a round-headed arch, with foliage
in the spandrils, there is a shield of arms ; quar-
terly I, 4, a chief and baton. Sir Ralph Cromwell,
founder ; 2, 3, chequey a chief ermine, Tatter-
shall. The style of work is of the fifteenth
century.

siGiLLU : coMUNE : coLEGii : scE ; trinita[tis]

ESHALL

1 10. THE COLLEGE OF THORNTON

Thornton College was one of the short-lived
foundations of King Henry VIII. A part of
the revenues of the suppressed abbey of Thornton
was set aside for the maintenance of a college,

for the ministration of the sacraments, the observance
of good manners, the care of the aged and those who
had spent their lives in the service of the realm, and
for the instruction of the young.

There was to be a dean at the head of it, sup-
ported by four prebendaries, six minor canons,
a schoolmaster, and a choirmaster. To main-
tain the services of the church a gospeller
and an epistoler were appointed, with four
singing men and five choir boys. A porter, a
sub-sacrist, a butler, and a cook, also received
salaries from the foundation, and four poor
persons were to be maintained in the house.^*

The college was suppressed at the beginning
of the reign of Edwrard VI, a pension of ,^50
being assigned to the dean, Roger Dalison, and
smaller sums to several others connected with
the house."

' Visitations of Atwater (Alnwick Tower), fol. 49.

«L. and P. Hen. VUl, vii, 1121 (9).

'Ibid, xil (i), 70 (7 and 8).
'"Rymer, Foedera, vi, 12;.
" Hist. ofOrmsby, 255.
" Line. N. and Q. v, 37.
"Egert. Chart, 256.
"Chant. Cert. 33, No. 124.
''Add. MS. 8102 (Pension List).

237

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

ALIEN HOUSES

III. THE PRIORY OF COVENHAM

The manor which formed the endowment of
the priory of Covenham was granted in 1082
by William the Conqueror to the abbot and
convent of St. Carileph, Le Mans, at the request
of the bishop of Durham,^ who had formerly
been a monk of that abbey. A small Bene-
dictine priory was built here soon after, but it
is probable that there were never more than two
monks, or perhaps only one to take charge of
the estate. The advowson remained with the
bishops of Durham.^

In 1303 the cell had become so far unprofit-
able to the abbey of St. Carileph that licence
was sought from the king to sell it to the abbot
and convent of Kirkstead.' It was then in
possession of the original manor of two carucates
in Covenham, Grainthorpe, Skidbrook, and Little
Grimsby, with the advowson of the church of
Covenham, and was charged with a corrody due
to Robert Merle of Swinthorpe.*

Priors of Covenham

William,' presented 1238
Matthew,* presented 1 26 1

112. THE PRIORY OF BUR WELL

The alien priory of Burwell, for Benedictine
monks, was probably built quite early in the
twelfth century, during the first years of King
Henry I. Ansgot of Burwell,' in his founda-
tion charter, stated that after receiving hospitality
from the holy and religious house of La Sauve
Majeure (near Bordeaux) he determined to grant
to the monks there, because of their great love
and charity, the churches of Burwell with
its chapel of Authorpe, Carlton, Muckton, and
Walmsgate, with a bovate of land in Bur-
well. The charter was addressed to Robert
bishop of Lincoln (1094-1123), and its prob-
able date is about mo.* Hugh FitzOsbert
and his mother Adeliza, who granted a meadow
in Carlton a little later, made out their charter
to the ' brethren of Burwell,' showing that the
priory was already built ; Dame Adeliza herself

'Pat. 31 Edw. I, m. 17.

' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 993, from Inq. a.q.d. The
Lindsey Survey, c. 1 1 15, states that the monks held
3 carucates of land in Covenham and I in Ludney.

'Ibid, and Pat. 31 Edw. I, m. 18.

« Ibid.

' Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Grosteste.

^ Ibid. Rolls of Gravesend.

' See Domesday translation.

'Round, Ca/. of Doc. France, i, 448, No. 1239.

placed the deed of gift on the altar of St. Saviour
in the conventual church, on behalf of herself
and her sons — ' for the love of God, and in satis-
faction for their sins.' ^

About 1 1 30 King Henry I ordered the sheriff
of Lincolnshire, Reyner of Bath, to see that the
monks of Burwell held their lands as they did in
the time of Ansgot and of Humphrey d'Albini.^*
Ralf de la Haya son of Ralf confirmed all
previous endowments, and added other gifts
about 1150.'^ The monks seem to have suffered
some loss during the exchanges of land which
took place in the time of Stephen, and one of
them sought out Robert de Haya in Normandy,
and asked him for a new charter of confirmation.^^
Another benefactor was William d'Albini." The
patronage of the house passed afterwards to the
lords of Kyme.^*

The priory of Burwell was not in the strict
sense an alien cell, as the duchy of Aquitaine,
to which the parent abbey belonged, was under
the rule of the kings of England until the
conclusion of the Hundred Years' War ; but as
it belonged to a monastery on the other side of
the channel it was always liable to be reckoned
as alien property by mistake during the wars
with France. In 1337 and 1342 it was thus
seized, but its property was restored again when
the prior pleaded that he was born of the king's
allegiance, and no alien. ^' There was at that
time apparently only one monk at Burwell in
charge of the estates. In 1347 he pleaded for
the remission of a charge of bos. on the ground
that he belonged to the duchy of Aquitaine,
and that his house was greatly impoverished by
those who had farmed it, and by payment of
tithes.^* The petition was granted for the time ;
but in 1386 the house was again seized,^' and
after the conclusion of the war it could no
longer be reckoned as anything but an alien
cell. In 1427, on the death of the prior, it was
found that the site of the priory with dilapidated
houses was worth nothing beyond reprises : 140
acres of arable land were worth zd. an acre, the
rectory 14^., the oblation at the cross of Burwell
from 40;. to 2 marks, there were 76^. of annual
rent, pensions from the churches of Authorpe
and Walmsgate, and some meadow land, tithes

' Round, Cal. of Dec. France, i, 448, No. 1 240.

'° Ibid. 1241. " Ibid. Nos. 1242, 1243.

"Ibid. No. 1244. "Ibid.

"Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1015. Gilbert d'Umfraville
in the fourteenth century said it was of the founda-
tion of his ancestors.

" Close, 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. ii,m. 41 ; ibid. 16 Edw. Ill,
pt. ii, m. 13.

'*Pat. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 15.

"Ibid. 10 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 17.

238

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

of Burwell Wood, &c.^ It was granted finally
to the college of Tattershall.^

The value of the revenues of Burwell in 1371
was reckoned as £1^ 16s. lod. ; in 1387 as

Priors of Burwell

Gilbert,* occurs before 1 1 50

Adam, thirteenth century*

Amfred,^ died 1293

Peter Pelata,' presented 1293, died 1314

John of Louth,* 1314 to 1317

Hugh de Vallibus,^ presented 1317

John de Ponte,^" presented 1324, died 1344

William Arnold of Calhavet," presented 1344,

occurs 1347
Peter de Monte Ardito,^^ occurs 1403, died

1418
Hugh de Lespurassa,'' presented 141 8
Peter de Monte Ardito" of 'Acquietan,' dead

in 1427

All these were presented by the abbot of
La Sauve Majeure, and instituted by the bishop.
At the institution of Hugh de Vallibus a note is
added, that no inquiry was made, as it was not
customary.

113. THE PRIORY OF MINTING

The priory of Minting, for Benedictine
monks, was founded in consequence of a grant
made by Ranulf de Meschines, earl of Chester,
to the abbey of Fleury. The grant was made
before 1129,^' but it is uncertain when the
priory was actually built ; the earliest mention
of a prior is in 1213.

The priory does not seem to have done the
parent abbey much credit. About 1238 Bishop
Grosteste wrote to the abbot requesting him to
send a prior who knew the way of truth, and
would walk in it fearlessly and lead his brethren
to salvation. This request received no atten-
tion, and a few years later he wrote again still
more strongly. He told the abbot he ought not
to send to such a distance from their home any
but men long tried and found faithful ; those
who had been at Minting lately had been wont

•Add. MS. 6165, fol. 145.

^Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1015; Pat. 36 Hen. VIII,
pt. xi, m. 39.

'Add. MS. 6164, fols. 411, 480.

* Round, Ca/. of Doc. France, i, 449.

' Harl. Chart. 5 I D. 24.

^Linc. Epis. Reg. Inst. Sutton, 7.

' Ibid. * Ibid. Inst. Dalderby, 54.

'Ibid. 68. '" Ibid. Inst. Burghersh, 1 1.

"Ibid. Inst. Bek, 12a'.

"Jets of the Privy Council (Rec. Com.), i, 190-3.
"Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Repingdon, 95.
" Add. MS. and 6165, fol. 145.
"Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1023. Ranulf died in 1 129.

to live luxuriously with harlots ; they had enriched
themselves, known no obedience to rule, and had
been given to much eating and drinking, not
being ashamed to eat meat even on Wednesdays.
The monks of Fleury might be all that could be
desired ; but this English cell was a disgrace to
them. One brother had been deposed for in-
continence, disobedience, wandering abroad, and
eating flesh contrary to the rule ; three others
for holding private property, intolerable disobe-
dience, frequenting houses of ill-repute, and
taking part in sports not merely idle and worldly,
but actually sinful. More than one complaint
of this kind had been made, but the last state of
the house was worse than the first. ^'

It is to be feared that the abbots of Fleury
looked upon their English property mainly as a
source of revenue, and cared little about the
conduct of the brethren sent to take charge
of it.

In 1322 Bishop Burghersh issued a commis-
sion for the visitation of the priory, and for the
absolution of the prior, who on a former visita-
tion had refused admission to the commissioners.^'

The priory was in the king's hands in 1337,
1344, and 1346 on account of the wars with
France.^* It is probable that the losses of this
time rendered it unable to support more than
one or two monks. In 1403 it was being
farmed by a clerk, William Spenser.^' It was
finally granted in 142 1 to the Carthusian priory
of Mount Grace.^"

The original endowment included the manor
and church of Minting, and the church of
Gautby, with other lands." The church of
Lavington also belonged to the priory in the
fourteenth century.^^ Its total revenue was
valued in 1384 at ^^41 lis. 8c/.; and in 1387
its goods and chattels were worth 50 marks.^^

Priors of Minting

Raymond,^* occurs 1 2 1 3
John,^* appointed 1239, occurs 1240
William,^^ occurs 1322
John Chauvel," resigned 1327
William de Sargolio,^* presented 1327, re-
signed 1330

'*£//■/. Grosseteste (Rolls Ser.), 168, 319.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Burghersh, 70 d.

'* Pat. 1 1 Edvir. Ill, pt. iii, m. I o ; ibid. 1 8 Edw. Ill,
pt. i, m. 35 ; ibid. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 26.

^^ Jets of the Privy Council (Rec. Com.), i, 190-3.

'"Pat. 9 Hen. V, pt. ii, m. 19. The grant was
again eonfirmed in 1462 ; ibid. I Edw. IV, pt. vi,
m. 14, 13.

'' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1023.

"'Pat. 10 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 26.

''Add. MS. 6164, fols. 370, 480.

'* Lansd. MS. 207 C, fol. 256.

" Line. Reg. Epis. Rolls of Grosteste ; Boyd and
Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords, 317.

'"Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Burghersh, 70^.

"Ibid. Inst. Burghersh, i. "'Ibid.

239,

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

William le Spicer,^ presented 1330, resigned

1334
John Chaperon,^ presented 1334, occurs to

1345
Peter de Soliaco,' presented 1349, resigned

.1358
Simon de Naudaria,* presented 1358

114. THE PRIORY OF WILSFORD

The priory of Wilsford, for Benedictine
monks, was founded by Hugh Wake, who pre-
sented the manor on which it was built to the
abbey of Bee Herlouin during the reign of
Stephen.^ Like nearly all the alien cells in
Lincolnshire, it was endowed only for the sup-
port of two or three brethren, and never became
at all important ; during the wars with France
the prior was usually the only monk in the house.

In 1324 the prior of Wilsford had to give
security that he would conduct himself faithfully
towards the king and not send money or goods
out of the realm, or quit it himself without
licence. He was to be released, however, if he
had been put under arrest as an alien ; for the
king had not intended to seize the persons of
religious men governing priories, nor to deprive
them of their property.'

In 1380 the revenue of the house was found
to be so small that after a farm of 1 2 marks had
been paid by the prior, and a clerical subsidy of
I o marks, the residue was not enough to provide
him with food and clothing ; he was therefore
pardoned his arrears for two years. It was not a
monk of Bee who was in charge at this time, but
one who had been prior of St. Peter de Castro in
Aquitaine.''

The scanty revenue of the house diminished
still further under the losses sustained by the re-
current seizures of alien cells during the French
wars, and a payment of twenty marks was due
to the Exchequer nearly all the time.* Some
time during the reign of Edward III the priory
was granted to Thomas of Holland, carl of
Kent, a descendant of Hugh Wake, and by his
influence its property was finally secured to the
abbey of Bourne in 1 40 1.'

The original endowment included only the
manor of Wilsford and 9 carucates of land
besides, worth ;^i6, with the advowson of the
church of Wilsford.^" Its revenue in 1371
was valued at ;^i8 2s. lod., in 1387 at
;^29 1 6 J. 2^."

' Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Burghersh, 29.

•Ibid. 52 ; and Close, 19 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 22 <^.

' Ibid. Inst. Gynwell, 54. * Ibid. 83.

' Dugdale, Man. vi, 1018, from Hutid. R.

^ Close, 18 Edw. II, m. 36.

' Pat. 3 Ric. II, pt. iii, m. 3.

' Ibid. 20 Ric. II, pt. iii, m. 8.

" Ibid, and 2 Hen. IV, pt. ii, m. 8 ; Ca/. of Pop.
Letters, v, 432.
^ Dugdale, Mon. vi, 10 1 8.
" Add. MS. 6164, fols. 411, 480.

Priors of Wilsford

Roger, ^^ occurs 1202

Adam de Subyr,^' presented 1226, resigned

1229
Peter de Cambren,^^ resigned 1229
Richard de Flaunvill," presented 1248
Roger de Gilmore,^* presented 1248, resigned

1251
Jordan of Huttoft," presented 125 1
William de Tribus Montibus,-" resigned 1274
John de Insula,^* presented 1274
Stephen of Stoke,^" died 1 290
Walter de Ponte Andomari,^^ presented 1290,

resigned 1298
John de Saunarvilla,^^ presented 1298, resigned

1300
Richard de Bonebor,^' presented 1300, resigned

1303
Michael de Ponte Antonio,^ presented 1303

Richard de Flagellon,^' presented 1312, died

1314
William of St. Albin,^' presented 13 14
William de Nassaundres,^' presented 131 9
Durand of St. Stephen,^* presented 1341,

occurs 1345
John de Efreno,^' resigned 1367
John de Laomers,^" presented 1367

115. THE PRIORY OF HAUGHAM

The priory of Haugham was built upon land
granted by Hugh, earl of Chester, towards the
end of the eleventh century, to the Benedictine
abbot and convent of St. Severus in the diocese
of Coutances.'^ It is probable that it was only
intended for the support of one or two monks to
manage the temporalities and sing masses for the
soul of the founder. Priors were, however, regu-
larly appointed and admitted by the bishops of
Lincoln until 1329, when the wars with France
created the same difficulties here as in other
small cells of aliens.

" Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Con-
cords, 26.

" Line. Epis. Reg. RoUs of Wells.

" Ibid.

'* Ibid. Rolls of Grosteste.

'" Ibid. " Ibid.

'« Ibid. Rolls of Gravesend. " Ibid.

™ Ibid. Memo. Sutton, 6 d. " Ibid.

"^ Ibid. Inst. Sutton, 3 1 .

" Ibid. Inst. Dalderby, 2. " Ibid. 6 d.

" Ibid. 48. His name is put into both places as
dead and as then presented ; probably it was Michael
who had just died.

^^ Ibid. 53. "Ibid. 357.

™ Ibid. Inst. Burghersh, 91 </. ; and Close, 19 Edw.
Ill, pt. ii, m. 22 d.

'' Ibid. Inst. Bokyngham. '» Ibid.

^' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1050. The Hund. R. says
the manor was given by Hugh son of Thurstin, who
came with the Conqueror {Hund. R. [Rec. Com.],
i» 394)-

240

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

In 1337 the prior, on the plea of poverty,
obtained the restitution of his possessions, which
had been seized by the king's officers ; and then,
finding it hard to support himself, let the priory to
one John of St. Paul to farm for seven years.
In 1 342 John complained that though he paid
the sum agreed upon for the prior's maintenance,
he had been forcibly ejected ; and yet he w^as
novir expected to pay the issues and profits of the
house to the king, as its nominal occupant. The
demand upon John was withdrawn ; ^ but the
king let the priory out again to the bishop of
Carlisle to farm. In 1346 he in his turn com-
plained of trespasses committed upon the lands
entrusted to him, and assaults upon the servants
he had placed there.'' It is not strange to find
that in 1385 it was alleged that much of the
property of the house had been wasted by the
rule of the various farmers.' It was still let out
in 1403 ;* there seems to have been no prior
since 1346. In 1397 it was granted to the
Carthusian priory of St. Anne, Coventry.^

The value of the revenue in 1380 was re-
turned as £\ 9 OS. ^d., including the church of
Haugham ; * in 1387 as £21 1 is. ^d., when the
waste of past years was computed at ^73 6j. 8^.'

Priors of Haugham

Nicholas,* resigned 1227

John,' appointed 1229

Adam,^" appointed 1229

William de Beaulieu," appointed 1276

William Lovel,^^ died 1299

William le Vavassour,^' appointed 1299

John Baunevilla," presented 1319, recalled

1319
Henry de Landulo,'' presented 1319
Nicholas de Hamaro,^^ presented 1329

116. THE PRIORY OF WIL-
LOUGHTON

The manor and the moiety of the church of
Willoughton were granted by the Empress
Maud to the Benedictine Abbey of St. Nicholas,
Angers," and the priory was probably built some

' Close, 16 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 10.

* Pat. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 1 7 </.
' Ibid. 8 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 13^.

* Acts of the Privy Council (Rec. Com.), i, 190-3.

" Pat. 20 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 32 ; and Line. Epis.
Reg. Memo. Bokyngham, 451-2.

'Add. MS. 6164, fcl. 370.

' Ibid. 480.

" Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Wells. ' J.' sueeeeded
him.

' Ibid. 10 ibi j_

" Ibid. Rolls of Gravesend.

'^ Ibid. Inst. Sutton, 28. '^ Ibid

" Ibid. Inst. Dalderby, 63.

" Ibid. 357.

'" Ibid. Inst. Burghersh, 24.

" Dugdale, Man. vi, 1056.

2 24:

time during the twelfth century. It is mentioned
as an alien priory, of which the temporalities
were in the king's hands in 1390,^* and again in
1403, when it was being farmed by a clerk."
Its revenue in 1387 was given 2& £\% 6s. 2d.,
including the moiety of the church of Willough-
ton ; there had been waste and damage at that
time to the value of ;^35 13^. 4^.^

117. THE PRIORY OF BONBY

The churches which formed the endowment
of Bonby Priory were granted during the reign
of John to the Benedictine priory of St. Fro-
mund, Normandy ; they had previously belonged
to the prior and convent of Merton.^^

The value of the house was very small and
probably supported but one monk. During the
wars with France it became so unprofitable to
the prior of St. Fromund that he granted it to
the London Charterhouse. As this was done
without the king's consent, the grant was disre-
garded, and the priory was seized as alien pro-
perty.^* It was farmed for a time by the king's
clerks at an annual rent of 12 marks, but in
1403 it was granted to the Carthusians of
Beau vale."

Its value in 1380 was only ^^8 5 J. 10^. a
year.^ The original endowment had included
the rectories of Bonby, Saxilby, and All Saints,
Stamford.**

118. THE PRIORY OF WENGHALE

The date of the foundation and the name of
the founder of this little priory are alike uncer-
tain, but it was founded before the Lindsey
Survey c. 11 15, for then the monks of Weng-
hale held i carucate and 4 bovates in Owersby
of the Earl of Mortain. It was a cell of
the abbey of S^es in Normandy, for Bene-
dictine monks, and the earliest appointment
of a prior is dated 1223.*^ Others continued
to be placed in charge of it till 1399 ; but
in 1400 it was granted to a secular clerk in
recompense for services rendered to the king.*'
In 1 44 1 it was granted by Henry VI to the col-
lege of St. Nicholas, Cambridge, after the death
of Thomas of Cumberworth, who then held it ; ^
but it was afterwards transferred to the college of

'* Pat. 1 3 Ric. II, pt. iii, m. 24.

'' Jctj of the Privy Council (Ree. Com.), i, iqo-i

'"Add. MS. 6164, fol. 480. ' ' ^ >

"' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1056.

'■ Pat. 4 Hen. IV, pt. ii, m. 31.

'^ Ibid.

"'Add. MS. 6164, fol. 370.

" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1056.

'' Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Wells.

'■ Pat. I Hen. IV, pt. v, m. 23.

*'Ibid. 19 Hen. VI, pt. iii, m. 18.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

St. Michael (Trinity College) in exchange for
other lands.^

In 1453 it was found by an inquisition that
the priory had 1 1 oxgangs of land in South
Kelsey, each containing 20 acres with some
meadow.^

The value of its revenue in 1380 was
^12 18.. sd.'

Priors of Wenghale

Philip,* appointed 1223

William de Rupe,^ appointed 1242

Galgavus,^ resigned 1276

Geoffrey de Oumayo/ appointed 1276

John de Croquet," occurs 1345

Simon Pynart,^ occurs 1345

Michael de Logges,^" occurs 1399

119. THE PRIORY OF GREAT
LIMBER

The manor and church of Great Limber were
granted by Richard de Humet, constable of Nor-
mandy, and Agnes his wife, to the Cistercian
abbey of Aunay in Normandy, and their charter
was confirmed by Henry II about 1157.^^ A
little later Bertram de Verdun renewed the
grant on condition that two monks should always
be received into the abbey for the special purpose
of celebrating divine service for the souls of the

grantors.^^ It is possible that a monk may have clear ; in 1384 at ^^51 8j
been sent to Limber to take charge of the pro-
perty, but it is doubtful whether there was ever
a priory there in any other sense.

The manor and church were sold by the abbot
of Aunay in 1393 to the priory of St. Anne at
Coventry.''

but the monks of Savigny had had some right in
the church before this time, and a long dispute
between them and the convent of St. Serge,
Angers, had been brought to a conclusion during
the lifetime of St. Bernard.^'^ But it seems im-
probable that any priory was built in connexion
with the church until the end of the twelfth
century.'*

There was certainly a monk (or monks) at
Long Bennington in 1275," and there is mention
of a warden or keeper of the house, appointed
from Savigny, on the Patent Rolls of 13 19 and
1323.^" Later this warden received the title of
prior,^' but it seems unlikely that he had any
companions; the notices from 1323 onwards do
not seem to imply the existence of more than
one monk. Yet the revenue of the house would
have supported more ; it was of greater value
than any other alien cell in Lincolnshire.

The priory was taken into the king's hands,
and restored again, in 1339-40,^^ and no doubt
at other times during the war. In 1401 the
priory was being farmed for the king by the prior,
Michael Rogers, and one Michael Montayn.^' In
1462 it was granted, with other property of aliens,
for the support of the priory of Mountgrace in
Yorkshire.^*

In 1275 the monks of Long Bennington held
four carucates of land in the vill, worth £,ii>,
and the church, worth ;^40.^' In 1380 the
revenue of the priory was valued at ^^48 3 J. 8^.

Priors of Long Bennington

Robert,^' occurs 131 9

Michael Rogers,^* occurs 1401 and 1403

120. THE PRIORY OF LONG BEN-
NINGTON

The church of Long Bennington was pre-
sented by Ralf de Foug^res to the abbey of
Savigny in 11 63,'* and the grant was confirmed
by King Henry II " and Pope Alexander III ; '^

' Pat. 21 Hen. VI, pt. ii, m. 42.
' Mr. Brewster's Notes, from Vernon Papers, Trin.
Coll. Camb.

" Add. MS. 6164, fol. 390.

* Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Wells.

* Ibid. Rolls of Grosteste.

" Ibid. Rolls of Gravesend.
' Ibid.

^ Close, 19 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 22 d.
' Pat. 19 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. zo.
'» Ibid. I Henry IV, pt. v, m. 29.
" Round, Col. of Doc. France, i, 185.
'^ Ibid. 187. The charter is dated c. 1 178.
" Pat. 16 Ric. II, pt. iii, m. 26 ; Line. Epis. Reg.
Memo. Bokyngham, 451-2.
" Round, Cal. of Doc. France, i, 305.
'* Ibid. 306. " Ibid.

121. THE PRIORY OF HOUGH

The manor on which the priory of Hough
was afterwards built was granted by Henry I to
his abbey of St. Mary de Voto at Cherbourg,
for Austin canons. The parent abbey itself at

" Round, Cal. of Doc. France, i, 296.

'^ The church of Long Bennington is named through-
out these documents, but never the monks of that
place.

" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1024.

^° Pat. 13 Edw. II, m. 43 ; 16 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 5.

*' Close, II Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 33.

" Ibid. 13 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 34 ; 16 Edw. Ill,
pt. ii, m. 1 1.

^ Acts of the Privy Council (Rec. Com.), i, 190-3,
and Pat. 2 Hen. IV, pt. iii, m. 7.

" Pat. I Edw. IV, pt. vi, m. 14, 13. It was first
granted in 1432 ; Pat. 9 Hen. V, pt. ii, m. 19.

"' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1024.

'^ Add. MS. 6164, fols. 370, 480.

" Pat. 13 Edw. II, m. 43.

'^ Acts of the Privy Council (Rec. Com.), i, 190-3 ;
Pat. 2 Hen. IV, pt. iii, m. 7. This priory should
be reckoned amongst Cistercian cells, as the ' Order of
Savigny ' was finally absorbed into that of Citeaux.

242

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

its foundation contained only an abbot and four
canons, and the cell having no other endowment
than the manor and church of Hough, was in-
tended for the support of a prior with a single
chaplain for his companion, to maintain divine
service for the soul of the king and his family.^

The prior was at first bound to send a fixed
sum of money to Cherbourg every year ; after
the beginning of the wars with France this
pension was transferred to the Exchequer. Early
in the fourteenth century the assistant chaplain
was withdrawn, as the revenue was not sufficient
to support two canons any longer,^ and in 1340,
the prior himself was reduced to such straits that
he had to beseech the king for remission of his
arrears, amounting to 55 marks.' An inquisition
of the property was taken in 1 349, when it was
again found almost impossible to pay the pension
appointed. The priory mill had become broken
and useless, and nearly all the trees had been cut
down ; indeed, almost everything of value in the
house bad been sold to supply the money due to
the Exchequer. Most of the chantries founded
in the priory church had lapsed, as the prior could
not serve them all by himself.*

The priory was restored to the abbey of Cher-
bourg in 1399,^ but finally granted to the Car-
thusians of Mountgrace in 1432,° and confirmed
to them by Edward IV in 1462.'

The revenue of the priory was valued in 1388
at £38 8i. 8^.8

Priors of Hough

William,^ occurs i2o8, resigned 1228

Nicholas, ^^ appointed 1228

Robert Pampare,^^ appointed 1272

John de Insulis,-'^ died 1329

Nicholas Waryn,^' appointed 1329, died 1346

William deGardino,^*appointed 1346, resigned

1359
Richard de Londa,^' appointed 1359

Richard de Beaugrave,^* occurs 1399 and
1403

' Dugdale, Moti. vi, 1329, Chart. I.

' Ibid. Chart. 11.

^ Close, 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 30. It was pardoned
in respect of ^14 10^. ^d. which the king owed the
prior for wool.

* Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1029, Chart. II.

'^ Pat. I Hen. IV, pt. ii, m. 13.

" Ibid. 9 Hen. V, pt. ii, m. 19.

' Ibid. I Edw. IV, pt. vi, m. 14, 13.

'Add. MS. 6164, fol. 480.

" Boyd and Massingberd, Abstracts of Final Concords,
i, 93 ; Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Wells. He was made
abbot of Cherbourg.

'» Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Wells.

" Ibid. Rolls of Gravesend.

" Ibid. Inst, of Burghersh, 26. '* Ibid.

" Ibid. Inst. Beck, 61.

" Ibid. Inst. Gynwell, 87.

'* Pat. I Hen. IV, pt. ii, m. 13; Jets of P.C.
(Rec. Com.), i, 190-3.

122. THE PRIORY OF CAMMERING-
HAM

The church of Cammeringham was granted
before 1 126 to the abbey of L'Essay in the
diocese of Coutances, by Robert de Haya, with
the advice of his wife Muriel," but it seems to
have been granted also, with the manor to which
it was appurtenant, to the Premonstratensian
abbey of Blanchelande in Normandy, early in
the reign of Henry 11.^* A dispute which arose
between the two abbeys in consequence was
settled in favour of Blanchelande in 1192, by
William bishop of Coutances." It was probably
about this time that a small priory was built as
a cell to Blanchelande.

The advowson of the priory passed first to Alice
countess of Lancaster, and from her to Hugh le
Despenser in 1325.^° Shortly afterwards it was
taken into the king's hands. There was a prior
who had charge of it at any rate until 1 345 ; ^^ but
from 1383 onwards it was let out by the king to
various farmers. One of these, a canon of Torre,
was in 1383 expelled from the priory and robbed
by Adam Blakadam and others ; "^ on his making
complaint to the king he seems to have been
found unfit for his office, for he was formally
removed from it in 1387, and given a pension of
1 0 marks a year instead.^'

In 1396 the abbot of Blanchelande sold all his
rights in the house to the abbot of Hutton in
Staffordshire.'*

The revenue of the priory lands with the church
of Cammeringham was in 1380 ^^37 6s. g^d.;
in 1387 it was given as £^7 ^^^- Si*^- ^^

The only prior whose name is recorded is John
Lutehale, who occurs 1337 ^* and 1345.''

123. THE PRIORY OF WEST RAVEN-
DALE

The priory of West Ravendale is said to have
been founded by Alan son of Henry earl of
Brittany, who gave the manor and church in
1202 to the Premonstratensian abbey of Beau-
port in Brittany.'* There was a prior here in

" Round, Ca/. of Doc. France, i, 330.

" Ibid. 310 and 311 ; in these charters, Henry II
grants exemption to the canons of Blanchelande fi-om
suits of shires and hundreds in their manor of Cammer-
ingham.

" Ibid. 333.

» Feet of F. (Div. Cos.), 18 Edw. II, No. 49.

^^ Close, 19 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 22 d.

^* Pat. 7 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 11 d.

'^ Ibid. lb Ric. II, pt. ii, m. i.

'* Ibid. 18 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 6; Acts of P.C.
(Rec. Com.), i, 197.

'^ Add. MS. 6164, fols. 370, 480.

"^ Pat. II Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 13.

'' Close, 19 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 22 d. «^

'^ Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1050 ; Hund. R. (Rec. Com.),
i, 376.

243

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

1275,^ but it is uncertain whether he had ever
any brethren with him. Another was pardoned
in 1334 for hunting in a free warren.* The
temporalities of this house were in the king's
hands on and off during the second half of the
fourteenth century. In 1340 and 1343 it was
released on the ground that Brittany was not
under the power of France.' From 1344 to
1389, however, the king presented clerks to the
churches belonging to the priory.* Henry IV
granted the lands of West Ravendale to his queen,
Joanna, in dower,^ and when she died without
issue they were finally assigned to the dean and
chapter of Southwell in 1452.° This grant was
confirmed again in 1462.'

The revenue of the priory in 1380 was
;^22 igs, ^d.^ The advowsons of Waltham,
Brigsley, Beelsby, Barnoldby le Beck, Hatcliffe,
and Beesby, were reckoned as part of its posses-

' Pat. 3 Edw. I, m. 19.
'Ibid. 8 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 18.
'Close, 14 Edw. Ill, pt. 1, m. 25
pt. ii, m. 6.

* Pat. Rolls />assim.

" Inq. p.m. 15 Hen. VI, No. 48.
" Lansd. MS. 237, A, fol. 290.
' Pat. I Edw. IV, pt. iii, m. 13.

* Add. MS. 664, fol. 370.

16 Edw. Ill,

sions, but they only brought in small annual
pensions.'

Priors of West Ravendale

Nicholas,^* occurs 1246
Martin,^^ occurs 1275
William,^* occurs 1334

124. THE PRIORY OF NORTH
HYKEHAM

This priory is only mentioned in the Patent
Roll of Edward IV, under the year 1462, when
it was granted to the college called ' God's House,'
at Cambridge.^' Its revenue was then said to be
not more than 1 005. yearly. It is not at present
known to what foreign house it had belonged,
nor if there was ever a priory there — that is to
say, an actual religious house — at all.

° Inq. p.m. 1 5 Hen. VI, i. No. 48.

'° Line. Epis. Reg. Roll of Grosteste.

" Pat. 3 Edw. I, m. 9.

'^ Ibid. 8 Edw. Ill, pt. i, ra. 34.

" Ibid. 2 Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 16 ; and 8 Edw. IV,
pt. iii, m. 15. It is there called the alien 'priory,
manor or lordship of Ikham.'

244

POLITICAL HISTORY

LINCOLNSHIRE, by the quaint conceit of a seventeenth-century
eulogist, has been likened Mo a ' bended bow, the sea making
J the back, the rivers Welland and Humber the tw^o horns thereof,
while Trent hangeth down from the latter like a broken string,
as being somewhat of the shortest.' The county would seem to have been
built up, round its dominant capital, of natural divisions which are strongly
contrasted in character and configuration, and their grouping ^ to form the
shire may be the outcome of a previous political connexion.

The three great divisions of the shire — the parts of Lindsey, Kesteven,
and Holland — find some explanation when we try to create again natural
conditions now passed away. In the Roman period, and long after, Lindsey
might well be called an island. On three sides lay the sea, the Humber,
the swamps of Axholme and the tidal Trent, while the Witham and
broad shallow meres washed its southern base but for the neck of land at
Lincoln Gap. And even over this the Trent swept in flood-time, till
a bank was raised across the openings in the low sand-hills between Girton
and Marton Cliff.' Kesteven was mainly the forest region, a continuance of
the undulating midland country, bordered on the north-east with a strip
of fen, but including also the ' Cliff' range with its steep western slope
betwixt Ancaster and Lincoln. In no part of the shire has there been
so entire a change of its primaeval character as in Holland. There for league
on league once stretched the fen — morass, peatmoor, and shallow meres with
rank growth of reed and rush, and on the drier portions rich pasturage, deep
sedge, or thickets of sweet gale, birch, and sallow. But the natural fen-land
and the wild life it harboured are gone. The corn waves now where once
lay a waste of waters, and so thoroughly has drainage done its work that
in no part of England is drought more felt than in the fen region distant
from the river's outfall.

The exact boundary between the parts of Kesteven and Holland was
long a matter of dispute. At least as early as 1389 the attention of
Parliament had been directed to the matter, and the ancient bounds ordered
to be surveyed and marked again.* A final decision was reached only in the
second decade of the last century. Proceedings for the levy of a county rate
had been delayed and finally suspended by the difficulty of ascertaining what
proportion of the ancient inclosed lands called the Severals in Deeping Fen

' Fuller, Worthies of England (1662), 144. ' Compare the verses of Gaimar cited below.

^ The initiation of this work has been attributed to the Romans. Its necessity and utility were shown
in 179s when the bank at Spalford gave way, and as a result zo,ooo acres of low land west of Lincoln were
flooded to the depth of ten feet, whilst the people of Saxilby took refuge in their church. Cf. Line.
N. and Q. i, 213 ; and Tatham, Line, in Roman Times, 19.

* Pari. R. iii, 272^.

245

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

was situate in the parts of Kesteven and Holland respectively. In August,

1 8 1 6, four justices were appointed to determine the question, who in
November met at Market Deeping, took evidence, and made an ex-
haustive examination of all available records and surveys. As the result
a plan with boundaries precisely marked was made, and opportunities for
appeal and objection having been allowed, the surveyor was directed to stake
out the limits. When this was done the commissioners, on i6 and 19 May,

1 8 17, perambulated and viewed the boundaries from Kennulph's Cross to
the River Glen. Along the limits so fixed were erected 22 numbered
stones, the eastern side of each being marked with the letter H and the date
1 8 17, and the western with the same date and the letter K.^

The three parts of Lindsey, Kesteven, and Holland now form adminis-
trative counties. In Lindsey there are fourteen petty-sessional divisions,
whilst the county boroughs of Grimsby and Lincoln each enjoy a distinct
commission of the peace and a separate court of quarter sessions, and the
municipal borough of Louth has a separate commission of the peace. In
the parts of Kesteven the petty-sessional divisions are only four in number,
while the boroughs of Grantham and Stamford have each a separate
commission of the peace and separate courts of quarter sessions. Holland
is divided into two petty-sessional divisions, and within it Boston possesses
a distinct commission of the peace.

Lincolnshire as it existed in the Romano-British period is elsewhere
described, and our reference to this epoch must be here most cursory. It was
natural that after the south and south-east of England had been secured by
the Romans an advance should be made to the region of the Coritani or
Coritavi, now represented by Lincolnshire, for its seizure provided an admir-
able base for more northern operations. The relative importance of Lincoln
even in the Roman period is worth notice ; a port with water communica-
tion with the North Sea and Trent, a place of strength well-placed, rich and
dominant. In few parts of our country are evidences of Roman work on a
considerable scale so striking as in Lincoln, whilst we may probably ascribe
to the initiative and organization of the rulers of the world, the commence-
ment of the long labour by which the swamps of Holland have been changed
into cornland. The famous passage in Herodian describing the exploits of
Severus in Britain may indeed refer to this reclamation of the fens, and if so,
leaves no room for doubt as to its essentially military object f whilst the
description of the combats in swamp and morass reminds us that then, as in
later times, the fens were the last refuge of lost causes, their fastnesses a
shelter for desperate and landless men.

The English conquest of Lincolnshire can only be stated as a fact ; it can-
not be described, for all details are lacking. On a coast fringed with dangerous
sands there was little risk of any landing in force betwixt Boston Deeps or Wain-
fleet and Tetney Haven, and we may reasonably suppose that at these places
the invaders entered. Though they were mainly Anglian in race, an admix-
ture of Frisians has been inferred from certain place-names." We may also
say with tolerable safety that if anywhere the British resistance was strenuous,

' FenlandlSl. and Q. ii, 364.

' Herod. Hist. (Bekker), iii, 14, pp. 96, 97 : <os ac err W^oXoSs Palvovres 01 o-TpaTiaJroi '/DaSt'oJs Tc avra.
SiaTpixoLev Kol lir oyypov Prjfj.a.TO'; eSpaiioi £crT(3T£S frnxoWTO.

' Freiston, Friesthorpe, Firsby, Friskeney. Streatfeild, Line, and the Danes, 96.

246

POLITICAL HISTORY

and the conquered still lingered unmerged in the conquerors, it was in the
fens of Holland.^ A curious passage ^ in the life of St. Guthlac may be so
interpreted, but it is fair to state that in his early days the hermit had met
with BritOHS on the western marches and understood their language, and
thus the long-past struggles of his secular life may have taken a new and
imaginative form in the exaltation of spiritual conflict. As to the names of
the settlers, Lindsey, Gainsborough, and Spalding, remind us of the Lindis-
faras,' Oainas, and Spaldingas, whilst the Gyrwas are peculiarly associated
with the fen-land. Of the Anglian invasion generally, Bede tells us that so
extensive was its character that the continental homes of the immigrants were
left desolate and empty. The people they encountered were not romanized
to the core as in the old province of Southern Gaul, which no forcible disrup-
tion nor pressure could deprive of its romance character. Probably the Celtic
speech largely remained in use outside the towns, and many Celtic views on
kinship and on the holding and cultivation of land.*

The political status of Lindsey, or Lincoln, in the Saxon period suffered
considerable alteration from time to time, and we find it attached to the hege-
mony of both Northumbria and Mercia. Under Edwin it plainly belonged ^
to the northern kingdom. During this time Christianity was preached in
Lindsey by Paulinus, and one of his earliest converts was the ' prefect ' of
Lincoln, one Blascca, who believed and his household with him. The
religious history of the county, however, except so far as the organization of
the church strengthened the political fabric, does not concern us here. In
633 we may well believe that Lindsey passed from Edwin to Penda, for Oswald
recovered it,* and almost certainly by war.'' On his ruin at Maserfelth in 642,
Penda again became over-lord till he fell before Oswy at Winwaed in 655.
Some time after this Lindsey again passed to Mercia, whether at the successful
rebellion of Wulfhere against Oswy in 658, or later, is uncertain, for we
hear that Ecgfrid was obliged to reconquer it between the years 671 and
675.* And again in 679, as a result of the battle of the Trent, it went
to iEthelred.' How far the people of Lindsey accepted willingly incor-
poration in a larger unity can hardly be determined with any certainty from
the notices left to us, but there seems to be some slight indication of resent-
ment.^" They had once had princes of their own," and later Lindsey seems
to have formed a quasi-dependent appanage of Mercia ; for in 702 Cenred,^^
afterwards head-king of the Mercians, became ruler of the Southumbrians.

Leaving on one side purely ecclesiastical references, we find little extant
which concerns Lincolnshire especially, until the time of Alfred, who married

' The paucity of existing place-names of British origin in the shire is remarkable. Cf. Line. N. and Q. vi, 20.
' Felix, Vita S. Guthlaci, in Acta Sanct. 1 1 April, 43. In a vision of a demon-host he heard cries in the
ritish tongue. ' The dwellers round Lincoln seem to have adopted the older Celtic name.

* Vinogradoff, Growth of the Manor, 120. ' Bffida, Eccl. Hist, ii, 16 (Plummer, i, 1 17).

° Ibid, iii, 1 1 ; i, 148, ' super eos regnum acceperat.' ' Will, of Malm. Gesta Regum (Hardy), i, 74.

' Bseda, ut sufra, iv, 12 ; (Plummer, i, 229).

' Cf B<eda, ut supra, iv, 12 and iv, 21, with Flor. Wig. Chron. i, 243.

'° Cf Basda, Hist. Eccl. iii, 11, in reference to the uncivil reception of the body of Oswald, 'quia de
alia provincia ortus fuerat.' " Flor. Wig. op. cit. i, 253.

" Ang. Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 67, and cf. Gaimar, Lestoire des Engles (Rolls Ser.), i, 64 :

' Kenet regna sur Suthumbreis

Co est Lindeseye e Holmedene,

Kestevene e Hoyland e Hestdene ;

Del Hambre tresk en Roteland

Donrout eel regne, e plus avante.'

247

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

at Gainsborough, three years before his accession, Ealswitha, a daughter of

iEthelred of Mercia. No doubt at that time the plundering raids of the

Danes were already being felt on the shores of Lindsey. Settlement and

political conquest soon followed. With the easterly winds of spring the

Northmen coasted along the continental shores and crossed the shallow seas

to find berths ready for their galleys in the muddy creeks of Grimsby and

Tetney, while their crews plundered at will, and church and monastery were

sacked and burnt.^ In the year 873, after ravaging Middlesex, the Danish

leader, Healfdene, led his army northwards to Lindsey, and wintered at

Torksey-on-Trent.^ In the spring of the next year a furious onslaught was

made upon Mercia, Burgred, the last of the old line of Mercian kings, was

driven from his throne and retired to Rome to die. The western portion of

Mercia proper was granted to Ceolwulf, a minister of the late king ; the fate

of eastern Mercia and Lindsey is indicated by ecclesiastical changes. While

bishop followed bishop at Lichfield, Worcester, and Hereford, without break,

the see of Leicester was transferred to Dorchester on the borders of Wessex,

and for eighty years or more the bishopric of Lindsey was in abeyance. The

lands dependent on Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Stamford, and Lincoln

were parcelled out by the conquerors, and the towns themselves occupied by

divisions of the Danish host had a certain cohesion and probably a similarity

of constitution, and were afterwards to be well-known as the Five Burghs.

By 876 this settlement would seem to have been complete, or at least

Lindsey was included by 877, and in the following year the Peace of

Wedmore gave diplomatic confirmation to an accomplished fact. It is

possible that the grouping of Lindsey, Kesteven, and Holland, to form the

shire of Lincoln may date from about this time.*

In Lincolnshire the Danish invasions have left a peculiar impress.
Nearly 300 names of towns and villages within Lindsey and Kesteven show by
their formation a Danish source,* and the local dialect is probably more affected
by Norse admixture than any in England outside Holderness. The grouping
of original hundreds ^ to form a larger aggregate, whether it be called a
wapentake or hundred, may not be peculiar to Lincoln and the counties
specially subject to Danish influence," but it would be hardy to deny that
' wapentake ' is a word of Norse origin, and that the trithings or ridings of
Lindsey are due to the Danes. But the political and economic system of the
Northmen could not have differed widely from that of the Angles and Saxons,
though probably it was less developed. By the Danish invasion and settle-
ment north-eastern England was re-made. The hands of the clock, if we
may say so, were put back ; the formation of Lincolnshire in Domesday is
more primitive '' than we find in southern and western England. In short,

' Crowland and Bardney were burnt down, and some of the older stonework of the churches of Stow,
Scartho, and Tetney is said, even now, to show traces of fire. ' Hen. of Hunt. (Rolls Ser.), i, 145.

' Mr. Round has shown that this region is distinguished by a duodecimal (as against a decimal) system
of assessment, which is very marked in Lincolnshire.

* As might be expected, the nomenclature of Holland is almost unaffected by Danish influence.

' The Elloe Stone, Moulton, at the south side of the Roman road is a striking example -of the old
meeting-places of the hundreds. Line. N. and Q.'i, 141 sqq.

* Note the grouping of the Domesday hundreds of Bucks (Morley-Davies, in Home Counties Mag.
April, 1904), and compare the lathes of Kent and rapes of Sussex. Cf. also Round, in V.C.H. Wore, i, 248 :
' Recent research has favoured the view that there was some arrangement of hundreds in threes, with a liability
on each group to provide a ship's crew.' See also Ramsay, Foundations of England, i, 173.

' Vinogradoff, Growth of Manor, note to Book II, chap, i, 6.

248

POLITICAL HISTORY

Lincoln at the Conquest, owing to Danish re-settlement, is perhaps better
compared with the Wessex before the time of Alfred than with the Wessex
of the Confessor.

The notices of Lincolnshire during the Anglo-Saxon period so far as they
remain to us are fragmentary and incomplete/ In 941 Stamford owned ^
Edward the Elder as lord, and the confederate boroughs submitted to his arms,
but he wisely contented himself with enforcing order by the 'burhs ' he built,
and apparently did not meddle with the lawmen who administered the
municipal affairs of the Danish inhabitants. In the year 993, after the sack
of Bamborough, a viking fleet entered the Humber, ' and wrought mickle evil
both in Northumbria and Lindsey.' Twenty years later, about the month of
July, Swegen, following the coast-line from Denmark, reached Sandwich, and
then, sailing round the East Anglian shore, entered the Humber and passed
up to Gainsborough by the tidal Trent. To the north of the town is still to
be seen, girt with double ditch and rampart, the camp which he made, or at
least adapted to his use. Here he was among friends, and we hear of no
careless rapine and slaughter. Earl Uhtred brought the Northumbrians to
own him lord ; the men of northern Lindsey and the five burghs were not
slow to follow.^ All England to the north of Watling Street sent him
hostages, while provisions and transport were ready at demand. The
distinction between the Danish districts and the rest was emphasized in a
terrible manner. After he crossed Watling Street ' the most evil they wrought
that any host could do.' But we cannot follow the raid beyond our county's
boundary. On the morrow of Candlemas in the following year the tyrant
lay dead at Gainsborough — struck down, as men said, by the might of
St. Edmund, whose shrine and lands he had menaced.*

At his death the choice of the host fell on Cnut, but while the men of
Lindsey were ready for fresh foray and aggression, his other followers showed
faint heart and slackness, ^thelred for once seized the opportunity and
marched upon Gainsborough, laying waste Lindsey with fire and sword.'
Cnut retired before him, and at Easter followed with his fleet the coast to
Sandwich, where he barbarously mutilated the hostages entrusted to his care,
and thence returned to Denmark to recruit his forces. On Cnut's return,^ in
1016, he marched through the shires of Buckingham, Bedford, and Hert-
ford, and then across the northern border of Northamptonshire, to Stamford,
and onwards to Lincoln. As he advanced north into Deira, Earl Uhtred
again came in and submitted, as he had to Swegen, but Cnut did not trust
him, and found means to compass his death. Although we hear that God-
wine, ealdorman of Lindsey, fell at Assandun fighting for Edmund, yet the
shire of Lincoln and Danish Mercia naturally went to Cnut by the agreement
of Olanege. Under Edward the Confessor at Leofric's death Lincolnshire,
with most of Mercia, passed to his son Alfgar.

' A notice of Brunnanburgh (937) ' praeliorum maximum' in the words of Henry of Huntingdon has
been omitted from the text, as there seems as yet no general agreement among historians of repute as to the
actual position of the battle-field. The facts which favour a site at Burnham in the parish of Thornton Curtis
have been ably marshalled by the Rev. A. Hunt, vicar of Welton, in a paper originally read at a meeting of
the Spalding Gentlemen's Society, zi April, 1901.

' Hen. of Hunt. Hisi. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 161 ; Jnglo-Sax. Chrm. (Rolls Ser.), 208, Z09.

' Anglo-Sax. Chrm. (Rolls Ser.), i, 270.

* The story is told by Flor. Wig. Chron. (Eng. Hist. Soc). i, 168. Cf also Freeman, 'Norman Conj. i, 402.

» Hen. of Hunt. Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 181. ' Anglo-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 278.

2 249 32

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Lindsey, which bore so little part in the great day of Hastings and its
immediate sequel, had, curiously enough felt one of the earliest effects of
William's breach with Harold. In the May of 1066, Tostig, sent from the
Cotentin on a raiding expedition, landed and levied contributions at the
southern ports, impressed Sandwich boatmen, some at least against their will,
and, sailing northward, entered the Humber and harried Lindsey. Edwin
and Morcar attacked him with the northerners and drove him to his ships,
and with a crippled remnant he sought refuge at the Scottish court.^

The sheriff of Lindsey, Maerleswein, had been with Harold at Stamford
Bridge, and seems to have been left in the north by Harold as his lieutenant as
he hurried south to meet the Norman invader.*" That Lindsey contributed
any appreciable part of the English army at Hastings is unlikely. It was
mainly a Wessex force that fought, and Wessex men who afterwards paid with
special pains for their resistance. It was not until the summer of 1068 that
the Conqueror took seisin of Lincoln, reaching it from the north after
York and Yorkshire had been entrusted to WiUiam Malet and a settlement
arranged with Malcolm of Scotland. The size and wealth of Lincoln at
this time are abundantly authenticated. Round it had been grouped as
the indisputable capital Lindsey, Kesteven, and Holland to form the shire.
The riches of sea-borne commerce reached it from the Witham, and its in-
habited houses numbered 1,150. William of Malmesbury describes it a
little later as one of the most populous cities in England, a resort for
travellers by sea and land.'' Of the circumstances which attended its submis-
sion to William we have little record, but the notices of Domesday give us
little reason to suspect any active resistance, while twelve lawmen still retained
their position in the town. But a castle was built to overawe the citizens and
166 houses were destroyed to furnish or extend the site. Some haste seems to
have been necessary in its construction as the old Roman wall on two exterior
sides, probably at that time ruinous and ineffective, was buried in a lofty and
steep bank which the builders then carried right round the new castle, and the
area enclosed covered more than 5 acres.*

The pages devoted to Lincoln and Stamford in Domesday are of
peculiar interest, but are more properly considered in the special history of
these towns. This may be remarked here, that Stamford would seem to
have fared in much the same way as Lincoln ; nine of its twelve lawmen still
remained though a castle had been erected.^ At Torksey, however, a place
of some strategical importance, commanding a ferry of the Trent, there may
have been resistance either now or at a later period,* as at the time of the
survey the number of burgesses was grievously reduced from what it had
been under King Edward and 1 1 1 houses lay waste. The Domesday record
in general as it affects our county is elsewhere discussed in this history. The
number of English names of under-tenants at least is considerable, but
amongst the holders in chief, Coleswegen, Colegrim and a few smaller men
in the long list of Normans, Flemings, and Bretons remind us how few
were the fiefs allowed to the Englishry.' But one name in the survey

' Anglo-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 336. ^Gaimar, Lestolre des Engks (Rolls Sen), i, 222.

' Gest. Pont. (Rolls Ser.), 31Z.

* Eng. Hist. Rev. xix, 236. * Domesday, 336^.

"Ibid. 337. 'Alfred of Lincoln was probably a Breton (Round, Feudal England).

250

POLITICAL HISTORY

demands a further note, though the exploits of its owner belong to the history
of the Isle of Ely. Hereward, a man of the abbey of Peterborough, had
held land on the edge of the fen at Witham on the Hill and its neighbour-
hood, land which we are significantly told he no longer held ' die qua aufugit '
on the day of his escape from the isle, for it was no doubt forfeited long
before.^ Apart from the legends which have grown round Hereward's
name the rising of the fenmen in the spring of 1070 to join the Danish fleet
was only one incident in the secular and necessary history of Holland and the
adjoining region as the last refuge of the landless and dispossessed. By one
recorded act Edgar the Atheling is connected with the history of the shire. In
the early autumn of 1069 he landed on its coast and narrowly escaped capture
from the Norman guards. But the real objective of his expedition was York.

The chronicles furnish us with few facts which concern Lincolnshire
during the reigns of the Conqueror's sons. In 1088 the lands of William of
St. Calais in this county were harried by the sheriff of Yorkshire, Ralf
Paynel, who had obtained the great estates of Maerleswein, with his residence
in Lincoln itself.

The Norman wars of Henry I ' indirectly affected the county in at least
one instance : Robert de Stutevile had taken the losing side at Tinchebrai
against King Henry and his estates were forfeited to the crown. These prob-
ably included the lands in the Isle of Axholme,* which had previously belonged
to Geoffrey of Wirce. At least it was in this reign that these were granted
to Nigel D'Albini, Finally, in the reign of Henry I, we may briefly note the
names of two Lincoln men of some distinction — one, Turgot, the confessor of
a king of Norway and both confessor and biographer of St. Margaret of
Scotland,* while the other, Wulfric, came as ambassador from Alexios the Eastern
Emperor to the English court, and brought to Abbot Faritius of Abingdon a
precious gift, the arm of St. John Chrysostom." The name of Wulfric again
reminds us that the Varangian guard of eastern Rome was a refuge for English
exiles just as two centuries ago, after the perfidy of Limerick, the Irish fought
in the ranks of France.

The first incident of importance in the reign of Stephen which concerned
our county was the collision between the king and that episcopal family who
for thirty years had controlled the financial administration of the realm
with a resultant personal enrichment almost beyond belief. Alexander of
Lincoln, the nephew of Bishop Roger, ' for the protection, as he said, and
dignity of his see ' ° reared castles at Newark and Sleaford. Arrested ^ at the
Council of Oxford in 11 39, he was brought to Newark and his retainers
charged with its defence forced to yield by the entreaties of their imprisoned
lord, whom Stephen tortured by an experience of hunger uncongenial to a
prelate of high degree. The fall of Sleaford, a position of considerable
strategical importance, followed.

The accession of Stephen, personally brave as he was and generous to a
fault, but improvident and weak of purpose, with a title open to grave

' Round, Feudal En^nd, i6o.

' For an interesting writ of Henry to the Shire and Moot see Eng. Hist. Rev. xxi, 505.

'Dugdale, Bar. 457, and Rot. Cur. Reg. ii, 231. Cf. Round, Cal. Doc. France, 512.

* Freeman, Engl. Towns and Districts, 214. ''Abingdon Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 46.

•Will, of Malm. Hist. Nov. (Rolls Ser.), 468.

' Hen. of Hunt. Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 266, and cf. Duchy of Lane. Charters, No. 15 (P.R.O.).

251

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

exception, offered an immediate opportunity to the barons, curbed by his pre-
decessor, to assert the rights they claimed and advance all manner of grievance.
Amongst them, not the least powerful, was the earl of Chester, Ranulf
' Gernons,' who seems to have cherished the project of a great midland
earldom or palatinate, stretching from Carlisle to Chester, and thence across
Staffordshire and Leicestershire to Lincolnshire,^ where he held a great appur-
tenant fief. Carlisle and other Cumbrian lands, had been perforce surrendered
by his father, Ranulf Meschin, to Henry I, and Stephen had now granted
Cumberland to the Scots. Again, William of Roumare, the half-brother
of Ranulf ' Gernons,' inherited from his mother Lucy certain lands in Lin-
colnshire including apparently Bolingbroke, and seems to have shared with
the heirs of Coleswegen* a claim to the constableship of Lincoln Castle.
But in the year 1140* the motte of Lincoln was held for the king, and
Ranulf and his half-brother, under cover of a friendly visit by their wives
to the lady of the governor, contrived to enter the castle, which was
carelessly guarded, and expel the garrison.* Stephen, on hearing of this
exploit, seems to have journeyed to Lincoln late in 1 140, accepted the explana-
tions of the aggressors, and not only left them in possession, but granted to
William of Roumare the earldom of the county.' Whatever may have been
the claims of the new earl of Lincoln to the constableship of the castle, the
whole action of the king was more generous than politic. The inevitable
result followed. Even whilst the court kept in traditional fashion the
festival of Christmas ominous reports were received from Lincoln ; and it
became evident that the two earls were strengthening and provisioning the
fortress in readiness to stand a siege. Stephen hurried north. to find that
Earl Ranulf had escaped to Cheshire to raise his feudal tenants, leaving
his wife, a daughter' of Earl Robert of Gloucester, and his brother to hold
the castle, whilst aid was sought from Earl Robert and allegiance offered
to Maud.

Earl Robert may have felt no particular enthusiasm for either the
person or quarrel of his son-in-law, but such an opportunity could scarcely
be disregarded. His forces were soon mobilized and on the march.
Meanwhile the Cheshire men rallied to the standard of their earl, who had
in addition enlisted a number of Welsh light troops led by Cadwalader and
Mareddud.^ The two allies effected a junction in the Midlands probably where
the Foss Way and Watling Street intersect at Claybrook in Leicestershire.*
In the year 1 141 there was a coincidence of Sexagesima and the Feast of the
Purification, and on that day the united army arrived before Lincoln. The
scene of the struggle was the level plain by Ermine Street, north of the
city walls. Reaching Bracebridge the earl had probably foreborne to cross

' Round, ' King Stephen and the earl "of Chester,' Engl. Hist. Rev. x, 9 1 .

' Robert de Haye had been constable of Lincoln Castle under Hen. I. Round, Jnct. Chart. (Pipe Roll
Soc), X, 59.

' Our authorities for the two years before the battle of Lincoln are peculiarly scanty, and it is more than
usually difficult to piece together fragmentary details and trace the exact sequence of events.

* Ordericus, Eccl. Hist. (Migne), 921 ; cf. Hen. Hunt. Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 268 : ' Cujus munitiones
fraudulenter ceperat Ranulfus comes Cestriae.'

' Gesta. Steph. (Rolls Ser.), 6g ; Will, of Malm. Hist. Nov. (Rolls Ser.), 487 ; and Round, Geoff, de
Mondeville, 271.

« Will, of Malm. Hist. Nov. (Rolls Ser.), 487.

' Ordericus, Eccl. Hist. (Migne), 978. • Norgate, Angevin Kings, i, 316.

252

POLITICAL HISTORY

the bridge over the Witham, but led his troops through the swamps and
water-meadows along its left bank, and after fording the Foss dyke beyond
the Brayford pool passed up by way of the Carholme to the scene of the
fight. On the northern side alone was the city in any way open to successful
assault.^

When the battle was over men recollected that unmistakable portents
had been vouchsafed as the king took part in the Divine Service. The
candle he offered in accordance with the ritual of the feast fell and was
broken, while the chain by which the pyx hung above the altar snapped
asunder, and the Host was hurled to the ground.

Before the fight the leaders on both sides addressed their men, Baldwin
Fitz-Gilbert of Clare speaking for King Stephen, whose voice was hardly
strong enough for the occasion.^ On both sides a triple ' formation pre-
vailed. The cavalry of the royal army, the barons and their men-at-arms
filled the first two lines. Alan of Richmond, Waleran of Meulan, Hugh of
Norfolk, William of Warenne, and Simon of St. Liz stood foremost in the
van. In the second line were William of Ypres, and another William, the
earl of York. Stephen with his immediate bodyguard, a mass of footmen,
and the citizens of Lincoln closed the rear. In the third line at least there
was no wavering of purpose, whatever the inferiority in arms or equip-
ment. In the first rank of Stephen's foes were the landless and dispossessed,
the acies exhaeredatorum of the chronicler, behind them the men of Cheshire
and the Welsh. Robert of Gloucester directed the battle and led the
reserve.

The earls of Stephen's vanguard wished to open the fight with the jousts
of chivalry,* but Miles of Gloucester, the finest soldier in the Angevin force,
was in no mood for ineffective display, and the charge of the disinherited
pierced the royal ranks and swept the half-hearted baronage from the field.'
The earl of Chester, who had chafed at his exclusion from the van, now
assaulted the second line shaken by the rout they had witnessed. The
Welsh light troops, more fit for guerilla tactics than the shock of battle,
broke on the front of steel, but the charge of the Cheshire men bore all
before it, and William of Ypres with his horsemen rode off the field. The
whole strength of the Angevin onset was now directed against the infantry
who stood around the king. Desperate assault was met by stubborn defence,
and Stephen, well seconded by his bodyguard and the Lincoln burghers,
showed the courage of a simple soldier in a melee where no generalship
could avail. His sword broke in his hands. With a Danish axe * he kept
off his assailants till a stone from behind struck him to the ground. One
William of Kahaines caught him by the helmet and kept him down,
and he surrendered to the earl of Gloucester. Baldwin of Clare, Bernard
of Balliol, Roger of Mowbray, and many others were captured with the king,
but the politic cowardice of the royalist earls suggested treachery to their

' Hen. of Hunt. Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 268, describes the march as through ' paludem paene
intransibilem,' while Will, of Malm. Hut. Nov. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 571, with less local knowledge mentions the
flooded Trent, probably referring to the Fossdyke.

' Hen. of Hunt. op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), 271. ' Ordericus, op. cit. (Migne), 978.

' Will, of Malms. Hist. Nov. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 571, 'proludium pugnae facere quod justam vocant.'

' Hen. Hunt. op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), 273.

* Ordericus, op. cit. (Migne), 978. ' Ense vel securi Norica quam quidam illi juvenis ibi administraverat.'

253

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

contemporaries. The victors sacked the city,^ and butchered every burgher
they could find/ but most of those past fighting age had fled, though 500 or
more are said to have been drowned by the swamping of over-loaded boats
as they crossed the Witham.'

Stephen on his release from captivity found it a first necessity to patch
up a peace, or at least a truce, with Ranulf Gernons and his half-brother.
Under solemn sanction an accord was made at Stamford,* and William of
Roumare received Kirton in Lindsey, and was confirmed ^ in the right of
holding Gainsborough Castle and bridge, which commanded several converging
roads. The year 1146 was marked by the somewhat theatrical submission
and apologies of Earl Ranulf, who came to court and was cordially
received by the king, whose kindness of nature at times approached abject
weakness. The manner of the suppliant was rather that of an equal than
a subject, no offer was made to surrender Lincoln, and the advisers of the
king were with some reason suspicious of the earl's sincerity. When he
employed the newly cemented amity to inveigle Stephen into a Welsh expe-
dition, which may have covered treacherous designs against his person, the
barons saw fit to interfere. Certain of their number held colloquy with
Earl Ranulf at Northampton and finally arrested him.* He was forced to
surrender Lincoln and other castles and give hostages, but after the usual oaths
released. It is futile to discuss the political ethics of this anarchical time.
Most persons of sober sense may have agreed with the chronicler that, if
through ' wicked rede ' the king had allowed the arrest of the ambitious
palatine, ' through worse rede ' he had let him go free.

Late in the year which saw the arrest and release of Earl Ranulf^
Stephen took seisin of Lincoln and its castle, and defied a popular super-
stition which had forbidden his predecessors to wear their crown within
the city walls.'^ This proceeding touched the earl of Chester to the quick,,
and he again raised the standard of revolt, but the garrison left by Stephen,
seconded no doubt by the faithful Lincoln burghers, who had not forgotten
the fatal Candlemas six years before, repulsed a furious attack on the
Newport Gate. Turning away into the Midlands the earl laid siege ta
Coventry, and thence was driven by the king. Early in 1 148 died that keen
politician and active rearer of castles, Alexander bishop of Lincoln, and in
the late autumn Robert of Chesney was consecrated as his successoF^
Meanwhile Earl Ranulf had evolved another scheme for furthering his-
long-cherished ambition of a great central earldom. In 1 1 49 he did homage
to David of Scotland, while a marriage was arranged between RanulFs
son and the grand-daughter of the king of Scots. The price of fealty was ta
be the honour of Lancaster. David advanced south from Cumberland, but
Ranulf was not forthcoming to play his part. Stephen had in fact offered
higher terms, and amongst grants almost incredible in their lavish excess we
find Lincoln, Torksey, and Grimsby as the eastern limits of the earl's.

' Hen. Hunt. op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), 275.

' Will, of Malms. Hist. Nov. (Rolls Ser.), 572, 'quod ipsi principium et fomes istius mali fuissent.'

' Ordericus, op. cit. (Migne), 979. ■* Harl. MS. 2044, fol. 55^.

' The language of the grant is significant, ' Omnibus liberis consuetudinibus cum quibus aliquis comes
Anglie tenet castella sua.' Great Cowcher, ii, fol. 445, cited by Round, Geoffrey de Mandeville, 159.

^ Hen. Hunt. op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), 279.

' William of Newburgh praises him for his good sense, i, 5 7 .

254

POLITICAL HISTORY

dominion. Meanwhile the earldom of Lincoln would seem to have remained
with William of Roumare,^ though Gilbert of Gand seems to have used the
title at the same time. A few years later Earl Ranulf, foreseeing the near
triumph of Henry of Anjou, made terms with him, and received grants ' in
England and Normandy more extensive than even Stephen had offered.
Amongst the incidents of the campaign that followed we may notice in
respect to Lincolnshire the siege of Stamford. The garrison begged aid from
Stephen at Ipswich, but none could be spared, and the beleaguered stronghold
surrendered to his rival.

Until late in the reign of Henry FitzEmpress we have only to chronicle
the bare facts of royal or episcopal visits to the shire. In the February
which followed his accession, Henry had marched to York by way of
Lincoln, and William PevereP entered religion in terror of his advent.
Later in the same year the city had welcomed Malcolm of Scotland on his
way to the court at Chester, whilst in 1 1 64 another illustrious visitor with
scant following climbed the steep streets of Lincoln, lodged at the house of
one Jacob a fuller, and sailed down the Witham on the way to Sempringham.*
Thomas Becket was passing to exile and martyrdom.

Yet another decade was nearly gone, when Henry, who knew the value
of the native Englishry against Norman rebels, summoned Lincolnshire to
arms in the baronial outbreak of 1173. The king had steadily worked out
his policy of centralization, and the greater feudatories felt year by year a
sterner curb, a more galling control. Among the rebels was Roger Mowbray
of Axholme, the patron of the Templars, crusader and pilgrim. He
had inherited from Nigel D'Albini a chain of forts from Kinardferry in
Axholme, which he hastily strengthened, to the Yorkshire castles of Thirsk
and Kirkby Malzeard. They cut northern England asunder and barred the
advance of any southern force against the Scots. Immediate action was
needed. Geoffrey, bishop elect of Lincoln, a natural son of the king, called
out his tenants and the levy of the shire. The Axholme stronghold soon
surrendered for lack of drinking-water, whilst Robert, its constable, a younger
son of Roger, was caught by the villagers of Clay as he rode to Leicester for
assistance. Geoffrey dismantled Kinardferry and carried the war into
Yorkshire. ° Probably, from the destruction of Thirsk and their other more
northern strongholds we may date the choosing of Epworth in Axholme as
the chief residence of the Mowbrays, and the centre of their remaining fiefs.

The commercial importance of Lincoln has already been insisted upon,
and its wealthy Jewish settlement would afford ample evidence of the fact,
•even without the categorical statements of the chroniclers. As Jewish
activity in the county had important political consequences, a slight notice
is imperative here. The date of the first Jewish settlement on the Steep Hill
of Lincoln is unknown, but we can well believe that it can have been little
later than the reign of William Rufus or Henry I. By the reign of
Henry II they were firmly established, and in 1159^ the sheriff of Lincoln

1 Cott. Ch. xvii, 2. ' Ibid. ; cf. Round, Engl. Hist. Rev. x, 87, et seq.

' He was credited with the poisoning of Ranulf Gernons, to whom had been granted his erstwhile fief
of Nottingham.

* Materials for Hist. Thorn. Becket (Rolls Ser.), ii, 399, and iii, 324.

' Benedict of Pet. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 64, 68, and R. Hoveden, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 57.

" Pipe R.

255

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

renders account of £/[.o for the Jews of that city. It was also the head
quarters of the greatest financier of the day, Aaron, the king's creditor^ for
£6 1 6 i2s. 8(/. in nine counties, in the year 1166. With Aaron's money
the greatest abbeys of the time were built ; he took in pledge the plate of
Lincoln minster,^ and with a trader's bluntness reminded the St. Albans
monks that the very shrine of their patron belonged to him.* In Lincoln-
shire even lands passed into his hands.* By his organizing genius the Jewish
community of England developed into an extensive banking association.
The wealth of the Lincoln Jews is still proclaimed by their surviving
houses of stone, and when King Richard returned from Germany they
offered at Northampton^ jC^Sy 4.S. iid. The actual number of individual
Jews mentioned at Lincoln is larger, though their offering is smaller than at
London. The death of Aaron in 1186 had no doubt seriously lessened the
aggregate wealth of the Lincoln community, since at his death his property
including houses in the precincts of the bailey had escheated to the crown.
The treasure of jewels and specie accumulated by him was lost between Shore-
ham and Dieppe when being forwarded for the king's use in the French war,®
but beyond this, debts due to his estate to the amount of j^i 5,000 came into
the king's hands.'' A special section of the Exchequer^ was established to
deal with this windfall, and continued at least till the year 1 201, when £y,Soo
of Aaron's debts were still unpaid.

In the first year of King Richard the most important men in Lincoln iri
the ecclesiastical and civil spheres were Hugh of Avalon, the bishop, who
was gifted with strong good sense and a passion for justice ; and an able but
less reputable person, Gerard de Camville, who claiming the constableship of
the castle in right of his wife, Nicholaa de la Haye, had bought the
shrievalty of the county in addition, when the king was driven to the sale of
dignities to fill his military chest.' Evidence has already been adduced as to
the numbers of Lincolnshire men who had fallen into the toils of the Jews.
Besides those whom a generous passion for the recovery of the holy places
attracted to the crusade, many had assumed the cross to escape their
obligations, and for other less worthy motives. There exists a list" of crusaders
from Lincolnshire which cannot be much later than this time, and although
a mere fragment, it gives some notion of the rank and file of the humbler
sort who took the cross. In all probability it is a schedule drawn up for the
ecclesiastical authorities of men suspected of avoiding the fulfilment of their
vows. Lincoln and some seventeen places in the district round Boston are
mentioned as furnishing recruits, and thirty-one men are named, four being
from the city of Lincoln itself.^^ Some seem to have abandoned the
expedition, and others claimed untruly to have been in the Holy Land. For
instance, Richard, the son of Thurstan of Algarkirk, with a wife and
five children, and wretchedly poor, averred that he has been in the land of

' Pipe R. ' Gir. Camb. 0/«a (Rolls Sen), vii, 36. ' Gesta St. Albani (Rolls Ser.), i, 193.

* Red Book Exch., 382, 523, and Liber Niger (Hearne), iii, 16.

' Exch. Accts. K.R. (P.R.O.) ; ^ ; Jacobs, Jem of Angevin Engl. 163.

^ Ben, of Pet. op. cit. (Rolls Ser.),ii, 5.

' Of the 430 persons indebted to Aaron, no less than 186 were from Lincolnshire.

* Madox, Hist, of Exch. (1769), i, 190, and 237 et seq.

' Pipe R. 2 Ric. I, and Hoveden (Rolls Ser.), Introd. iii, xxix.

'» Amongst MSS. of D. and C. of Cant. See Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. (1901), i, 23;.

" Amongst the Boston crusaders were a potter, a dealer in hides, and a butcher.

256

POLITICAL HISTORY

Jerusalem, but he furnished no evidence of the fact. A considerable number,
indeed, were married men with families, and some were practically
beggars. Hubert the son of Guy of Surflet had started on his journey, but
had been robbed in Lombardy and returned home. Andrew, a married
clerk of Gosberton Church, had on one occasion gone back to his wife, by
the advice of the pope himself, since he was unable to reach the Holy Land,
as passage from Italy was prohibited to the crusaders.

The suspicion and dislike with which the Jews were ordinarily
regarded became more intense as the volunteers were equipped and assembled
for the crusade. And there is good ground for supposing that the flame of
jealousy and religious hatred at Lincoln was fanned by local gentry in the
money-lenders' clutches, as it certainly was at York. A serious riot took
place at Lincoln, and apparently the mob stormed the cathedral, intending to
destroy the bonds there placed for safety, and were only turned from their
purpose by the vigorous action of St. Hugh, who stood his ground amongst
the gleaming blades of the assailants whilst his own officials took refuge
beneath their altars,^ The narrow escape of valuable obligations, even more
than the danger to the lives of his chattels, moved the king to serious action
against the leaders of the riot, many of whom were responsible citizens.
William the son of Warren was fined jT looj' Leofwin the moneyer 40 marks.
The lowest fine was half a mark, and the total amercement £2^? ^^^- ^^'
was not entirely paid for several years.

Another outbreak, directed against the Jewish traders at Stamford fair,
took place in the following Lent. A number of recruits for the crusade were
assembled in the town, who took it in ill part that the ' enemies of the
cross of Christ ' should enjoy such great possessions whilst they themselves were
without provision for their journey.' Aided by the local rabble, they sacked
the stalls of the Jews and slew some of the owners ; the rest took refuge in
the castle. One of the robbers who had fled to Northampton with his booty
was there murdered by an accomplice. On the discovery of his body the
deed was attributed to the Jews, miracles were reported at the tomb, and the
slain criminal was honoured as a martyr. Bishop Hugh of Lincoln, however,
promptly intervened, and in spite of opposition from the townsmen, stopped
the sacrilege.* From his action on these occasions he won the esteem and
gratitude of the persecuted race. Far different had been the conduct of
Gerard de Camville, who was shrewdly suspected of abetting the Stamford
murderers, and had even harboured them after the slaughter of the unfortunate
Jews.^ Longchamp, whose policy involved the revocation of the more
improvident grants made by his absent master, was not content with demand-
ing from Camville the surrender of his shrievalty, but further summoned
him to hand over Lincoln Castle." Camville made appeal to Prince John,

' Magna Vita (Rolls Ser.), 167. The Jews are not mentioned by name in this account, but this is
naturally explained by the reticence of the chronicler, who may have been unwilling to exhibit the saint as
their protector. The persecuted people showed by their demeanour at his funeral a deep sense of gratitude,
' lugentes et plangentes, ac verum magni dei famulum eum extitisse conclamantes.' That the cathedral was
used for the protection of Jewish property is proved by a mandate on the Close Roll, 28 Feb. 1205, addressed
to St. Hugh's successor, William of Blois, and ordering that the practice should not be allowed. The dangers
to which Jewish bonds were exposed led to the institution of official ' archae ' for their reception in the
principal cities in 1 1 94. " Pipe R. 3 Ric. I. ' Will, of Newburgh, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 311.

' Magna Vita S. Hug. (Rolls Ser.), 348. ' R. de Hoveden, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 242.

" Will, of Newburgh, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), i, 337, 338 ; R. de Hoveden, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 135.

2 257 33

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

who demanded from the chancellor his adherent's reinstatement. Longchamp
at once gathered what levies he was able, and summoned mercenaries from
the Continent, With his usual decision, the chancellor dealt vigorously with
Roger Mortimer of Wigmore, who had raised the turbulent Welsh on behalf
of John, and then hurried to Lincoln, where the Lady Nicholaa had made
ready to stand a siege,^ Meanwhile Prince John had seized Nottingham and
Tickhill. At this point the archbishop of Rouen intervened, and prevailed
on the chancellor to give over the blockade of Lincoln and meet his opponent
in conference. Accompanied by their armies, the two protagonists held
colloquy at Winchester, and there towards the end of July patched up a
truce, Longchamp undertaking to reinstate Camville in his shrievalty pending
a legal decision on his conduct, John on his part agreeing to respect the
considered judgement of the court. Later, at the council of Northampton,
Camville was deprived both of shrievalty and castle, which were again put up
to auction. Longchamp here advanced the old accusation as to Stamford
Fair and other grave matters, which the accused flatly denied. Apparently a
decision was shelved for the time, but Gerard de Camville ultimately found
it expedient to buy the king's favour by a fine of 2,000 marks." On John's
accession he regained his old position, and further increased his ascendancy in
the county.

The opposition with which St. Hugh of Lincoln met the king's demands
at the Oxford Council in respect to over-sea service, alleged to be due from
the ecclesiastical fiefs, belongs to the history of the church, and cannot be
considered in detail here. The amiable enthusiasm of a great historian has
seen in this resistance a patriotic stand on behalf of the rights of Englishmen
against royal exaction. St. Hugh was in reality defending the privileges and
interests of the see he ruled.'

Early* in the reign of John the city of Lincoln witnessed a memorable
scene. On the steep hill outside,' in the sight of a great gathering of people,
William the Lion of Scotland did homage to his liege lord of England, and
swore loyalty on the primatial cross of Archbishop Hubert, ' saving his own
right.' The conference held on the morrow as to the counties disputed
between the kings led to no practical result, and was adjourned till the ensuing
Whitsuntide with every prospect of indefinite postponement. On 23 Novem-
ber the king of Scots left for the north, while John stayed behind to join with
all Lincoln in the obsequies of St. Hugh of Avalon. Less than two months
later, the king was again in the city engaged in a congenial wrangle with the
chapter' as to the occupancy of the see, and leaving it on his northward
journey towards the Humber, on Septuagesima Sunday halted at Louth to
sanction and confirm the reconciliation of William de Stuteville and William
de Mowbray, lord of Axholme.'' Before passing to the close of this reign, we
may note here as an illustration of the incidental burdens of military service in

' He reached Lincoln early in July. Round, Commune of London, 214; Dr. Stubbs held that there were
' two campaigns,' in each of which Lincoln Castle was besieged by Longchamp, but Mr. Round has shown that
there was but one.

^ R. de Hoveden, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), Introd. to vol. iii, p. c.

^ His own reported words are surely decisive. It was his duty to ' Our Lady of Lincoln ' — ' the church
of Lincoln' — which determined his action. See Round, Feudal England, 528-35.

* 21 Nov. 1200.

' Roger de Hoveden, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 141.

^ Ibid. 156. ' Ibid. 118; cf Hardy, Itin. ad loc.

258

POLITICAL HISTORY

the royal castles, that in i 200 Ralph de Bradel gave the king 40 marks and
a palfrey to be quit of the custody of the work of the castle of Grimsby.^

Until the last year of the reign of John, we have few specific details
which concern the political history of Lincolnshire, though as early as the
Whitsun week of 121 5, before the grant of the great charter, a part of the
baronial levy had entered Lincoln.** And this event, with the blockade of
the Tower and the rising at Northampton, contributed largely to the surrender
of the king, who was almost deserted except for his foreign mercenaries.
Later in the same year the barons, who at Winchester had shown every mark
of disrespect t-o their sovereign, so far presumed as to supersede the royal
officers in the eastern and northern counties, Lincolnshire being committed to
the charge of William d'Albini (Daubeney) preparatory to a project for the
election of a new king by an assembly to be summoned from the whole
baronage of the realm. ^ This overt treason would have aroused a less able
and desperate man than John, who was now ready to take the field with the
mighty support of the Holy See. ' As one on the warpath ' he kept his
Christmas at Nottingham,* and then dashed northward against Alexander of
Scotland,^ ' the little red fox cub ' whom ' by God's teeth ' he had sworn to
' run to his earth.' The king of Scots fled over the border, and after ruthless
butchery and outrage by his mercenaries and the sack of Berwick, John
marched south by way of Tickhill, through Yorkshire into Lincolnshire,
which had sent many recruits to the baronial forces. The city of Lincoln
made its peace by surrendering hostages for the payment of a fine of
1,000 marks,* and late in February, 121 6, the king rode out on his way
to Fotheringay, where he rested before his descent on the south-eastern
counties.

After the landing of Louis of France, the baronial adherents in Lincoln-
shire took heart again, but suffered great annoyance from royalist raiders
from Newark, Nottingham, and Lincoln. Under a commission from the
French prince, Gilbert de Gant, who had received the guardianship or
earldom of the county, with Robert de Ropesley, captured Lincoln city, but
could make no impression on the castle, which was held by Nicholaa de
Haye for the king. They proceeded also to ravage the parts of Holland,
and there levied tribute as they had already done in Lindsey. The besiegers
of Lincoln Castle were now joined by some of the northern barons, but these
desisted on a bribe from the Lady Nicholaa,^ although Gilbert de Gant still
occupied the city. Meanwhile the king was preparing to recover the
eastern counties, lay waste the lands of baronial adherents, and if fortune
favoured, cut off the retreat of Alexander of Scotland, who had joined Louis
in the south. In late September John pushed rapidly forward from Rocking-
ham to Stamford and thence to Lincoln, which he reached on the 22nd,
whilst Gilbert de Gant fled northward to the isle of Axholme, ' from before
his face as in terror of lightning.' ^ Raiding parties crossed the Trent in

' Rotuli de Oblatis, 107. " Walter of Coventry, Memoriak (Rolls Ser.), ii, 221.

^ Ibid, ii, 224. ' Ibid. 228. ' Sicut in expeditione positus.'

' Hist, des Dues de Normandle, 163, 164. Matt. Paris, Chron. Mag. ii, 642.

° A list of Lincoln gentry who about this time were forced to pay heavy fines and give their children as
hostages for good behaviour, will be found in Rot. de Oblatis et Finibus (Hardy), 575 et seq.
' Walter of Coventry, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 230.
' Roger of Wendover, Flores Hist. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 193.

259

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

pursuit, the royal head quarters being fixed for three days at Stowe. Ap-
parently during his absence the king of Scots reached Lincoln, and receiving
intelligence of the movements of his enemy, slipped past him and escaped
into Yorkshire.^ The royahst mercenaries now wasted Holland with fire and
sword, and either on the way to Lynn or earlier on the march from Rocking-
ham, the autumn crops of the monks of Crowland were given to the flames.''
' Such a burning,' says the chronicler of this terrible foray, ' had never in our
parts been known before.' At Lynn the king was welcomed by the towns-
men, who contributed generously to his war-chest, but their excessive
hospitality is said to have favoured the development of the dysentery of
which he died.* The disease was further aggravated by vexation at the
disaster which overtook his treasure and a portion of his troops as he passed
northward over the quicksands at the Welland's mouth. On reaching
Swineshead Abbey John indulged in a supper of peaches and new cider
which increased his fever, and with difficulty he rode to Sleaford. Here ill
news was received from Hubert de Burgh at Dover, and by a great effort,
carried part way on a horse litter, the king struggled as far as Newark,
where in three days he died.*

After the death of John the siege of Lincoln Castle was pressed vigorously
by the baronial forces, who had reoccupied the town and been further
strengthened by a strong contingent from the south. These latter included a
body of French infantry, ' the very scum and ofFscouring of the land,' in the
descriptive phrase of the prior of Belvoir, who had seen the rich valley round
his home wasted by half-naked ruffians who spared neither church nor burying-
ground.^ In spite of the courageous defence of the Lady Nicholaa and her
lieutenant, Geoffrey of Serland, the castle was closely pressed, and William
Marshal,, by advice of Gualo the legate, Peter, bishop of Winchester, and
the rest of the king's council, summoned the royal forces to meet at Newark
on the Tuesday in Whitsun week to march to its relief. At the appointed
place assembled 400 knights with some 250 crossbowmen and a great force
of men-at-arms. Besides the Marshals, father and son, and the warrior
prelate, Peter des Roches, Ranulf earl of Chester, William earl of Salisbury,
William earl of Ferrers, William earl of Albemarle, Fawkes of Breaute, for
once engaged in a praiseworthy enterprise, Thomas Basset, Brian de I'lsle,
Geoffrey de Lucy, and Philip D'Albini (Daubeney), were all in the royal
camp. About three days were devoted to organizing and resting the host,
and on the Friday in Whitsun week the crusaders, for such they were, fortified
with plenary absolution from the legate, set out on the march to Lincoln.
Their approach was cautious, and conducted with military skill, and at night
they bivouacked at Stowe, eight miles from the city.

On the morrow the battle was fought. At this time the city of Lincoln
was probably but ill-defended, the walls of no great height nor strength.
The massive gates on the main roads and the natural water defences of the

■ Walter of Coventry, op. cit. ii, 231.

' There is some difficulty in determining the exact date. Cf. Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. ii, SS"], znd Hist.
Angl. ii, 189. The raid by Savary de Mauleon on Crowland for the arrest of rebel refugees, would certainly
seem to have taken place at the later time. Cf. Walter of Cov. op. cit. ii, 232. Some of those sought for
escaped by hiding in the fens up to their necks in mud and water.

^ Walter of Cov. op. cit. ii, 231. * Roger of Wendover, op. cit. ii, 195, et seq.

' Roger of Wendover, op. cit. ii, 211.

260

POLITICAL HISTORY

southern suburbs constituted its most effective protection.^ The extent of
outer rampart could not be adequately manned even by the large baronial
force within the city, whilst constant vigilance was needed against the
defenders of the castle. Saher de Quincy and Robert Fitzwalter had advised
that the royalist advance should be checked in the open before the relieving
force and the castle garrison could get in touch with each other. The
count of Perche, however, who commanded the French, misled by the
crowded royal transport,' concluded that the risk was too great, and elected to
fight behind the walls of Lincoln. This want of initiative was fatal. The
royalist troops were emboldened by the timorousness of the foe, and cheered
by the assurance that their slain enemies would go straight to hell.' Com-
munication with the castle was opened up by young John Marshal,* Pem-
broke's nephew, and a general assault was ordered on the city. Several gates
seem to have been simultaneously attacked,' whilst the main strength of the
assailants was directed against the northern* side, in conjunction with a
desperate sortie by the castle garrison. There was little obstinacy or spirit in
the baronial resistance, and as the enemy entered from all parts the defenders
lost heart, and were only anxious to quit the entangling streets. The mailed
cavalry on both sides charged ineffectively in the steep and narrow ways of
the city, and though many horses were shot by the crossbowmen of the royal
host the number of combatants slain within the walls was ridiculously small.
Indeed the nickname of ' the fair of Lincoln ' may well have been derived from
this almost bloodless jousting.'' Many barons and knights were captured
within the city, especially owing to the constant blocking of the southern
gate, and amongst them the earls of Winchester and Hereford and the titular
earl of Lincoln, Gilbert de Gant.* The most noble of the slain was the
young Count Thomas of Perche. In respect to actual loss of life the retreat
was a more serious matter than the battle. The country people had their
own accounts to settle, especially with the soldiers of France, and the haggard
and starving fugitives were butchered without mercy. The city ' suffered as
usual after the fight was over, and many Lincoln women, it is said, were
drowned whilst endeavouring to escape the soldiery, and even the minster was
pillaged, the canons being reduced to almost apostolic poverty. Geoffrey de
Drepynges,^" the precentor, estimated his losses alone at i i,ooo marks.

The spirited defence of the castle by the Lady Nicholaa was apparently
rewarded by grants" or confirmations of the shrievalty of the shire and the

' Evidence bearing on this point is collected in £ng. Hist. Rev. xviii, 255. Note also W. of Coventry,
op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 237. The royalist army made their flank march from Newark * quoniam civitas
a parte Australi munitior videbatur.'

' Roger of Wendover, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 214. The count may have had in mind Stephen's ill-success.

' L'iisioire de Guillaume Le Mar'echal (l 894), ii, 224.

* The Histoire narrates a second mission by Peter des Roches, but this is extremely unlikely. Cf. Prof.
Tout. Eng. Hist. Rev. xviii, 247.

* j4nn. Mm. iii, 50. * W. of Coventry, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 237.

' Eng. Hist. Rev. xviii, 241, n. 4. Yet Dr. Stubbs, Const. Hist, ii, 24, describes ' a bloody struggle in the
streets.' The name ' Fair of Lincoln ' has also been derived from the booty which rewarded the royalist
troops .

° Roger of Wendover, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 217. Another prisoner was William de Huntingfield, to
whom Prince Louis had granted on 2 1 November, 1 2 1 6, the vill of Grimsby with all liberties, &c., until
loolibrates of land elsewhere should be assigned to him (Harl. Ch. 43, B 37).

' Roger of Wendover, op. cit. ii, 218.

'° Or possibly ' Deepinges.' The spelling in the text is that of the chronicler.

" Pat. I Hen. Ill, m. 14 ; 2 Hen. Ill, m. II.

261

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

custody of the city, Geoffrey de Serland being appointed as her deputy. A
year or two later Fawkes de Breaute informed ^ Hubert de Burgh, the justiciar,
that he had been summoned by Nicholaa de Haye to fulfil his engagements
towards her, and that he hoped to be able to keep Lincoln Castle for her
against the earl of Salisbury,

Towards the close of the barons' wars in 1266 Lincoln was assaulted by
a raiding party of the ' Disinherited ' who, under John Dayville, ' homo
quidam callidus et bellator fortis,' had taken refuge in the pathless morasses
of the Isle of Axholme. They forced their way into the city, slew many
Jews, sacked the synagogue, and not only destroyed the sacred scrolls of the
law, but made a bonfire of all deeds and obligations they could find.' To
complete our notice of the Lincoln Jewry, it may be mentioned that in 1290,
at the final expulsion, some sixty-six householders of Lincoln left deeds and
bonds for money or produce of the aggregate value of ^2,620 loj-. \d., and
many houses, especially in the Brauncegate in St. Martin's parish, which
escheated to the crown.'

Our attention must now be turned from a history of war and pillage to
the part played by Lincolnshire in the rise and development of parliamentary
institutions. The thirteenth century is marked by the admission to the
national councils of not only the knights of the shire, but also representatives
from the towns. When Simon de Montfort, in the name of his royal
prisoner, issued writs to the sheriffs directing them to return not only two
knights from each shire, but also two citizens from each city and two bur-
gesses from each borough, York and Lincoln only were named in set words.*
Apparently a writ was directed to the mayor and citizens of Lincoln in 1283,
though the original is lost.^ In 1295, as we learn from a transcript of the
original return, the members were William Cause and Peter de Thornehawe.*
The names of the county members for the earlier Parliaments have not come
down to us. In 1290, however, they were John Dyve, John de Hoyland,
and Gilbert de Neville ; and at the Lincoln Parliament of 1300 Thomas
Fitz Eustace and Thomas de Burnham.'' Grimsby probably returned mem-
bers as early as 1283,* but the first names of representatives known to us are
Gilbert de Reyner and William de Dounedale, in 1295.' After this year the
county, the city of Lincoln, and the borough of Grimsby furnished repre-
sentatives to Parliament in regular sequence with some slight exceptions.
Stamford, on the other hand, which had sent Nicholas de Burton and Clement
de Melton to the Parliament of 1295,^" only exercised what its burghers
probably regarded as an onerous privilege once in the reign of Edward II,
when in 1322 it elected Eustace Malherbe and Hugh de Thurleby." Louth
apparently nominated one Walter de Louth in 1306, but the enrolment of
the writ de expensis is cancelled, and the original writ for Lincoln county
makes no mention of any member from the town.^^ Boston at this early

' Royal Letters, Hen. Ill (Rolls Ser.), i, 73. This letter is tentatively assigned by the editor to the
year 1220.

' Walt, of Hemingburgh, Chron. (E.H.S.), i, 327 et seq. and Rigg, Select Pleas of Jewish Exchequer (Selden
Soc), 41.

' Jewish Eitcycl. viii, 91, and see Exch. Accts. K.R. (P.R.O.), '^ and %^£.

* Rymer, Foedera, i, 449. ' Pari. Writs, i, 1 6.

" Ibid, i, 39. ' Cal. Writs and Returns in Pari. Writs, xix.

« Pari. Writs, i, 16. ' Ibid, i, 39. '" Ibid.

" Ibid. ii,Div. 2, p. 252. 'Hbid. 1,171, 178.

262

POLITICAL HISTORY

period does not seem to have had any representation in the Parliament of the
realm, though it sent delegates to certain councils in the reign of Edward III.^

On several occasions in the early fourteenth century sessions of Parliament
or important councils were held at Lincoln or Stamford. The first and most
important of these was the Lincoln Parliament of 1301. The Scots had
called for the intervention of the Apostolic See, and the consequent Bull of
Boniface VIII, as well as difficulties arising out of the forest laws and other
home affairs, required attention. Writs of summons were issued from Rose
Castle in September, 1300, and the heads of religious houses were ordered to
make search in their muniment rooms for every evidence bearing on the
status of the kingdom of Scotland and the papal claims.^ Meanwhile
preparations were set on foot for the meeting of Parliament early in the new
year. Some slight idea of the enormous provision necessary for so great an
assemblage can be derived from an inspection of the writs of Privy Seal. For
example, one addressed to the sheriff of Lincoln from Dumfries, 28 October,
1300, ordered him to provide 400 quarters of corn, 1,000 quarters of oats,
and as much hay as was necessary for 400 horses for a month, and 100 cows
and oxen, 100 pigs and 300 sheep, against the opening of Parliament.^
Another writ from Carlisle, dated 9 November, ordered the same officer to
procure in his bailiwick 400 quarters of corn, loo beeves, 60 live pigs, and
400 sheep for the use of the royal hostel, and to deliver the 400 quarters of
corn aforesaid to Walter Waldeshef, and to well salt the 100 beeves and 400
sheep aforesaid, and place them in the larder at Lincoln.* Amongst numerous
other charges we find the cost of 3,121 gallons of ale at one penny per
gallon, drunk between Sunday, 19 February, and i March inclusive. One of
the members for the city, Stephen de Stanham,^ was honoured with consider-
able custom from the royal household, one bill alone for sugar, figs, and other
articles amounting to £()6 14J. 5^. He also supplied fish to the cook's office
to the value of ^54 loj-., and during the month of February for the enter-
tainment of Edward, the king's son, a stripling of scarce seventeen, herrings
and stockfish charged at £6 i6s. Parchment of the best quality was also
provided for the use of the clerks who recorded the proceedings.*

When the writs of summons were issued the king was in the north.
Journeying south he kept his Christmas at Northampton, and after hunting
in Rockingham Forest took up his quarters at Nettleham, near Lincoln, where
he stayed till about the middle of February, when he moved into the city,
and was constantly there until 4 March. The business of primary importance
was the consideration of the papal bull, and the claim of the Holy See to
intervene in the temporal affairs of Scotland. The often discussed letter of
the barons to the pope — whether or no it was ever dispatched to its destina-
tion— may express the general result of this debate, although it was prob-
ably drafted by the king's advisers after the close of the Parliament. Some
of the seals on this document were certainly not attached at Lincoln, and no
satisfactory inference can be drawn from their presence that the owners

II Thompson, Boston, 449. » Pari. Writs, i, 92.

" Printed Proc. Arch. Inst. (Line. Meeting, 1848), 36, n. A.
' Ibid. ». B.

' Proc. Arch. Inst, ut supra, 28, Early in tlie reign of Edw. II, Stephen de Stanham was accused of
various fraudulent practices. Pat. i Edw. II, pt. I, m. 20 d.
° Proc. Arch. Inst, nt supra, 29.

263

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

sat in this Parliament.^ The remaining business of the session seems
to have been comparatively insignificant, though a discussion on the forest
perambulation show^s a gradual grovi^th of the system of coupling the grant of
supplies with the redress of grievances.^ A statute for escheators w^as also
passed, a few petitions were considered, and a grant of six years' pavage was
made to the city of Lincoln.'

We are unable to deal minutely with the various sessions of Parliament
or other councils of magnates held within the shire of Lincoln, but the Parlia-
ment held at the royal borough of Stamford,* soon after St. James's Day, 1309,
must not be passed over altogether. Piers de Gaveston had returned from
exile, and here a hollow truce was arranged between the barons, the favourite,
and his royal master. A grant was required for the war with Scotland, and
as a result of previous complaints made by the Commons at Westminster in
the quindene of Easter the Statute of Stamford was passed, dealing with the
abuses of purveyance, the courts of the verge, customs, and other matters,'
whilst a letter to the pope on ecclesiastical affairs was drafted. A council
was also summoned to Stamford at the instance of Queen Isabella" in 1326 ;
we meet with another^ in 1337, whilst late in the same century, in 1392, a
third was held to consider the affairs of France.'

Parliaments were held at Lincoln in 13 16, both in January and July, and
again in the second year of Edward III. The first of these was of some
importance and sat for twenty-five days. Its chief object beside matters
of local concern, such as the confirmation and extension of the privileges of
the city of Lincoln, was the raising of forces for the king's service in Scotland.
The Parliament of Edward III in 1328 was probably concerned with the
measures to be taken for ensuring a permanent peace with Scotland.

The reigns of Edward I and Edward II formed in military matters a
period of transition, the feudal tenures were hardly fulfilling the requirements
of the royal policy, new methods were introduced, and the older system of
thefyrd developed to provide the necessary troops. As early as the twenty-
fifth year of Edward I, we find a commission for raising knights and yeomen
ivadletti) to perform service on receiving the king's pay.'

Again, on 12 March, 1301, writs of military summons were issued to
sixty-two persons in Lincolnshire for service against the Scots.^" On 6 April,
1306, the sheriff was ordered to make proclamation that no one was to
presume to attend any tournaments, jousts, or feats of arms, but that all are
to prepare for the king's service against his rebels of Scotland,"

In the next reign the exhausting Scotch war still dragged on, and in 1 3 1 1
one foot soldier was requested from each township as a voluntary aid, the
Lincoln commissioners being Philip de Kyme, Edmund D'Eyncourt, David
de Fletewyk, and Laurence de Holbeche.^^ At the Lincoln Parliament in the
quindene of St. Hilary, 13 16, we find a further hardening of the practice,
one foot soldier being charged upon every township throughout the kingdom

' See further Mr. Round's discussion of the whole question in the Ancestor, No. 6, 185-9.
' ?roc. Arch. Imt. (Line. 1848), 31. ' Pat. 29 Edw. i, m. 25.

* Stamford as well as Grantham had been settled on Prince Edward on his marriage with Eleanor in 1254.
' Ann. Lmd. in Chron. of Edw. I and Edtv. II (Rolls Ser.), i, 47.
« Vesp. E. xxi, fol. 58 (B.M.). ' Anc. Corr. (P.R.O.), ^.

^ Knighton, Chron. in Twysden Scriftores (1652), 2740.

' Pat. 25 Edw. I, pt. 2, m. 5. '" Close, 29 Edw. I, m. 12 d.

" Ibid, 34 Edw. I, m. 16 d. " Pari. Writs, ii, Div. 2, p. 408.

264

POLITICAL HISTORY

without any distinction of tenure.^ The sheriffs were ordered to make
return into the Exchequer of the names of all townships in their several baili-
wicks and their lords, and then commissions of array were issued in pur-
suance of the grant, Simon Chaumberlyn, Laurence de Holbeche, and William
Dysny acting for Lincolnshire.^ A few years later, in the autumn of
1 32 1, William de Kyme and Peter le Breton were appointed to assemble if
necessary all the horse and foot in the parts of Lindsey against the king's in-
surgents,' and this was followed in the spring of the next year by a commission
to Robert Darcy, Robert Breton, and Peter Breton to raise 4,000 footmen in
Lincolnshire, excepting the city of Lincoln and the town of Stamford. A little
more than a month later, on 6 May, as the Bretons could not attend to the
matter, William Dysny and Simon de Lunderthorp were appointed in their
places.* The county on the order to raise this levy petitioned ^ the king,
pleading murrain, inundation of the lowlands, failure of crops, devastation, and
lack of money owing to heavy ransoms demanded by the rebels. ° At the
same time apparently, or perhaps a little later, grievous complaints were made
of the conduct of Robert le Breton, the sheriff, the members of his family
and certain adherents.^ Some relief as to the levy seems to have been granted,*
and in July, 1323, a commission of oyer and terminer was issued on account
of outrages by the Bretons and their friends.'

Both in this and the preceding reign large quantities of provisions and
military stores were sent north for the use of the royal army,^" whilst in 1 3 1 5
inquiry was ordered to be made as to charges alleged against divers men and
merchants of York and Lincoln, that they had helped the Scots with victuals
and armour." As a county with a considerable seaboard and at least one port
of the first rank, Lincolnshire was apt to suffer requisitions for sea service. In
1299 one ship apiece was summoned from Boston and Grimsby and two
from Wainfleet with Saltfleet,^'' and again, at the outbreak of the French war
under Edward III, ships were arrested in Lincolnshire and prepared for war
with armed men, archers, mariners, helms, bridges, and other necessaries.^*
The archers levied in Lincoln, it may be noted, were chosen especially amongst
the foresters and parkers.^* The demands for men, money, and wool for the
successful prosecution of the French war under Edward III, did not always
meet with cheerful acceptance. Wool was sometimes stored in castles and
fortalices and every difhculty put in the way of the king's collectors,^' but in
the general levy granted to Edward III in 1341 Lincolnshire contributed
1,265 sacks."

' Pari. Writs. Pref. vol. ii. ' Pat. 9 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 19.

' Pat. 15 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 7.

* Ibid. pt. 2, m. 20. ° Anct. Pet. 259 (P.R.O.).

* Some indication of the extent of forfeited lands in the county owing to the rebellion may be derived
from Anct. Pet. 49 1 7, in which Alan de Cobeldyk, keeper of forfeited lands in Lincolnshire, declares that he has
thirty and more courts to hold and prays that a receiver may be appointed. Compare, too, a mandate to the same
Alan, ' keeper of the lands in the county of Lincoln that belonged to Thomas late earl of Lancaster.' Close,
15 Edw. II, m. I. John de Mowbray, a Lincolnshire adherent of Lancaster, was executed at York.

'Anct. Pet. 10224. 'Note endorsement of Anct. Pet. 259. 'Pat. 16 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. -j d.

'° Close, 30 Edw. I, m. 17 <^. Pat. I Edw. II, pt. I, m. 16. Ibid, pt. 2, m. 3 and elsewhere.

" Pat. 8 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 6 d. " Foedera, i, 928. " Close, 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. i.

"Ibid. m. 33.

" Ibid, 14 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 40. An enormous amount of wool was produced in Lincolnshire, especially
by the Cistercian and other religious houses. Compare the document quoted from Pegolotti, La practice della
Mercatura, Cunningham, Growth of English Industry (1905), i, App. D.
'* Fori R. (Rec.Com.), ii, 131^.

2 265 34

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

The history of Lincolnshire in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
however briefly it may be sketched, demands some particular allusion to the
growth of the maritime towns and especially Boston. As early as 1205 the
fifteenth of the merchants at Boston produced £j^o, compared with the
^^836 of London and the ^^651 of Lynn.^ The rise of the town had been
rapid, for in Domesday it was merely included in the district of Skirbeck and
appears to have been of little importance. It may have received a stimulus
from the Hanseatic League and the settlement of Flemish merchants,' who
attended the annual fair, whilst it was the natural port for the wool of such
Cistercian houses as Revesby and Swineshead. Commerce is peculiarly sensi-
tive to violence and insecurity, and perhaps the pillage of Lincoln, more than
once repeated, and the favourable position of Boston for maritime trade, may
have combined to advance the fortunes of the younger town. Towards the
close of the thirteenth century, however, this prosperity received a check through
a disastrous fire (1281) and inundation (1286), followed by the Chamberlain
riot a year or two later,* The town, however, rapidly recovered from these
disasters, and the notices preserved of assessments and levies, both military and
naval, leave no doubt as to its pre-eminent position amongst the sea-board
communities of the shire. When Edward III in 1359 was preparing for
the invasion of Brittany, Boston is said* to have furnished to his navy 17 ships
apd 361 men. London on the same occasion sent 25 ships, and Yarmouth no
less than 43. Of the Lincolnshire ports, Grimsby ranked next to Boston with
1 1 ships, Barton-on-Humber sent 5, Saltfleet 2, Wainfleet 2, and Wrangle i.
The space at our disposal forbids us more than a bare mention of the pirates
who at this time infested the narrow seas. One instance must suffice.
About the year 1323, the ship yf««o/, of Ditton, was boarded south of Lynn
by John Russell of Spalding and other Lincolnshire and Norfolk men. The
cargo was mainly fish en route for London for the king's use, but in spite of this
the outlaws murdered the crew and carried their prize into Seaford in Sussex.^

Lincoln in the fourteenth century is closely associated with the name of
John of Ghent, the fourth son of Edward III. This prince married, in 1359,
Blanche, who eventually became the sole heiress of Henry, duke of Lancaster,
and, probably, he claimed in her right the earldoms of Lancaster, Derby,
Lincoln, and Leicester, whilst in 1362 he was created duke of Lancaster.
His eldest son, Henry of Bolingbroke, was, as his name implies, born within
the limits of the county of Lincoln, and on his election as king of England,
all the honours to which he succeeded merged in the crown." The vast
estates of the duchy of Lancaster all over England, many of which lay in
Lincolnshire, were declared by a charter of the first year of Henry IV" to
be a separate inheritance, distinct from the lands and possessions of the crown,
a careful stipulation having been made that, with the exception of one or
two slight provisos, the status of the duchy should remain unaffected by
its royal ownership.'' Owing to its territorial influence the house of

' Thompson, Boston, 37. ' Extent of honour of Richmond, cited Thompson, ut supra, 315.

' The town was deliberately fired in several places to cover the operations of a gang of robbers at the
annual fair.

*- Thompson, Boston, 55. ' Pat. 17 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 29. ^ Complete Peerage (Cokayne).

' See J. Tait, Engl. Hist. Rev. Jan. 1906, p. 150. Chief Justice Gascoigne decided in 1405 that, in
matters relating to the duchy, the king could be sued like any common person. The statement in the
Introduction to the 30th Rep. of Dep. Keeper of P. R. R., usually quoted as to this matter, is hardly expressed
with sufficient caution.

266

POLITICAL HISTORY

Lancaster could generally count on powerful support in the county during
the civil strife of the following century, although Grantham and Stamford,
part of the provision made by Edward III for his third son, Edmund of
Langley, duke of York, were mainly Yorkist in sympathy, and paid dearly for
their allegiance to the White Rose. It was at Lincoln also, not many years
before his death, that John of Ghent, to the great scandal of his royal rela-
tions, married his mistress of many years, Katherine Swinford, the mother
of the Beauforts.

During the reign of Richard II Lincoln plays no prominent part in
the history of the kingdom. The effervescence of the Peasant Rising was
felt there very slightly in comparison with the burning and slaying further
south, although the tenants of the Hospitallers showed some restiveness,^ and
in May, 1382, a Lincoln man, Hugh de Garwell, received a pardon under
certain conditions, at the instance of the queen, for his share in the late
insurrection.^ Beyond a visit of the king to the county capital in 1385
there is little to record till the year 1397, when the extortions and out-
rages committed by John de Skipwith, sheriff of Lincoln, called forth
numerous complaints to the Chancery. Sybil, widow of Sir Robert Darcy,
had been kept from the enjoyment of her dower ; John de Rouseby had been
' imprisoned horribly in Lincoln,' and so great was the influence of this
outrageous sheriff that the common law provided no remedy either to John
de Rouseby or ' many others greater than he.' ' The records of this reign,
and of those which followed, furnish a rather lurid picture of the manners
and customs of the gentry. The feud of Sir Robert Tirwhit, of Kettleby,
with Lord Roos in 141 1, is only one of many which might be mentioned.
The Council and the Chancery, and at a later period the Star Chamber, were
constantly occupied in teaching an almost savage race that might and right
were not of necessity synonymous.

The local feuds of every county fed the broader political quarrels of
the time, and stout men were readily procured for any outrage or assault upon
a rival. The very courts of law were not free from murderous affrays. In
1449 Cromwell,* the lord of Tattershall, whilst on his way to attend a council,
was assaulted in Westminster Hall by a Lincolnshire squire, William
Tailboys, of South Kyme, an adherent' of Suffolk and Viscount Beaumont,
and himself destined, after the fight at Hexham, to pay the reckoning of a
life of constant turbulence.^ The attainder of Tailboys as an adherent of
the house of Lancaster was not reversed till 1472.

It was not until after the battle of Wakefield in 1461 that Lincolnshire
had any serious share of the bitter fruits of the war between the rival houses.
Margaret then advanced south with a force recruited from the retainers of
the Lancastrian nobles, and swollen with a rabble of Scots moss troopers,
Welshmen from the marches, and adventurers from France. With her were
the dukes of Exeter and Somerset, the earls of Northumberland, Devon,

' Pat. 5 Ric. II, pt. i, mm. 30 </. & 31 i/.

' Ibid. pt. ii, m. 12. Cf. also an order to suppress a rising in Lincolnshire, Harl. Ch, 43, E. 34.
(B. M.).

' Baildon, Seleci Cases in Chancery, 24-30. * Pari. R. v, 181-200.

' Paston Letters (Gairdner), i, 96. Attached to the party of Cromwell were Leo Lord Welles, and
Robert Lord Willoughby of Eresby, who had married a niece of Cromwell's.

* By this time he was apparently a peer.

267

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

and Shrewsbury, and such local men as Lords Welles and Willoughby. The
chief military direction was confided to Sir Andrew TroUope, who permitted
fearful havoc to be wrought south of the Trent. All England beyond that
river, according to the common report, was to be the reward of the northern
army. Grantham and Stamford now paid the price of their Yorkist loyalty,
and in the sack even the vessels and books of the altar were not respected.^
Stamford at least never really recovered from this disastrous raid. The
damage inflicted by the Yorkists at Lincoln or elsewhere was trivial in
comparison.

The only other occurrence concerning our county at this time which
needs a detailed notice' is the Lincolnshire rising of 1470. It was probably
due to the persistent intrigues of the duke of Clarence and the earl of
Warwick, though its immediate occasion was found in a private quarrel
between Richard Lord Welles, the son of Lyon Lord Welles, slain on the
Lancastrian side at Towton, and Sir Thomas Burgh of Gainsborough. To
the partisans of Warwick, Burgh was peculiarly obnoxious. With Sir
William Stanley he had recently assisted King Edward to escape from
durance at Middleham Castle, and now the king interposed on his behalf,
and summoned Lord Welles and his brother-in-law. Sir Thomas Dymoke, to
London. Under a safe-conduct they complied. Meanwhile rumours were
set abroad that the king purposed dealing severely with the commons of the
shire. Owing to the continued unrest Edward resolved to leave London
for Lincolnshire on 4 March, but remained a day or two later to interview
his brother Clarence, whose arrival was daily expected, and with him had
a friendly enough meeting on 6 March at the residence of their mother,
Baynard's Castle, Blackfriars, the two brothers afterwards proceeding together
to offer at the altar of St. Paul's.

Early in February orders had been issued by the king for a muster at
Grantham. On 7 March Edward, who had spent the night at Waltham
Abbey, heard that his levy had been anticipated by Sir Robert Welles, the
son of his hostage, who had summoned the men of Lincolnshire to a
rendezvous at Ranby Hawe, a few miles to the north of Horncastle. The
king at once sent for Dymoke and Welles from London, and himself marched
northward without delay. On the morrow he was met on the road to
Royston by a messenger from John Morling, steward to Humphrey Bourchier
Lord Cromwell, despatched from Tattershall on 6 March, who confirmed
previous reports of the rising, and added further that it was spreading beyond
the borders of Lincolnshire into the county of York. And, again, on the
evening of the same day arrived a letter from the duke of Clarence offering
his own support and that of the earl of Warwick, though both were even at
this time in correspondence with the rebels. The king, completely deceived
as it seems, issued a commission to the duke and earl for the levy of forces on
his behalf.

By 9 March Edward was at Huntingdon, and there closely questioned
his two hostages, who, confessing to a guilty knowledge of the rising, were
ordered on pain of death to use all their influence to bring it to an end.

' 'As though they had been Saracens and no Christians,' is the comment of Stow, Annals, 413.
* The account here given is mainly founded on an apparently official narrative of the ' Rebellion in
Lincolnshire,' printed in Miscellany I of the Camden Society.

268

POLITICAL HISTORY

On the Sunday following the king had reached Fotheringay, and was there
informed that the rebels had passed Grantham and were marching on
Leicester. This move was undoubtedly prompted by Warwick, who had
advised Sir Robert Welles to avoid an engagement with the royal army,
and make for Leicester, where he himself would meet him on 12 March.
On Monday, the day appointed for the junction of Welles and Warwick, the
king halted at Stamford and there received sure intelUgence that Sir Robert,
apprehensive as to his father's safety, had doubled back, with the desperate
design of surprising the royalists quartered in the town. Edward at once
ordered Lord Welles and Sir Thomas Dymoke to execution, and they
suffered in front of the Queen's Cross at Stamford.^ Meanwhile the royal
army moved out to meet the insurgents, whom they found ' at Empyngham
in a felde called Hornefelde.' ' The raw levies of Lincoln peasants broke in
panic under the fire of Edward's guns, and ran so fast that the action won
the nickname of Losecoat Field. Sharp execution was done amongst the
fugitives, and the place, some four or five miles north-west of Stamford, is
known to this day as the Bloody Oaks. Amongst the prisoners taken was
Sir Thomas De la Launde, another brother-in-law of Lord Welles, who was
' headed ' ' for his treason three days after the battle. The younger Welles
got safely off the field, but was taken before the week was out.

In the battle the war-cries of Clarence and Warwick had been heard
from the rebel ranks, and several of their retainers were captured in the
rout. Edward's suspicions were now thoroughly aroused, and on the very
morrow of the fighting he wrote to his brother and to Warwick announcing
his victory and bidding them dismiss their levies and join him with a suitable
escort only, whilst all existing commissions of array were cancelled. Instead
of obeying this summons they retired towards Burton-upon-Trent. On
Thursday, 1 5 March, the king was at Grantham, and here Sir Robert
Welles and other ringleaders were brought in. The confessions wrung from
them implicated Clarence and Warwick in the most definite manner.*

' I have welle understand,' declared the young leader, ' by many messagges, as welle fro
my lord of Clarence as of Warwike, that they entended to make grete risinges, as for-
forthly as ever I couth understand, to thentent to make the due of Clarence king : and
so it was oft and largely noised in our boost. Also I say that ne had beene the said due
and erles provokinges, we at this tyme wold ne durst have maid eny commocion or sturing,
but upon there comfortes we did that we did.'

A few days later Sir Robert Welles was led to execution, a young man of
high promise who had readily risked everything at the call of filial duty.' The
rest of the story of Clarence and Warwick does not specially concern the
history of the shire.

With the final struggle between the rival houses of York and Lancaster
the county had little direct connexion, but at the Angel Inn at Grantham
Richard III ' signed the death warrant of Buckingham, and Lincoln Minster
witnessed the thanksgiving of Henry VII for the crowning victory of
Bosworth.

' Dep. Keeper's Rep. 46 App. ii, 67. * Act of Att. Rich. Welles, 14 Edw. IV.

' On 15 March. Paston Letters, ii, 395. ' Harl. MS. 283, fol. 2.

° ' Also when my lord my fader went to London he charged me that if I understode him att eny tyme
to be in jupartyte I shuld with all that I might make com to socour him.' Harl. MS. 283.
' Rymer, Foedera xii, 203.

269

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

In the second half of the fifteenth century and the early years of that
which followed we may briefly note the struggle between a secular landlord,
Robert De la Launde, and his near neighbours the Hospitallers of Temple
Bruer, as an illustration of a certain friction which in some instances may
have led the local gentry to acquiesce with greater readiness than might
have been anticipated in the spoliation of the religious houses,^ though their
dissolution was certainly one factor in the causation of the Lincolnshire
rising which heralded the Pilgrimage of Grace.

This rebellion in Lincolnshire and beyond the Trent was the outcome of
discontent both political and religious. The turbulent nobility of the north
resented the influence of the men of low birth, whom they complained were
dominant in the royal councils. Another grievance was found in the recent
Statute of Uses, designed to deal with the intricacies of tenure in the interest
of the crown. The landed gentry declared with some reason that they could
no longer raise ready money by charges on their estates nor provide for any
but their eldest sons. ' Younger brothers would none of that in no wise,' wrote
the earl of Oxford to Cromwell. How bitterly the action of the statute was
resented may be ascertained from the speech of Mr. Dymoke, the sheriff^
of Lincoln, to the insurgents at Horncastle, or the statements contained in
the examination of Aske. This and other motives furnished provocation to
the cadets of the gentry. The commons had other and material grievances.
Grazing had become immensely profitable. Corn-land was turned into
pasture, and yeomen and copyholders who had once held up their heads
before their fellows were evicted * from their holdings or ousted from enjTDy-
ment of the common lands, whilst the unquiet state of the public mind was
further disturbed by the interrogatories of the subsidy commissioners and
strangely distorted rumours as to the imposition of parish registers.' But
the grievances of gentry and commons, however real to either class of
sufferers, were no material for common or united action, and would hardly
have brought about a serious rising but for the king's proceedings in the
matter of religion. The Lincolnshire rebellion of 1536 was very largely
an immediate outcome of the suspicions engendered by the suppression of
the lesser monastic houses, and by the raising to high place of avowed
adherents of the ' New Learning.' A widespread expectation was undoubtedly
present that the spoliation of the religious merely formed a prelude to the
pillage of parish churches. Strenuously denied by the king and his
ministers, this fear was justified not many years after by the proceedings of
the Edwardian reformers.

The first outbreak in Lincolnshire was at Louth, not far from Legbourne
Nunnery, which in late September, 1536, was suppressed by the royal visitors.
There had been premonitory symptoms of unrest, for on St. Matthew's Day
a ' tall serving-man,' probably one of Cromwell's retainers from Legbourne,,

' Arch. Inst. Proc. at Line. (1848), 67 sqq.

' Inequitable enclosures would seem, however, to have had little to do with the purely Lincolnshire
rising. The Rev. W. O. Massingberd, who has made a special study of the social and economic position of
the small holders, kindly points out that the 'Domesday of Enclosures' (15 17) reveals no injustice in Lin-
colnshire. The religious factor was certainly dominant in the rising, and apart from the suppression of the
monasteries and the anxiety for the parish churches the facts brought out in the examination of Kendall, the
vicar of Louth, and other insurgents show that there was widespread 'grudging' against the royal
interference with doctrine and discipline.

' Dep. of Henry Thornbek. L. and P. Hen. VIII, xi, 324.

270

POLITICAL HISTORY

said openly in Louth church 'that a silver dish with which they went
about to beg for their church was more meeter for the king than for
them, and by St. George's coat was not meet for him.'^ The effect of
this foolish speech by a servant of the commissioners may be imagined. One
of the congregation ' fashioned to draw his dagger, saying that Lowthe and
Lowthesk should make the king and his master such a breakfast as he never
had.' On Sunday, i October, it became known in the parish that Hennage,
appointed an examiner under the clerical commissioner, together with the
chancellor of the bishop of Lincoln would reach Louth on the morrow, and
that the clergy of the neighbourhood had been summoned to appear before
them. At the procession after vespers in Louth church as the three silver
crosses of the parish were carried forward, one Thomas Foster cried ' Our
Lord speed you, for I think ye shall be taken away shortly, so that we shall
never follow you more.' ^ Fearing that their ornaments might be delivered
to the chancellor a party of the parishioners after service-time took the keys
of the treasury from the churchwardens and gave them to Nicholas Melton,
shoemaker, afterwards known as Captain Cobbler, while an armed guard was
placed all night in the church. On the morrow the more zealous were at
the church porch at nine o'clock, and at the ringing of the common bell a
great concourse assembled. Melton on his way home from this gathering
met Mr. John Hennage, the official of the bishop of Lincoln, who asked to
speak with him privately and learn the meaning of the tumult. They entered
a house together, but the mob of commons resented the secret interview
and broke the windows and doors.' So hideous was the uproar that Hennage
promised to go to the church and hear the truth of the matter, and in fact
was ' vigorously ' dragged thither,* where one Bawnus declared that their
jewels and ornaments 'should be taken away.' Hennage, anxious to escape at
any cost and fearing for his life, swore solemnly to be true to God, the king,
and the commonalty, and was thereupon suffered to depart on the pretext of
an errand to the king to know the truth.

According to Melton's deposition certain honest men would then have
made proclamation to stay every one till Hennage's return, but amongst the
crowd were several of the country clergy who had been summoned to the
chancellor's visitation, and it was possibly on some encouragement from
them that the riot took a more serious form.^ The chancellor had fallen
ill and had been unable to reach the town, but the episcopal registrar,
Mr. Frank, who acted as his clerk, had arrived with writings for the
assessment of benefices and other documents, and was lodged at the ' Saracen's
Head.' He was now fetched from his inn, and his books, together with
sundry Protestant tracts and copies of the English New Testament, burnt at
the town cross, all except the ' king's writings,' at the sight of which the

' Examination of Thom. Mawre. L. and P. Hen. VIII, xi. No. 828.

' There are some trifling discrepancies in the various versions of the exact words used. That adopted in
the text is from the deposition of Melton alias Captain Cobbler {L. and P. Hen. VIII, xi, 968). Foster
confessed to the rather weaker form ' Go we to follow the crosses, for and (/"they be taken from us, we be like
to follow them no more.' But all reports of Foster's words betray the fear of the spoliation of the parish
treasure. See L. and P. Hen. VIII, xi, 389, &c.

' Capt. Cobbler's Dep. L. and P. Hen. VIII, xi, 390.

' Kendall's Answer. Ibid. 393.

' This is distinctly stated in Melton's deposition, but the confessions of men with halters round their
necks must be received with some suspicion.

271

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

commons ' put off their caps and bade God save the king,' and a book of
reckonings saved by the intervention of one of the priests who were
present.^

Meanwhile two of Cromwell's servants, left at Legbourne to further the
dissolution of that house, were brought to Louth and, narrowly escaping
the gallows, were put first in the stocks and after in the town gaol. On the
days following the unrest spread to Caistor and Rothwell, and upon the
approach of the insurgents from Louth the men of Caistor refused to pay any
more money to the commissioners for the subsidy who were sitting there,
and the church bells rang out an alarm. From all quarters the commons,
headed by their clergy, came marching in. Several gentlemen ^ were taken,
persuaded more or less forcibly to join the ranks of the insurgents, and were
compelled together with the local clergy to contribute to the war-chest of the
rebels. Certain of the commissioners for the subsidy and other gentlemen, Sir
Robert Tyrwhit, Sir William Askew, Sir Edward Madison, Thomas Portyng-
ton. Sir Thomas Messyndyn, and Thomas Moigne the lawyer, were brought
as prisoners to Louth, and, in danger of death, devised a letter to the king
petitioning for a general pardon. This was despatched by the hand of Sir
Edward Madison, early on Wednesday morning, after it had been read to the
commonalty. The gentlemen had also written, doubtless under pressure, to
Lord Hussey, at Sleaford, warning him to join the commons if he would
not have them seek him out as an enemy. Madison was examined before
the Council on 6 October, and the names and particulars mentioned by him
are of interest for the light they throw on the character of the rising. The
ringleaders at Caistor were one Huddiswell, a gentleman, Walter Redmere of
Fulstow town, Charles Godande of Kermounde, the bailiff of Middle Rasen,
Parson Skerne, a monk late of Louth Park, a priest of Elkington, the
parsons of Rothewell juxta Caistor and Thurswey, Richard Curson, and
Thomas Foster of Lowth, one Bawnus, William King, bailiff of Louth,
Robert Browne, a shoemaker named Melton, and Robert Spencer and
his brother of Louth. On the Wednesday Sir Andrew Byllesby* and
Mr. Forcette were sent for and joined the insurgents with men from Alford
and the township of Rasen, whilst letters were received from Lord Hussey
and the mayor of Lincoln. Attempts were now made to organize the host ;
paymasters appointed, and at a muster near the cross of Julian Bowre, the
peasantry in arms were divided according to their respective wapentakes.

Meanwhile Horncastle had risen as well. About nine in the morning
of the Tuesday after Michaelmas the common bell was rung by one Davy,
a weaver, by order of William Leache, and Nicholas Leache, the parson of
Belchford, his brother, reported to the parishioners in the churchyard the
deeds of the men of Louth. Sir Robert Dymoke, his son Edward the sheriff,
Arthur, his second son, and other gentlemen were fetched from Scrivelsby
Court and sworn to the cause. Articles drawn up by the gentry on the

' L. and p. Hen. VIII, xi, 393.

^ The attitude of the gentry is diversely reported. As to the religious side of the rising, they were
probably sympathetic, but may have been of opinion that the outbreak was inopportune and insufficiently
organized.

^ In a muster book of the reign of Henry VIII we find this entry : ' Andrew Byllesby, Knight, is charged
with horse and harnes for himself and vij men whereof be archers iilj and billmen iiij, Edward Forsett, Esquier,
is charged w* horse and harnes for himselff and iiij men whereof be archers ij and billmen iij.' Misc. Books.
Exch. Tr. of Rec. 21, fol. 43.

272

POLITICAL HISTORY

previous evening vs^ere on the Wednesday submitted to the insurgents by
Mr. Dighton, Thomas Dymoke, and the sheriff. They demanded the
restoration of the suppressed houses of religion, the remission of the subsidy,
the detachment from the crown of tenths and first fruits, the repeal of the
Statute of Uses, the dismissal of low-born men from the king's council, and
the degradation of Cranmer, Latimer, Longland, bishop of Lincoln, and
others. Now fully embarked on manifest treason the insurgents mur-
dered the bishop's chancellor, who had been detained at Bolingbroke by
sickness, and hanged his servant, Wolsey, while Edward Dymoke, the sheriff,
distributed the money found in the official's purse to the more needy
members of the host. By this time the local gentry were thoroughly
involved in the rising, and the Dymokes at least gave it every encouragement.
A banner with the arms of the late Sir Lyon Dymoke was openly displayed,
but afterwards replaced by the ensign of the commons of Horncastle, which
bore amongst other emblems the Five Wounds of Our Saviour. Later
in the week six canons of Barlings appeared in armour amongst the rebels,
much against the desire of their abbot. Dr. Mackarel,^ and on compulsion,
according to his deposition ; and provisions were supplied from the abbey
farm, requisitioned by Mr. Dymoke, the sheriff. Bardney, Kirkstead, and
Revesby also seem to have contributed recruits to the rebel ranks ; though
as regards Kirkstead, the abbot who had been ordered by one of his own
servants to join the host but had made excuse, was glad when his contingent
returned and ' thanked God there was no business.' * The whole country-side
was now ablaze with insurrection. Alarm-bells clanged from the village
steeples, and beacon-fires called out gentleman and commoner in defence of the
Faith. As early as Tuesday also Lincoln had risen, the palace of the hated
diocesan was sacked, the assailants doing ' as much hurt as they could,' and
from all quarters rebels poured into the city. On it converged the country
contingents, a numerous but undisciplined and ill-equipped host.

Lord Hussey at Sleaford adopted a policy of inaction, but even if he
had wished to proceed against the rebels he could, as he informed Cromwell,
depend on no one if it came to fighting. All Holland and the south of the
shire were at least passively disloyal, arid even in the home counties men
were punished for expressions of sympathy with the rebels.^ The worst
feature of all, as the king with his shrewd ability instantly observed, was the
easy way in which the local gentry had allowed themselves to be forced into
the movement. He at once issued orders for the necessary preventive
measures, whilst Richard Cromwell, on 7 October, obtained from the arsenal
at the Tower great stores of arrows and other material of war. The earl
of Shrewsbury summoned the levies of the Midlands to meet him at
Nottingham on Monday, 9 October, whilst the duke of Suffolk advanced
north to Stamford with the southern army, and was there joined on the
Friday following by a train of artillery from the Tower. The king himself
was preparing to take the field at the head of troops, who were to muster at
Ampthill on 16 and 17 October.

Meantime, the rebels waiting at Lincoln for the king's answer to the
articles drawn up at Horncastle, lost the fruits of their initiative. Supplies

'Z. andP. Hen. VUI, x\, 311 et seq. ^ jbid. 325. ' Ibid. 276.

a 273 35

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

were meagre and intermittent, the timorous feared envelopment by the
southern and western armies, and, worst of all, the inevitable dissension broke
out between gentry and commons. On Wednesday, 1 1 October, a herald
had brought the royal reply to the ' rude commons of one shire, and that one
of the most brute and beastly of the whole realm ' — a document vigorous and
unyielding, skilfully framed to suggest class division, and with all the driving
power so characteristic of the king. Its communication to the people
aggravated still more the growing dissensions, and by Friday, 1 3 October, the
insurrection, as far as concerned Lincolnshire, was practically at an end. The
gentry rode south to meet the duke of Suffolk and render submission. The
whole array of the commons, melted away without a blow. Robert Aske,
the future leader of the rebellion in Yorkshire, who had borne a subordinate
part in organizing the Lincolnshire insurgents, left the county on the collapse
of the rising. As he crossed the Trent he saw the glare of the beacons in
the midnight sky and heard the sharp ringing of the alarm bells which were
calling the north countrymen to arms. But his history does not further
concern us here.

In the following spring vengeance was taken on the ringleaders of Louth
and Horncastle districts which, in the opinion of Richard Cromwell, were
' better stored of arrant traitors than any towns in England.' Thomas
Moigne, Guy Kyme and the abbot of Kirkstead were executed at Lincoln on
Wednesday, 7 March, 1537, and others of less note at Horncastle and Louth
on the Friday and Saturday following. A little later on, the 26th of the
same month, the two Leaches, who had been prominent in the Horncastle
rising, Brian Stone, probably the actual murderer of Chancellor Raynes, the
abbot of Barlings, and George Huddeswell of Horstowe, gentleman, who had
led the men of Louth, were with several others indicted of high treason
before a special commission at the Guildhall, and on conviction condemned
to suffer death at Tyburn. Their remains were gibbeted through the towns
and villages of Lincolnshire. Lord Hussey, as the result of his inopportune
lethargy, was tried by his peers for apparent complicity in the rising, con-
demned and beheaded. After the Louth executions Sir William Parre was
able to inform the king that no shire was ' now in better quietness.'

A few years after the suppression of the Lincolnshire rebellion and the
far more formidable Pilgrimage of Grace to which it formed a prelude,
Henry VIII visited York to hold a personal conference with his nephew,
the young king of Scotland, on the relations of the two kingdoms, and on his
way passed through our county. Probably a secondary object of this progress
was to test the feeling of the districts lately in revolt, and dazzle them with
the spectacle of a gay and crowded court, whilst with him journeyed
Queen Catherine Howard, the bride of a few months only. As the king
was about to enter Lincolnshire at Stamford an awkward triangular dispute
as to precedence and service arose between the corporation of Stamford, the
sheriff of Northamptonshire, and the bailiff of the liberties of Peterborough.
A summary decision for the occasion was decreed by the Council without
prejudice to existing rights. Perhaps angered at this inopportune strife the
king then passed on at once to Grimsthorpe, the house of his brother-in-law,
Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, who had married on the death of Mary
Tudor, Katherine, heiress of the line of Willoughby de Eresby. Left a widow

274

POLITICAL HISTORY

she ultimately carried Grimsthorpe to the Berties by her union with Richard
of that name, member of Parliament for Lincoln. On 8 August the progress
was renewed to Sleaford, where the king probably occupied the forfeited
manor-house of Lord Hussey, which had been almost rebuilt by its late
owner, and stood without the town on its northern side. On the evening of
the next day Lincoln was reached. Here, according to the charges later
formulated against the queen, grave acts of misconduct were alleged to have
taken place at the bishop's palace. The next stage was Gainsborough,
where the only house suitable for the royal abode was the moated mansion
of Lord Burgh, who had a few years before escaped so narrowly from the
insurgents. Here again misconduct was alleged against the queen. After
four days' rest at Gainsborough the court entered Yorkshire, crossing the
Trent to Scrooby on 17 August.

The return route of King Henry early in the month of October lay
across the Humber, from Hull to Barrow, and he was received in procession
by the college of Thornton which he had founded, soon to share the fate of the
monastery of which it was the heir. The next stopping place was Kettleby,
the seat of Sir Robert Tyrwhit, brother-in-law of Lord Burgh, and allied by
marriage with the Tailboys family. John Tourney, another member of the
same circle, who had married a sister of Gilbert Lord Tailboys, now received
the king, and from his house Henry passed to South Carlton, where he seems
to have knighted the owner, Mr. Monson, who was then a very old man.
On the 1 3th the king slept at Nocton, having probably passed a second time
through the city of Lincoln. Nocton was the property of Thomas Wym-
bysh, who had taken to wife the only daughter of Gilbert Lord Tailboys,
half-sister of Henry, duke of Richmond, the king's natural son. The close
family connexion of the gentlemen honoured by the royal visit is worth
notice. The king himself may be said to have entered the same family
circle when not long after this progress he espoused Catherine, the widow
of Sir Edward Burgh.^ At Sleaford the Portuguese ambassador was received
in audience, and soon after the king quitted the county for Northamptonshire.

The history of Lincolnshire from the death of Henry VIII to the out-
break of the Civil War is mainly concerned with the political results of
recusancy, as well as the constant demands of the central government for
men and money. At least as late as 1569 the gentry were in great
measure favourable to the old religion ; the queen's staunchest adherents
showed little enthusiasm for the Anglican settlement, many magnates were
described ^ with complete accuracy by the newly appointed bishops as ' in-
different in religion,' whilst rigid Puritanism was confined to the towns.
The throne of Elizabeth owed its stability in the main to the distrust felt
by many of the Roman Catholic gentry in reference to the character of the
queen of Scots, and a shrewd recognition on their part of the probable effects
of the heretical education of the young prince James. No document
perhaps brings this out so clearly as the address * of the knights and gentle-
men of Lincolnshire to Philip of Spain, preserved at Simancas, whatever
the exact authority we may allow it as an expression of the opinion of

' J. Hunter, in Proc. Arch. Inst. (Line. Meeting, 1848), 156.
' Maitland in Camb. Mod. Hist, ii, 572.
' Cited by Froude, Hist, ix, 547.

275

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

the county. Thus we can in part explain the apathy and general quietude
of a shire still largely favourable to Rome during the northern rising,
though a certain aloofness, by no means confined to its physical situation
only, has ever been a distinctive note of Lincolnshire, and its very insur-
rections have been curiously local.^

In the reigns of Edward VI and Mary we have several notices of troops
raised in Lincolnshire especially for service in the north, and it may be
remarked that 200 foot sent^ in the spring of 1549 were made up of
40 archers, 80 bills, and 80 pikemen. In July 1553, the Council thanked'
the townsmen of Sutton for their ' redynes in puttynge theymselfs in force
to serve the Queen's Highnes agaynst her rebells,' but later * in Mary's reign,
in 1558, 'some lewde disordred persones went about to sturre a commocion
in the countrye,' but were promptly dealt with by Lord Willoughby.
In the summer of 1557 Mary seems to have formed the design of leading an
army against the Scots, or at least resolved to make ready to meet any assault
from beyond the border. The country gentry were summoned to her
standard and in Lincolnshire Sir Edward Dymoke received a letter ^ bidding
him prepare 10 horsemen and 100 footmen, ' one iiijth parte to be harque-
buttiers or archers ; one other iiijth part pykes ; and the rest billes,' to be
ready to attend on Her Majesty at one day's warning after 25 August. But
the illstarred queen was not destined to emulate her great ancestor or see
another Nevil's Cross.

In the following reign much attention was given to the county musters.
In 1560* the able men of Lincolnshire numbered 7,328, but those equipped
only 2,262. About the time of the northern rising the Lord Admiral
Clinton found that weapons and powder were needed in the county as often
afterwards.'' In 1573 the able men were estimated' at 6,000, whilst for
1,200 men there were sufficient arms belonging to the county or in private
hands, so that 800 foot were selected for training under Antony Tourney,
Thomas Skipwithe, Robert Carre (junior), and Nicholas Aldye, and the
remaining 400 soldiers, though ' appointed to other capiteyns,' were apparently
untrained. Besides these there were 100 lighthorse, 10 demilances, and
1,300 artificers and pioneers. Four years after, in i '^JJt the muster roll shows'
able men 5,384, men equipped 1,324, trained men 391, and 424 selected,
but untrained. Besides 8 demilances there were 88 light horsemen, but only
three of these were armed with corselet, morion, pistol, and northern staff,
the remaining 85 being 'furnished in other sorte.' Wheelwrights, smiths,
and pioneers reached a total of 508. For the infantry 509 calivers, and the
same number of morions were provided, also 422 long-bows with sheaves of
arrows, 210 pikes, 237 black bills, 189 Almain rivetts, 37 coats of plate, and
553 sallets and steel caps. By the year 1580 the numbers" mustered in the

' The constant pressure of the fines for recusancy kept disaffection alive, but gradually eliminated from
the county all but the most wealthy and staunch of the gentry who still clung to the old faith, although as
late as the end of the sixteenth century Lord Burghley declared that in respect to recusancy, part of
Lincolnshire was more dangerous than the worst part of Yorkshire (S. P. Dom. Eliz. cclxxiv, lo). A
Spanish view of the political and military bearings of recusancy in the county will be found in Cal. S. P.
Spain, iii, 603.

' S. P. Dom. Edw. VI, Add. iii, 26^. » Acts P. C. iv, 301.

' Ibid, vi, 336. ' Line. N. and g. i, 77, and cf. S. P. Dom. Mary, xi, 32, 33.

« S. P. Dom. Eliz. xiii, 53. ' Ibid, lix, 26.

' Ibid, xci, 39. ' Ibid, cxviii, 52. '" Ibid, cxxxviii, 8.

276

POLITICAL HISTORY

parts of Holland had fallen off, partly owing to the ' deluge ' in the twelfth
year of the queen's reign, and partly from the lack of resident gentry.

Lincolnshire was not exempt from the drain of men for Flanders and
elsewhere. In 1581, 100 recruits were ordered^ to be sent to Chester and
there shipped for service in Ireland, whilst in August, 1585, the justices of
Lindsey^ were bidden to provide their share of the 150 men who formed the
Lincoln quota for Flanders, to place them under the charge of Mr. John
Borough, while each man is to have his cassock and Venetian hose of red
cloth, twenty shillings for conduct money, and twelve pence a day till they
come to Hull. In the spring of the next year we hear of a letter " from
the lords of the Council to ' George Carleton, Thomas Bendiche, and
John Colvile, Esquiours, to be aiding and assisting to the berer hereof,
Thomas Gray, in the providing and impresting xij or xvj, Scatchemen or
Stiltmen in the countie of Lincolne, to be chosen of the best able and most
experte men that are to be found, furnished with either of them two paire of
the highest stiltes at the least, and the longest poles that are or maie be used
with the said stiltes to be sent over into the Low Contryes to the Erie of
Leicester, to be employed for some necessarie uses in the present services
there.' And again, in June 1587,* 300 men were ordered to be levied in the
county for the Low Countries.

Already in 1586 preparations were being made against threatened
invasion, and the earl of Rutland had been active in organizing the armed
forces of the shire, disarming Papists and preparing beacons. The captains
of trained bands in Lindsey, in February, 1586, were Geo. St. Paul,
Wm. Wray, John Savile, and Denzill Hollis ; in Kesteven, Bartholomew
Armine and Charles Hussey, senior ; in Holland, Robert Carre, junior, and
Richard Ogle. A concluding note of the earl's report is worth citing.
* For the 300 or 400 shot on horsbacke uppon conference with the
gentlemen I see not how the country can furnishe them, considering the
finding of Launces, light horses and horses for petronelles required, exept
with draught-horses, which are but fewe in respect the cartages of that
country standeth most by oxen.'^ Early in the spring of 1587, Geo. Constable °
was sent down to the county as muster master, and Valentine Browne and
Charles Bowles were appointed captains of trained bands in place of Savile
and Hollis already mentioned. The autumn returns^ of 1587 show a
muster of 11,154 able but unequipped men, including pioneers, and 3,024
footmen furnished with weapons. Demilances were 32, and light horses
189. Lindsey provided 800 trained men and Kesteven 400. In Holland
300 men had been selected, but were without training. The proportion of
musketeers to archers in this select 1,500 was 708 to 369, the ' armed
men,' who were presumably to a large extent pikemen, numbering 423. A
return ^ belonging to the spring of the next year shows us 6,400 able men,
2,150 furnished with arms, and 1,500 trained soldiers, of whom 690 were
armed with calivers, 438 with bows, whilst 372 were probably pikemen.
No bills are mentioned. But the carelessness or parsimony as to stores, so
continuously inherent in English military policy, is marked by an absence of

' ^cts P.C. xiii, 45. ' S.P. Dom. Eliz. clxxxi, 33, ' Jas P.C. xiv, 75. • Ibid, xv, 119.

^ S.P. Dom. Eliz. clxxxvi, 307. * Ibid, cxcix, 71. ' Ibid cciv 36

» Harl. MS. 168 (B.M.), fol. 168.

277

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

powder, matches and bullets. The cavalry, including 150 light horse,
91 petronels, and 38^ lances, were under the command of Charles Dymoke.
Lincolnshire was too far removed from the great storm-centre of the crisis
of 1588 to be so directly affected as were the counties of the south coast ;
but when in August, 1588, reinforcements were ordered for the north to join
the earl of Huntingdon, the quota for the county was 700 foot and 30 horse,*
whilst in the spring of the next year it was called on to furnish 200 oxen for
fresh meat for the navy.^ There was probably at this time not a ship above
1 00 tons burden at either Boston or Grimsby,* and beyond the liability of its
mariners for enforced service afloat, Lincolnshire in spite of its extensive
seaboard played little part at this period in the naval history of England.
Complaints had been made, however, some years before ° that the men of
Grimsby and other havens received pirates' spoil, ' which was distracted into
the possession of sondrie inhabitants thereabouts.'

There can be little doubt that the musters for Lincolnshire during the
greater part of Elizabeth's reign were defective and inefficient, and this was
all the more serious, as in case of invasion they were depended on for the
reinforcement of the East Anglian maritime counties.* A few years after the
defeat of the Armada an officer of experience resident in Kesteven was
so impressed with the shortcomings which every muster and training
revealed, that he drew up a proposal,^ or ' platforme,' for the voluntary
training of the ' willing, forwarde, and martiall mynded youthe ' of the
district. He complains of ' the greate wantes in manye of our contre-
men farr above others, being never exercised or experienced in any thinge
belonginge to martiall dissiplyne, for no contrey that I knowe hathe
lesse use daylie than ours hath eyther of bowe, gunne, or any other
warlike weapon ; and being not enewred, they are grown to a wonder-
ful sluggishe fearfulnes, in so muche that (as the proverbe is) it is as
easye to draw a beare to a stak (i.e. for baiting) as to bring a rude
Lincolnshier man without auctoritye to theise exercises.' It is evident that
the grievous deficiencies in the county forces were also about this time
exercising the responsible authorities. In September, 1595, the deputy-
lieutenants. Lord Willoughby of Parham and Sir Edward Dymoke, informed *
Lord Burghley that ' there were many wants which are reasonably supplied
but not so fully as will content your lordship.' Especially were arms lacking.
' The country greatly excuse themselves by the armour and shot sent into
France ' with Mr. now Lord Cromwell and Mr. Morgan, which amounted
to above 200, none of which has been returned.' Soon after Captain Buck
was dispatched to Lindsey, and Captain Sims to Holland and Kesteven to
reorganize the trained bands. The fruit of their labours was seen in the
following month. In the Lindsey" contingent all bows were by Captain
Buck's advice exchanged for ' swords, muskets and calivers, which makes the

' Stowe MS. 570 (B.M.), fol. 238 ; Harl. MS. 168, gives ' 30' as the number.
' Acts P.C. xvi, 231. ' Ibid, xviii, 391.

' Cf. Return of 1576, in Stowe MS. 570, fol. 139, and S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cxxxviii, 60.
' Acts P.C. xi, 65.

* Ibid, xi, 381, and cf. S.P. Dom. Eliz. cclxxii, 42.

' Proc. Arch. Inst. (Line. Meeting 1848), 159. ' Cal. S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccliii, 100, p. 98

' There was a levy of 300 from the county ordered to ship at Hull by 14 July, 1591. Cf. Acts of P.C.
xxi, 221, and S.P. Dom. Eliz. 28 June, 1591, ccxxxix, 60.
'» Cal. S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccliv, 15, p. 109.

278

POLITICAL HISTORY

bands much fairer and stronger than heretofore ' ; whilst Sir Edward Dymoke
also has now no bows to certify ^ for Kesteven and Holland, as ' they have all
been converted into calivers by Captain Sims' direction.' The complement of
trained foot in these two divisions of the shire now reached 700 (245 corslets,
350 calivers, 105 bills), besides 72 muskets the voluntary charge of the
county, and 330 men equipped but untrained. Charles Dymoke led a troop
of 24 lances, whilst 50 light horse mustered under the charge of
Captain Edward Carr. In place of Richard Ogle, Mr. Read had been
admitted captain. On the whole it was a very creditable muster of efficient
men for the smaller parts of the shire ; and again at the very end of the
queen's reign ^ we catch a glimpse of Captain Berry en route for Ireland,
but detained at Chester waiting for 200 Lincolnshire men who were due to
join the troops he had already enlisted.

Early in the reign of James I the general muster ' for the county of
Lincoln showed 8,000 able men, 4,000 armed, 353 pioneers, 45 demi-lances
and 200 light horse, while the city of Lincoln contributed 226 able men,
120 armed, 40 pioneers, and 10 light horse. Our limit of space forbids any
further detailed account of the local levies, but in 1620 the earl of Rutland
certified* that he had seen to the provision of sufficient arms that those
who were without might purchase them at once. He had also insisted
that the persons charged should themselves serve in the trained bands
instead of shifting the responsibility on their servants. Two years later
he declared ^ both city and county to be well-armed and provided both
with horse and foot, but regrets his inability to make any further addi-
tion of new forces, as he had formerly done, ' but at this tyme the want
of money is such in theis partes togeather with the fall of all manner of
commodities exceptinge graine as will not suffisr any further charge to be
laid upon the inhabitants in this behalfe.' The fall in the price of wool
had disastrously affected Lincolnshire farmers, and Sir Ralph Maddison of
Fonaby wrote * with prophetic instinct that this impoverishment of all trades
and handicrafts was the ' mother of rebellion, every man being ready to
strike the next above him or about him.'

The growth of Puritanism as well as the abuses of purveyance, and the
demands for money of the central government, united with an unfavourable
economic situation in creating an atmosphere of discontent especially in the
parts of Holland, the special home of the small freeholder and yeoman. The
loan raised after the defeat of the Armada was well subscribed,' but even in
the reign of Elizabeth there had been troubles in respect to purveyance and
complaints of the action of royal officers, whilst the ' sinistre dealinge ' of
contractors sometimes exposed the responsible justices to causeless obloquy
of the common folk and touched their credit with their good neighbours.^
In the reign of Charles I the forced loan of 1627 was met in Lincolnshire
by a vigorous resistance and several ringleaders were imprisoned, the earl of
Lincoln being sent to the Tower.' But we are unable here to do more than

' S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccliv, 31. ^ Ibid, cclxxxiv, 21, 30 May, l6oz.

' Stowe MS. (B. M.), 574, fol. 26.

* S.P. Dom. Jas. I, cxvii, 65. ° Ibid, cxxxii, (>(>.

' England^! Looking In and Out, p. 21. The first edition known was printed in 1640

' List in Line. N. and g. ii, 131. * Cf. S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxx, 5, 29, and 54.

' S.P. Dom. Chas. I, Ivi, 39, and Iviii, 85.

279

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

allude to these grievances and add a few details on the collection of ship
money.

In 1635 the mayors of Lincoln, Boston, Grimsby, and the aldermen of
Stamford and Grantham reported ^ to the Council their assessment of j^8,ooo
charged on the county for the equipment of a ship of war. They assessed
>(^200 upon the city of Lincoln, ^3,900 upon the parts of Lindsey, and
^^3,900 upon Kesteven and Holland, the use being that Kesteven shall bear
four parts of seven, which amounted to ^^2,228 12s., and Holland the other
three, amounting to £,i,6ji gs., with various minute subdivisions according
to ancient custom. The assessment of Grimsby is ^C^o, of Boston jC7o>
Stamford £^2 7^' 4^-' ^^^ Grantham with the soke ;^i59 4j. Apparently
a suggestion ^ had been made earlier to give a far larger share to Boston,
which protested vigorously, alleging the decay of the port, and begging that
it might be released from the service as in 1588, when the port was in a
more flourishing state. As a result of this petition the above-mentioned
assessment was doubtless made. It is impossible to trace with any particu-
larity the results of the various levies of the impost, but this may be said,
that from the first there was difficulty in getting it in. Sir Christopher
Wray declared * that he neither had paid nor would he pay even a groat,
although his assessment was but small, and Mr. Ogle and other gentlemen
were equally recalcitrant. In 1637 Sir Edward Hussey reported* that
coercion would be necessary, ' there being many and greate men that
refuse.' The hundred of EUoe ^ was particularly refractory, and its chief
constables were summoned before the Privy Council, and forced to give a
bond of >C5oo to the king to get in the money. In addition there were
constant grievances as to malpractices by the sheriff's agents and even the
sheriff himself. Complaint* was made in respect to the first levy that
Sir Walter Norton had assessed the county for ^(^8,924 2s. in payment of
^8,000 ; that he had passed his account for £y,y 21 ijs. 6d. and had received
^^778 2J. 6d. more than he passed his account for, besides £,iJo in bribes,
confessed by his chief agents, for sparing wealthy men to the detriment of the
poor. Norton made a vigorous defence,^ demanded inquiry, and thought no
man living would hold him so base as to have done what was alleged. He
appealed to the king to weigh his whole life and carriage with that of his
accusers, his constant service with ' there backwardnes and crossnes to his
royall prerogative, treading a parliament way.' His successors Pelham
and Hussey had similar difficulties with collectors and contributors, whilst
later in the autumn of 1638 Sir Anthony Irby complained' wearily of the
obstacles he met with and the backwardness of the chief constables in
distraining the goods of defaulters. Thomas Grantham, sheriff, in the
following March found things no better, and declared" that as to the ^^5°°
he had already collected, most had only been got under distress. In Holland,
at least, sullen discontent was ripening to a harvest of civil war. From this

1 S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cxcvii, 10.

^ Ibid, cccvi, 50. A return of 1628 only shows eleven ships at this port, of which the two largest were

only of 70 tons burden. Grimsby was also so decayed as to possess but one boat of 30 tons. Ibid, cxxxviii, 60.
' Ibid, cccxxxi, 26. '' Ibid, ccclii, 67.

' Ibid, cclvi, 44, and ccclvii, 120, 125, and 145. ' Ibid, cccxxxii, 68.

' Ibid. 26. ° Ibid, cccxcix, 13.

' Ibid, ccccxv, 33.

280

POLITICAL HISTORY

district were recruited many of the sturdy yeomen and grave burghers who
found a home in New England. Isaac Johnson, Atherton Hough a former
mayor, and Thomas Leverett an alderman of Boston, were leaders in the little
band of early colonists of Massachusetts, and a second Boston grew in vigour
across the Atlantic.

The actual fighting of the Civil War was preceded by a conflict of
proclamations, directions and counter-directions to local authorities, and the
publication by king and parliament of every item of news which might
serve their own cause or discredit their opponents.^ A significant example
may be cited in the Humble Petition of Captain William Booth of Killingholme^
and the answering Declaration of the House of Commons in Vindication of Divers
Members of their House from a False and Scandalous Pamphlet} Lord
Willoughby of Parham, in June, 1642, was holding a review of militia at
Caistor contrary to the king's proclamation, and Captain Booth, who had
been named in the commission of array, scoffed at his efforts, ' There was
a brave appearance of the trained bands at Lincoln of some fifteen or
sixteen.' As a consequence the royalist was arrested and disarmed, ' to
his great disgrace in the presence of his own Souldiers.' According to the
narrative of the captain, which was possibly not rigidly exact, Sir Christopher
Wray, ' who called himself captain of the said company which your
petitioner commands under your Majestie,' not only termed the king's
proclamation a seditious pamphlet, but added that they ' came thither neither
to dispute the law nor to be taught the law, nor did value the law, but
must observe the Orders of the House.'

After his failure to gain admittance at Hull, the king had visited Lincoln
and encouraged resistance to the militia ordinance, whilst many gentlemen
of the shire, especially in the parts of Lindsey and Kesteven, offered
horsemen for his service. The royal commission of array* for Lincoln
was addressed to the earl of Lindsey, a veteran of the Dutch wars whom
Charles had made commander-in-chief, to the earl of Newcastle, Viscount
Newark, Sir Francis Fane, Sir Peregrine Bertie, and many knights and
gentlemen of the county. It is impossible to work out fully here the political
complexion of the chief local families or trace their fortunes. But this much
may be said : The Dymokes, Heneages, and Thorolds were consistently loyal
and suffered accordingly. Sir John Monson went with the king, but a
younger representative of the house helped to bring him to the scaffold.
The Andersons of Manby were royalist and heavily fined under Cromwell,
but Edmund Anderson of Lea served in 1643 "-"^ ^ committee of the Parlia-
ment. By the Restoration he had turned his face towards the rising sun
and was created a baronet. Among the families active for the Parliament
and led by Lord Willoughby of Parham, may be mentioned the Wrays of
Glentworth, the Massingberds of Ormsby and Gunby, the Armynes of
Osgodby, and the Whichcots of Harpswell, while Colonel Rossiter of Somerby
was a well-known figure on the same side during the closing scenes of the
war. Although Lindsey was largely royalist in sympathy, the outlying Isle
of Axholme followed the Sheffields of Butterwick and Normanby who had

' B. M. pressmark 669/^, and others in same volume ; also Grange, List of Civil War Tracts.

' B. M. pressmark E. 154 (38).

' Hotten, Topography and Family History (1863), 140. ' Add. MS. 61 1 8, fol. 429 (B. M.).

a 281 56

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

declared for the Parliament, whilst in the south of the county the Puritan
yeomanry of Holland were no lovers of the prerogative, and amongst the
gentry the Irbys at Boston, with representatives of the Custs, Pureys,
Walcotts, and TroUopes, might be found in the same camp. Papist recusants
to a man were of necessity for the king.^

If for no other reason, Lincolnshire would be memorable in the history
of the Civil War as the field where Cromwell's military genius first received
public recognition. In the early spring of 1643 the royalist garrison of
Newark, with the Lindsey cavaliers controlled the large part of the county
outside the walls of Lincoln and Boston, or the districts round Stamford
and Spalding. About Lady Day raiders from Crowland carried off the
Rev. Robert Ram and some Parliamentary sympathizers from Spalding, but
Cromwell, who had crushed the last traces of active royalism in the counties
of the Eastern Association, was now marching north. Crowland had been
put in a state of defence, and the royalist works were strong and well lined
with musketeers, ' backed with store of hassock knives, long sithes, and such
like fennish weapons,' whilst in their front was ' a great water both broad
and deep.' The Puritan prisoners enjoyed a fearsome experience, being
placed in the forefront of the battle and exposed to the fire of their own
friends, but nevertheless found opportunity to observe the conduct of
Mr. Styles, the minister of Crowland, of whose activity on the royalist
side they rather unkindly remark, ' If fearful oathes be the character of a
good souldier he may well passe muster.' After a sharp fight the Parliament
troops captured the place and rescued the men of Spalding, who, sore at the
losses of their friends, charged the royalists with using bullets ' champt ^
and poisoned.'

Suggestions made at this time for combined action between Lord Grey
of Groby, the commander of the Association troops. Sir John Gell at
Nottingham, and the Lincolnshire gentry, led to very little. Local jealousies,
the presence at Lincoln of the younger Hotham, and Grey's determination
to stand by Leicester, offer sufficient explanation. Towards the middle of
May a sharp combat near Grantham on the Newark road revealed in
Cromwell a skilled leader of horse, and in the eastern yeomanry troopers of
mettle. The royalists were in force, one and twenty troops ; on the Parlia-
ment side twelve only, ' whereof some so poor and broken that you shall
seldom see worse.' For half an hour or more the 'dragooners' on either
side kept up a fusillade, and when the Cavaliers showed signs of advance,
Cromwell met offensive with offensive and charged. Firing their pistols in
the faces of their foes his troopers dashed forward, and the enemy broke in
rout. Forty-five prisoners and several colours were taken. ^ It has been well
said * that ' the whole fortune of the Civil War was in that nameless skirmish.'

' For further details see Maddison, Lincolnshire Wills, and W. O. Massingberd in Ancestor, No. 7 (1903).
In the Calendar of MSS. of House of Lords {Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vii, App. i) there is quoted a ' Memorial
concerning Sir William Armyne to be considered when the Viscount Campden makes his composition at
Guild Hall.' According to this, on 1 1 June, 1 643, ' Viscount Campden's forces came to Sir William Armyne's
house at Osgodby, and plundered it of goods and writings, taking away what they liked best, drove off sheep
and cattle, destroyed his park, and killed and drove out his deer, and since then his tenants have been made
prisoners, and large sums taken from them, by which Sir William Armyne and his tenants are damnified
at least ;^5oo.' ' i.e. 'jagged by biting,' Divers Remarkable Passages, E. 109, 34 (B.M.).

' Carlyle, CromzoelPs L. and S. i, 149, and B.M. pressmark E. 104, 12 (3).

* Gardiner, Civil War, i, 143.

282

POLITICAL HISTORY

On 1 8 June, the younger Hotham, who was justly suspected of
correspondence with the enemy, was arrested and conveyed to Nottingham.
Castle, but found means to escape to Lincoln, and thereafter angrily com-
plaining of Cromwell's interference with him, proceeded to his father at
Hull. Meanwhile Queen Henrietta reported to her husband that ' young
Hotham hath sent to me that he would cast himself into my arms, and that
Hull and Lincoln shall be rendered.' ^ His purpose was not destined to find
fulfilment. In Hull the mayor and townsmen promptly arrested both father
and son, and sent them by sea to London, while an attempt on Lincoln the
first Sunday in July, by a detachment from Newark, aided by treachery
within the city, proved abortive. Threescore Cavaliers disguised as country
folk had been admitted and sheltered in the deanery, but though on sallying
out to seize the magazine they did some execution, a lucky shot from a
cannon slew several, the rest were overpowered, and the expectant Newarkers
outside retreated.'

Nearly three weeks after. Lord Willoughby of Parham surprised Gains-
borough, a position of great strategic importance, thus interposing between
Newcastle and the garrison of Newark, and at the same time barring the
road to Lincoln. The recapture of the place was thus essential to the
Royalists, who did their utmost to interrupt water communication with Hull,
and actually shot dead,' in the cabin of a pinnace, one of their own men,
the earl of Kingston, who was being conveyed thither as a prisoner for
greater security. Cromwell, who had just stormed Burghley House,
hastened to Willoughby's assistance with horse and dragoons, being joined on
the way by Meldrum from Nottingham, and at North Scarle by a detach-
ment from the garrison of Lincoln. In the early hours of 28 July they met
the horsemen of Newcastle's army under Charles Cavendish, a son of the
earl of Devonshire, who were stationed rather northward of Lea on the
Gainsborough road, at the edge of a sandy heath only to be reached by a
steep ascent rotten with rabbit-holes. The Lincoln men, who were elated
with their success in the preliminary skirmishes, first reached the top, and
supported by the Nottingham force, charged the main body of the Cavaliers
and drove them five or six miles in headlong rout. Cromwell had noted,
however, that Cavendish's reserve was not engaged, but waiting to fall
upon the victors when scattered and blown. He therefore kept back some
troops of his regiment from the chase, and when the Royalist leader drove off
the exhausted Lincoln men, Cromwell charged him in the rear and forced
the Cavaliers down a steep slope into a morass, where the gallant Cavendish
was slain by Cromwell's captain-lieutenant ' with a thrust under the short
ribs,' while Colonel Heron, high sheriff of Lincolnshire, and others, were
forced into the Trent and drowned.

Victuals and powder were hastily thrown into Gainsborough, and
this was hardly done when the enemy were signalled approaching from the
north. A Parliament force sallied from the town to meet them, and found
themselves face to face with the whole of Newcastle's army. The foot soon
fell into disorder, and fled back into the town. The retreat of the cavalry
was managed by Cromwell in a masterly fashion, though both men and horses

' Queen to King, June 27, Letters of Henrietta Maria, 221.

' Rushworth, Hist. Coll. v, 277. ' Ibid, ut supra, 278.

283

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

were tired out with the fighting earUer in the day. Slowly, troop by troop,
daring the enemy to their teeth, the horsemen retired, and with incon-
siderable loss.^ A cavalry as disciplined as courageous had at last been
trained, and was wielded by a consummate soldier. No wonder a contem-
porary writer remarks ' : ' This was the beginning of his (Cromwell's) great
fortunes, and now he began to appear in the world.'

Cromwell now fell back before superior forces, leaving Gainsborough to
its fate. On 30 July it surrendered to Newcastle. Willoughby abandoned
Lincoln and retired on Boston, his ranks thinned by constant desertion. The
danger was imminent. A bold move by Newcastle might brush aside the
defenders of Boston and Peterborough, open a way into the counties of the
Eastern Association and threaten London itself. ' It's no longer disputing,
Cromwell warned ' the Cambridge committee, ' you must act lively ; do
it without distraction. Neglect no means.' He himself, obliged to retreat
from Stamford, sent his foot to Spalding to assist Willoughby and establish
communication. His horse marched to Peterborough where he had fixed
his head quarters. On 9 and i o August Parliament took measures for raising
fresh troops in the eastern counties, and Manchester received a commission
as major-general to obviate the paralysis of local jealousies, while authorization
was granted for the pressing of men. And further, on the 20th of the
following month, Lincolnshire was by an ordinance of Parliament attached to
the Eastern Association.*

Meanwhile Manchester was engaged in the siege of Lynn,^ which had
declared for Charles, and as a large force of cavalry was unnecessary for this
operation, Cromwell was despatched north, and not only succeeded in
throwing ammunition and arms into the besieged town of Hull and relieving
the garrison of their superfluous horses, but also, by the diversion he caused,
enabled Sir Thomas Fairfax to cross the Humber into Lincolnshire a little
later, on 26 September, with the cavalry, twenty troops in all, still remaining
in the town. After a perilous march through the enemy's country, Cromwell
on his return reached Holland in safety.'

On 1 6 September Lynn surrendered, and the Parliamentary commanders
were free to combine for other enterprises, though the scarcity of money
hampered rapid and efficient action. On 9 October Bolingbroke Castle,
which was held for the king, was summoned, in Manchester's name, but the
governor returned answer that ' bugbear words must not win castles nor
should make them quit the place.' Manchester soon after arrived in person,
and joined Fairfax and Cromwell. On the evening of the day following an
advanced party ^ of Fairfax's horse was driven in by some Royalist cavalry,
commanded by Sir John Henderson, the governor of Newark. In this skirmish
* Cavendish ' was the watchword of the Cavaliers, ' Religion ' of the Parlia-
mentarians. Emboldened by this partial success Henderson, on Wednesday
morning, 1 1 October, made a determined effiDrt to relieve the garrison of
Bolingbroke. Manchester drew out his troops to meet the enemy ; the
numbers on either side were nearly equal, but the horses of Cromwell and

' Carlyle, Cromwell's L. and S. 159 ; Rushworth, Hist. Coll. v, 278.

' Whitlocke, Mem. (1682), 68. ' Letter, Aug. 6, Carlyle, op. cit. i, 164.

* Lord's Journals, vi, 224. ' 'A Relation of the Siege of King's Lynn,' E. 67, 28 (B.M.).

'^ Carlyle, ut supra, i, 176 ; Rushworth, op. cit. v, 280. ' A True Relation from Hull,' E. 69, 13.

' Vicars, God's Ark (1646), 43.

284

POLITICAL HISTORY

Fairfax, worn with the hard riding of the preceding month. The Parliament
watchword was now ' Peace and Truth,' whilst the Cavaliers adopted that of

* Newcastle.' Manchester's cavalry met the enemy near Winceby, a little
hamlet close to Horncastle. As often afterwards, the Puritan horsemen sung
their battle-psalm, and after the dragoons had fired a few volleys broke into
the charge, Vermuyden leading the forlorn hope and Cromwell the van.
The future protector had a horse shot under him, and as he struggled to his
feet was a second time knocked down by a Royalist gentleman. Sir Ingram
Hopton. Quickly recovering he leapt on the horse of a trooper, and was
in the vielee again. So fierce had been the shock of the Puritan onset that
the enemy, forced back on their supports, threw these also into confusion, and
a second charge by Fairfax, with Manchester's reserve, turned the combat to a
rout, the Royalist fugitives galloping through Horncastle, and then scattering
over the country, whilst many a horse and rider escaped their pursuers only to
be drowned in the swamps along the Witham.^ The combat had been almost
entirely an affair of cavalry ; Manchester's foot had no part in completing the
Royalist rout. A soldier of the Parliament who was present noted,^ amongst the
stripped bodies of the dead, ' some fair and white skins, both upon the place
where the fight was and in the highway much farther off,' and he drew the
inference that men of note and gentle blood had fallen. Amongst them
were Sir Ingram Hopton and Sir George Bowles ; the total Cavalier loss in
killed was about i,ooo, in prisoners not much less, whilst 35 colours were
taken. Two contemporary statements throw a vivid light on this and other
defeats of the king. Mortally wounded Royalists were heard to declare ^
' The Commission of Array brought us hither full sore against our wills ; we
were as true servants to the Parliament and our religion and liberties as any
in England, and woe to those that were the cause that Lincoln and Yorkshire
became a prey to the enemy ; we die as true friends to the Parliament as any.'
The verdict * of Sir William Widdrington on the Puritan horse, contained in
a dispatch to the earl of Newcastle, was equally significant : ' Their horse are
very good and extraordinarily armed, and may be reported to be betwixt
50 and 60 troops, being very strong.' Whilst the Royalist remnant sought
refuge at Newark, the Puritan chronicler summed up the issues of the action :

* Yorkshire is discouraged, Lincolnshire is delivered, Cambridge is secured.' ^

The siege of Hull had been raised by Newcastle on 1 2 October. Eight
days later Lincoln surrendered to Manchester, and the pacification of Lincoln-
shire now begun was rendered easier by the king's policy of bringing Roman
Catholic troops from Ireland.^ Yet early in the next year the Parliament
was obliged to devote attention to patching up the quarrel between
Manchester and Lord Willoughby of Parham, whom he had superseded.
In March local quarrels were, for the moment, forgotten in the onslaught of
Prince Rupert, who raised the siege of Newark, whilst Gainsborough was
abandoned by its garrison, and Lincoln, Sleaford, and Crowland fell into

' The Scottish Dove, E 75, 24 (B.M.). The sepulchral inscription of Sir Ingram Hopton in Horncastle
church bears witness to his encounter with Cromwell, ' the attempt of seizing the arch-rebel.' There are
also preserved above the north-east door of the church certain scythes, which according to tradition were borne
by foot soldiers at Winceby Fight.

^ ' A True Relation of the First Fight,' E. 71, 5 (B.M.).

' Vicars, God's Ark (1646), 47. ■* Rushworth, Hist. Coll. v, 282.

' The Weekly Account, E. 71, 18 (ii) (B.M.). * The Scottish Dove, E. 75, 24 (B.M.).

285

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Royalist hands. But Rupert was forced to raise men and contributions in
Wales, his men went back to their garrisons, and the Parliamentarians soon
recovered what they had lost. On 6 May Manchester stormed the Close of
Lincoln,^ and the place was taken in about half an hour. Seven hundred
private soldiers were captured, and considerable ordnance and ammunition.
Besides the Governor, Sir Francis Fane, Sir Charles Dalison and Colonels
Midlemore and Baudes were among the prisoners. The remaining
history of the Civil War, as it affects Lincolnshire, is mainly contained in
the exploits of the garrison of Newark, who were a constant menace to
Lindsey and Kesteven and the borders of Holland as long as the Royalist
stronghold held out. In June, 1645, Colonel Rossiter, who was then in
command in the county, was summoned to join Cromwell at Naseby,* and
his arrival on the right at the opening of the battle, gave the Parliamentary
troops an overwhelming numerical superiority. After the battle he returned
to his old duty of watching Newark, which did not surrender till the May
of the next year. Our last notice of the Civil War in Lincolnshire may be
found in the year 1648, when a recruiting party for the king were surprised
and overwhelmed" near Stamford by Colonel Waite. And the name
of Stamford may remind us that two years before, at the house of
Mr. Wolph, the king slept, on 3 May, 1646, when travelling to the Scots
camp, the last night he may be said to have passed as a free man.*

With the end of the Civil War we take leave of the more stirring
features of the political history of the county, and there is little afterwards
to engage our attention but its electoral record and military associations. The
story of the gradual draining of the fens of Axholme and Holland with the
enclosure of common land, and the troubles thence arising, belongs rather to
the social and economic province. In the reign of Charles II, as at an earlier
and later period, Lincolnshire and its maritime population contributed to the
naval history of the country, though the prisoners of the press-gang were
not always appreciative of the honour of serving His Majesty afloat ; and in
1672 it was reported^ from Whitby : ' Some are run away with the main-
tenance and imprest money, who merit the gaol for example's sake, and others
have absconded themselves unworthily, as in Hull many lusty men.'

Fines for recusancy and delinquency ruined the Roman Catholic land-
owners, and there is little evidence in 17 15 or 1745 of the associated
Jacobitism, which was still a living spontaneous force in the early eighteenth
century among many gentry and yeomen of the dales and the border. Some
sympathy with the exiled family there probably was amongst the older
Tories, and at the county election of 1723 Sir Neville Hickman drank the
health of the king over the water, and so occasioned a considerable defection
amongst his own supporters. But a devotion only apparent under the
stimulus of the wine-cup was harmless to the Hanoverian government, and a
mere parody of the high enterprise of Derwentwater and the northern men.
The arrival of the army of Prince Charles Edward at Derby during the
rising of 1745 caused considerable alarm in the country, and measures were
taken by some of the gentry for local defence. On i December of that year,

' ' True Relation,' E. 47, 2 (B.M.). " Gardiner, Civil War, ii, 247.

■' Rushworth, viii, 145. "Add. MS. (B.M.), 5886.

° S.P. Dom. Chas. II, cccxii, 156, and cf. cccviii, 73.

286

POLITICAL HISTORY

a rumour ran through Lincoln that the rebels were approaching, the drums
beat to arms, and it is said that numbers of people even buried their money
and jewels in the ground. Again, after Culloden, some of the prisoners
taken were brought through Lincoln on their way to the south.

Something has already been said in respect to the early evidence of
parliamentary representation in Lincolnshire, and a few scattered notes are
all that can be added. In comparison with the anomalous, and at times
curiously restricted franchises of the towns, the counties, with their forty-
shilling freeholders, often in the two centuries preceding the first Reform Bill,
indicated at national crises the trend of popular feeling. But on ordinar)
occasions the influence of the great families of the shire was preponderant
as, for example, in Lincolnshire that of the Berties in the early eighteenth
century. On the question of Dr. Sacheverel, it is interesting to notice that
the county members were divided, Peregrine Lord Willoughby de Eresby,
the eldest son of the first duke of Ancaster, voting for the doctor, whilst
George Whichcot, of Harpswell, who had been mainly returned by the
Whig freeholders of Axholme, voted against him.^ In 1832 the county was
divided into a northern and southern division, each returning two members ;
in 1867-8 the number of members for the shire was raised to six by the
addition of a Mid-Lincoln Division ; whilst in 1884—5 ^ further re-arrange-
ment divided the county into seven single-member constituencies. West
Lindsey or Gainsborough, North Lindsey or Brigg, East Lindsey or Louth,
South Lindsey or Horncastle, North Kesteven or Sleaford, South Kesteven
or Stamford, and Holland or Spalding, and at the same time the country
labourer was enabled, for the first time, in some measure, to take his proper
place in returning representatives to the House of Commons.

The city of Lincoln retained its double representation till the last
Reform Bill of 1884—5, when it lost one member. Before 1832, in an
electorate composed of freemen not averse to guineas, there was often a good
deal of bribery and corruption. The election of April, 1754, was long
remembered as one of the worst in this respect. The final figures were
Hon. George Monson, 635, John Chaplin, 617, and Robert Cracroft, 437.
It is said that no one took the oath against bribery and corruption but
Alderman Davies, and after the declaration the defeated candidate published
a list of more than 200 men who, pledged to him, had actually voted for his
opponents, overcome no doubt by golden persuasions.

Boston does not seem to have returned members to the regular parlia-
ments of the realm till the reign of Henry VIII. In the sixteenth century
the burgesses were particularly anxious to be represented by members content
to waive their claim for expenses, after an experience they suffered with a
Mr. Nauton, who sued the town for his fees, and only compromised the case
on receiving 20 nobles.^ In 1621, the earls of Exeter and Lincoln were
both interfering in the election, and the mayor was directed to write excuses
to these noblemen for declining their nominees. In this century the usual
disputes arose as to the character of the franchise, and in 1661 there was a
double return, Lord Willoughby and Sir Antony Irby being elected by the
party who limited the franchise to the freemen, whilst Sir Philip Harcourt
and Mr. Thorey, the mayor, were the nominees of those advocating the

' Line. N. and Q. iii, 211. ' Thompson, Boston, 499.

287

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

wider extension of the electorate. Lord Willoughby was permitted to take
his seat, and in 1663 the Committee of Privileges reported that the inhabi-
tants if they were not freemen had no voices in the election, and that
accordingly Sir Anthony Irby was duly elected.^ It may be mentioned that
up to 1826 the elections were held in the parish church, and only after the
contest of that year were removed to a more suitable place. The last
election before the first Reform Bill created much excitement, the final
figures^ being, Neil Malcolm (junr.), Tory, 337 ; John Wilks (Whig), 294,
and C. K. Tunnard, 186. Wilks declared, in a speech to the electors,

I relied upon the unbought and unbuyable suffrages of the middling and lower classes
of the freemen of the borough. And backed by these I dared all the combination of
Mayor, Aldermen, Common Councilmen, Gaolers, Officers, and even the Gentleman who
carries the silver oar.

Mr. Malcolm left the Peacock Inn after the polling in a very elegant
canopied chair covered with pink and white drapery, and Mr. Wilkes
immediately after ascended a car on wheels with springs, supporting a chair
and canopy ornamented with blue silk and silver fringe. Mr. Tunnard,
however, whose supporters displayed orange favours, significantly observed,
whilst declaring that his nomination was against his desire, ' I had no inten-
tion of offering myself to the notice of the electors of Boston because I
could not afford it, and this I am not ashamed of repeating to you face to
face.' At this election the number of voters was 559, whilst at the first
after the passage of the Act of 1832 the electorate had increased to 788.
At the last reform of representation in 1884—5 Boston lost one of its
members.

Stamford for some 1 50 years after the reign of Edward II apparently
forbore to exercise its onerous privilege of returning members. In the seven-
teenth century it was afflicted with the usual controversies prevalent in small
boroughs as to where the right of election lay, and the Committee of
Privileges reported in 1661 'That the right of election was in such freemen
only as paid scot and lot.' Previous to the Reform Act of 1832 Stamford
was a pocket borough of the marquess of Exeter, who owned a large part of
the town. In 1 8 1 2 Sir Gerard Noel stood against the Exeter interest repre-
sented by Evan Foulkes and Lord Henniker, but found himself at the bottom
of the poll.* By the first Reform Act the boundaries of the parliamentary
borough were extended, whilst in 1867-8 it lost one of its members, and in
1884-5 was finally merged in the county.

Grantham received the elective franchise in 1463 by charter of
Edward IV, and a hundred years later, in 1552, we find Sir William Cecil
nominating one of its members, and the earl of Rutland the other, whilst
in 1580 one of its representatives published reflections on brother members
accusing them of drunkenness, and was severely dealt with by the House.
Bribery and corruption were ordinary incidents in the history of this borough.
On I December, 17 10, Sir John Thorold, bar t., petitioned against the return of
the marquis of Granby, on the ground of undue practices. The Committee
of Privileges found that ' the right of election of members to serve in
Parliament for the said borough is in the freemen of the said borough not

' H. ofC. Journ. viii, 484. ' Sketch of Boston Election, 1830, p. xxvi.

' Allen, Hist, of Lincolnshire, ii, 3 24.

288

POLITICAL HISTORY

receiving alms or charity,' and Sir John Thorold was declared duly elected.^
From 1660 till the early part of the nineteenth century the influence of the
duke of Rutland and the Brownlow family was dominant in the borough.
At the election of 1802, when Sir William Manners tried unsuccessfully to
gain a footing for Mr. John Manners, the price of votes is said to have risen
from two to ten guineas.*" A few years later he was more successful after
purchasing Lord Brownlow's property, but was obliged to come to a com-
promise with the corporation of the town, who had the enviable privilege of
creating any number of non-resident freemen. By the last Reform Act of
1884—5 Grantham lost one of its members.

Few boroughs in England were more hopelessly corrupt than Great
Grimsby, in which the franchise before 1832 was vested in freemen paying
scot and lot.' As early as the fifteenth century at least its members were
nominated by the lord of the town or other powerful local magnates. Some-
time before 1459 John Viscount Beaumont recommended * Ralph Chaundeler,
' his right trusty and well-beloved servaunt,' and nearly thirty years later
Ralph earl of Westmorland wrote ^ to the corporation —

I adiure and hartely requyre you to send into my hondes youre wrytte directed for the
electionne of the seid Burgessis, wheche I shall cause to be substauncially retoorned and
appoynt ij of my counsale to be Burgessis for your seid towne, who shall not only regarde
and set foreward the welle of the same in suche causis, if ye have any, as ye shall advertise
me and theym also dymmynyeshe yo' charges of olde tyme conswete and used for the
sustentacioune of there seid costes. And in this doyng ye shall shewe unto me a singuler
pleasure and unto yo' selfBs convenient proffit.

And again, about the middle of the next century, Sir Francis Ayscogh
recommended ^ to the corporation Christopher Wind, another Westmorland
nominee.

And yf you do chuse him now at my request the towneship shall have a great treasure
of him, and lykewise I fro my parte shall be glad to do for you anything that lyeth in my
power.

The scot and lot freemen were early alive to the opportunities of their
vocation, and in September, 1667, Sir Freschville Holies,' who in the spring
of the year had entertained Pepys with drink and his bagpipes, ' a mighty
barbarous musick,' when about to stand for Grimsby, informed the diarist
that he believed it would cost him as much as it did his predecessor, which
was ;C30° ill I'^w ale and £^2 in buttered ale. Pepys, however, genially
adds ' which I believe is one of his devilish lies,' but he had not the honour
of knowing the freemen of Grimsby. A century and a half later, in 1790,
the expenditure is said to have reached jTSojOoo during an election lasting
nine months, the public-houses being open all the time, whilst one-fourth of
the electorate died of the excesses and fatigues of the contest. On this
occasion, when a London banker was fighting for the seat, individual bribes
are said to have varied in amount from ^Tao to jC^So. The figures of the
poll were : John Harrison, 140 ; Dudley North, 140 ; Hon. Wellesley Pole,
135; Robert Wood, 135. The returns were voided on petition,' but the
successful candidates were re-elected without opposition. The election of

' H. ofC. Joum. xvi, 454. ' Allen, op. cit. ii, 304.

' Lewis, Top.Dlct. (1849). * Hist. MSS. Com. xiv. Rep. App. pt. viii, 250.

' Ibid. 252. * Ibid. 255. ' Pepys' Diary (1904), vii, 128, 374.

' Minutes 0/ Evidence on Grimsby Election Petition (1793), and H. ofC. Joum. xlviii, passim.

2 289 37

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

1830 led to a famous libel action^ brought by Lieutenant Howe, of the Red
or Tory faction, in command of the revenue cutter Greyhound, against a local
attorney of the Blues. Amongst other amusing evidence a freeman, David
Snow, deposed that he had at first promised to vote blue, but afterwards ' he
did not like it,' and was taken on board the Greyhound, but he was free to go
on shore again. In cross-examination he confessed that he was very drunk
on going aboard, and drunk afterwards during part of every day he
remained on board. He could not tell who made him drunk, but got very
good fare on the Greyhound, and thought he was as well there as anywhere
else. There was a man to take care of him, one Bailey, plaintiff's servant,
who wished him to go and vote red, but he did not wish to return on shore
at all, as he was quite comfortable while he remained on board. Nevertheless, the
lieutenant got ^Tio damages, but it is fair to state that he had also been
accused of stirring up a riot. By the first Reform Act of 1832 Great
Grimsby lost one of its members, and the character of its constituency since
the rise of the modern town is now very different from that of the old scot
and lot electorate of the past.

The Lincolnshire Regiment, as constituted in 1881, included the two
regular battalions of the old Tenth of the line, and the first of these may be
said to have a continuous history since 1685, when James II issued commis-
sions ^ for enlisting eleven companies of foot. These were accordingly raised
in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire and united with the Plymouth Indepen-
dent Garrison Company already existing, the regiment thus formed being
commanded by the earl of Bath, governor of Plymouth. The uniform was
then blue lined with red, with red waistcoats, breeches and stockings, although
the colour of the coat was changed to red after 1688. This gallant corps,
which did admirable service at Steenkirk under William III, and in the
battles of the next reign, had no particular connexion with the county till
1783, when it was directed to bear the title of ' The North Lincolnshire
Regiment,' with a view to the promotion of recruiting within the county,
and in 1795, after serious loss from disease in the West Indies, recruiting
parties were actually sent out from the head quarters at Lincoln. Early in
the last century good service in Egypt earned the Sphinx borne on the
colours. In 1803 a second battalion' was raised from the reserve force
collected in Essex, but was amalgamated with the first battalion at the close
of the Napoleonic wars, the present second battalion having been raised at a
later date. The regiment did much hard work in the Sikh war, especially
at Sobraon, and during the Indian Mutiny, whilst its recent service in South
Africa, for which it bears the honours 'South Africa, 1 900-1 902,' and
' Pardeberg,' will be fresh in the memory of all.

Another regiment more closely connected in its origin with our county
is the present second battalion of the Loyal North Lancashire, the old 8ist of
the line or Loyal Lincoln Volunteers. At the commencement of the revo-
lutionary war this regiment was raised* in Lincolnshire, mainly from volunteers
from the Lincoln militia, by Major-General Albemarle Bertie, whose appoint-
ment as colonel is dated 19 September, 1793. ' Corunna ' and ' Maida ' are

' Ann. Reg. 1831. Chron. p. 87. ' Hist. Records of \oth Reg. of Foot, \, et seq.

^ Lawrence-Archer, British Army, 177. * Hist. Records of %lst Reg. (1872), 2.

290

POLITICAL HISTORY

borne as honours by this distinguished corps, whilst among their badges the
arms of the city of Lincoln ^ still point to the county whence they sprang.

The history of the two mihtia battalions of the territorial regiment has
never been fully worked out, and a very cursory reference is alone possible
here. In 1660 there were no less than four regiments of foot belonging to
the trained bands (Lord Castleton's, Sir Edw. Rossiter's, Mr. Newton's, and
Mr. Heron's), besides six troops of trained-band horse and five troops of
volunteer horse, 2,000 infantry and 550 cavalry in all.' From a return'
of the Lincoln militia in 1697 we learn that there were then two regi-
ments of foot corresponding to the later North and South Lincoln corps.
Amongst the seven South Lincolnshire companies the senior officer men-
tioned is Major Reuben Parks. Of the eight North Lincolnshire companies
Charles Dymoke was colonel. The South Lincoln were 657 strong ; the
North Lincoln mustered 673. Besides these there were four troops of horse.
The history of the Royal North Lincolnshire and the Royal South Lincoln-
shire Militia records long embodiments and service in Scotland and in Ireland
against the rebels,* and it is said that the appellation ' Royal ' was granted
to them for their good preparation and promptitude when ordered on the latter
service.^ The earliest muster-rolls of the northern regiment show that it was
stationed in the north of England, at Sunderland, Monk Wearmouth, and South
Shields in 1781. The colonel was Gilbert Caldecot, and we may note
amongst the officers commanding companies the well-known name of Bennet
Langton, the friend of Samuel Johnson," with the note ' Absent on commander-
in-chief's leave, assisting-engineer at Chatham.' His lieutenant was Edward
Dymoke.''

At the same time the southern regiment was at Eighton Bank Camp
under Colonel Christopher Nevile.* During the stress of the French wars
supplementary militia were raised, the muster-rolls of the South Lincoln
showing service" from 1798 to 1816, of the North Lincoln from 1803-14,
and of the third Lincoln for the year 1805. Besides the supplementary
militia, in 1808 and even later local militia^" were enlisted, partly from the
then existing volunteers, and not disbanded till 18 16, The later history of
the regular county militia we are unable to deal with here, but we may
mention the recent embodiments " and good service of the third and fourth
battalions of the territorial regiment, the former (the old Royal North Lincoln-
shire Militia) earning the honour ' South Africa, 1902.'

In the great war which followed the French Revolution Lincolnshire
was not backward in raising volunteers, both horse and foot, for national
defence. Even as early as 1794 a squadron of volunteer cavalry was formed
at Spalding, mounted on serviceable mares or geldings not less than 141 hands

" Lawrence- Archer, op. cit. 377. *S.P. Dom. Chas. II, xxvi, 73.

' Line. N. and Q. ii, 139, 140. * Ibid, i, 150. '' Ibid, i, 190.

° In 1778, when the Lincolnshire Militia Regiment was quartered at Warley Camp in Essex,
Dr. Johnson paid a visit to Captain Langton and showed the greatest interest in the details of the daily
routine, attending a regimental court-martial, and ' as late as at eleven o'clock ' going the rounds with the major.
As to the musicetry practice, he was pleased to remark, ' The men indeed do load their muskets and fire with
wonderful celerity.' The impressions derived from this visit were evidently still vivid in the autumn of the
same year, for in a letter written to Mrs. Thrale on 1 5 Oct. he favoured her with the observation, ' A camp,
however familiarly we may speak of it, is one of the great scenes of human life.' Boswell, Life of Johnson
(1887), iii, 361.

' Militia Muster Rolls (P.R.O.), 1295. « Ibid. 1321.

' Ibid. 2524. '» Ibid. 3547-3551. " Army List (Oct. 1905).

291

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

in height, and often meeting for drill two days a week, of which Sunday was
one. They were known as the South Holland Squadron, and carried a
standard of scarlet silk fringed with gold, bearing in the centre a garter with
the words ' South Lincolnshire Squadron,' enclosing the words ' Loyal
Lincolnshire Yeomanry,' with a crown above. In 1799 they were called out
to quell a riof at Boston, caused by some misunderstanding about the militia
ballot.* In 1797 a troop of volunteer cavalry was also raised at Lincoln, under
the command of Richard Ellison, M.P.^ But a still greater impulse was given
to the organization of the county yeomanry after the Peace of Amiens.
In 1803 there were existent in the county eleven troops,** the Lincoln
troop which was raised in the August of that year being commanded by
Philip Bullen, Esq.* At the present time these earlier troops of volunteer
cavalry find legitimate successors in the Lincolnshire Imperial Yeomanry,
whose uniform is drab with green facings.'

An early example of volunteer infantry may be found in the two
companies of Loyal Lincoln Villagers, commanded at Christmas, 1798, by
Lord Brownlow, the commandant's own company possessing two places of
exercise, one at Belton for that village and the surrounding country, and the
other at Hough. The last monthly pay-sheet* is for April, 1802, and it is
said that at the Peace of Amiens many of the volunteers of this corps joined
the 8 1 St regiment already mentioned. Spalding also possessed a corps of
volunteer infantry from 1798 to 1801 under Commandant Fairfax Johnson,
but difficulty was found in keeping up their drills during the harvest.^ As in
the case of the yeomanry, renewed activity is found in the formation of
volunteer corps after the Peace of Amiens. The Loyal Lincoln Volunteers,
raised in 1803 by Colonel Hezekiah Brown, comprised four companies, under
Captains Merryweather, Tyrwhit-Smith, Benj. Wetherall, and John Bate,
and were not disbanded* till 18 13. Besides the Loyal Lincoln, the Barton-
on-Humber, the Brigg, Caistor and Rasen, the Gainsborough, the Great
Grimsby, the Horncastle, and the Louth' contingents existed till 18 13, but
several other corps were disbanded or converted into local militia in 1808—9.^°

At the present time Lincolnshire possesses three battalions of volunteer
infantry with head quarters at Lincoln, Grantham, and Grimsby, with their
respective cadet corps at Lincoln Grammar School, the King's School,
Grantham, and the Grammar School, Louth, while the ist Lincoln Volunteer
Artillery comprises four batteries of heavy guns, one at Boston, two at
Grimsby, and one at Louth.'* The late South African war furnished the
volunteers of Lincolnshire with a welcome opportunity of showing them-
selves not less keen and ready in their country's defence than the men of a
hundred years before.

' Fenland'N. and Q. iv, 338, et seq. ' Hist. Acct. Line. (18 10), p. 34.

' Pari. Return, 1803.

* Hist. Acct. Line. (18 10), p. 35, and Yeomanry Muster Rolls (P.R.O.), 4012.

* Army List (Oct. 1905). = Vol. Muster Rolls (P.R.O.), 4428.
' Ibid. 4432. * Ibid. 4428.

° Some curious details as to the ' unpleasant state of the finances ' of this corps will be found in the
Ann. Reg. (1806), 455 et seq. The liberality of the privates, however, prevented their disbandment.
" Vol. Muster Rolls (P.R.O.), 4428-32. " Army List (Oct. 1905).

292

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC

HISTORY

LINCOLNSHIRE being chiefly an agricultural county it is necessary
to obtain some idea of the natural conditions in early times to
J understand the progress made. Large portions of Holland, the
East, West and Wildmoor Fens, and the Isle of Axholme, were
then under water, or subject to frequent floods, the wolds were bleak and
cold, almost without woods, and the heath was more or less a waste, while
the Kesteven Forest, disafforested in 1230, extended from Swaton and Bicker
Bridge to East Deeping and Spalding Bridge.^

In each parish around the church, which usually occupied a central
position, lay the tofts and crofts of the villagers with the house of the lord
of the manor close by. On the tofts were the humble homes, the barns and
the sheds of the freeholders and villeins, and adjacent thereto their crofts or
small home closes.^ A little distance off were the two or three large open
fields, the meadow and the waste. These fields were divided into furlongs
and wongs, in which were the selions or rigs of different owners, each con-
taining half an acre or so, scattered about in most inconvenient fashion, and
divided by strips of turf, called balks, with ' headlands ' at the top affording
access to the lands. The field sown with corn was protected by some kind
of fence, while the fallow field was common pasture for the cattle and sheep
of the holders of lands in the vill.

The early records of our county tell of liberty and prosperity. Domes-
day Book mentions 10,820 sokemen, exceeding in number the villeins and
bordars combined;^ and there were sixty-six manors on which there were no
villeins, fourteen being, however, waste.* These sokemen were freemen,
holding their lands freely by fixed agricultural services, more or less onerous,
and soon commuted for money payments. The population of the county in
1086, which 'stands at the very top,'' compared with other counties, the
increase in its value," and the undoubted importance of Lincoln, are all signs
of prosperity. Some description of a Lincolnshire estate may help to explain
matters. There were in 1086 sixty-six tenants holding directly of the king,
besides Sortibrand and other thegns. Of these ten were ecclesiastics, who
held 195 manors, 710 manors being held by laymen. Two great estates will
serve as examples. The bishop of Lincoln held thirty-one manors, of which
twenty-five were held by sub-tenants ; and two knights are expressly men-
tioned at both Stow and Louth. Ivo Tailboys held fifty-eight manors, of
which his tenants held forty-five. Now these great lords did not grant out
to under-tenants much the larger portion of their estates without good
reason. They had to provide a fixed number of knights to follow the king,

' Cal. of Charter R. i, 122. ' Lincoln Cathedral Charters.

' 7,I2I + 3j4-75- * Efg- Hist. Rev. (Oct. 1905), 700.

' Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond, 428. « Valet, £,'i,'i6<) p. Sd. ; valuit, ^^3,009 5/. ^d.

293

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

and fight his battles without cost for forty days in a year when called upon.
The Bolingbroke honor had to provide sixty knights, and the bishop of
Lincoln sixty also. Unless they created sufficient knights' fees on their
estates to discharge their service they must keep a household of knights at
great expense ready for service. It is not then to be wondered at that in
ii66^ the bishop had more than sufficient knights to perform his service^
and William de Roumare almost sufficient. Moreover, these under-tenants
owed other services. They had to attend their lord's court possibly every
three weeks, or when a plea should be there by the king's writ,' or a robber
had to be judged, or on a reasonable summons. And the well-known feudal
burdens of aids, relief, wardship and marriage, brought in at times con-
siderable profits. Then there was also castle-guard; in 1281 nineteen
knights paid loj. per fee for the ward of Richmond Castle;' in 1421, twenty
Lincolnshire fees paid los. each a year for ward of the castle of Lancaster;*
the knights of Peterborough paid for ward of the castle of Rockingham;^
and tenants both in Lindsey and Kesteven paid for ward of Lincoln Castle.'

In dealing with the smaller but to the lord the most valuable portion
of a great feudal estate, the manors retained in demesne, we must chiefly rely
upon thirteenth-century documents. Of the lands of a manor the free tenants
would hold about a third, the villeins another third, and the rest would form
the demesne farm. The object of good management in the middle ages
was to make the estate self-supporting, to buy little or nothing, to spend as
little as possible on wages, to live and maintain the household and retinue
upon the produce of the demesne farms, cultivated by the customary labour
of the villeins, and occasionally, at harvest, haymaking and ploughing times»
of the sokemen of the manors. Walter of Henley's Husbandry^ and the
other three works published with it, treating of estate management, show
that the successful working of the home-farm under the superintendence of
a bailiff was the chief thing aimed at. The difficulty of checking the con-
duct of the various servants made necessary the regular keeping of the
Manorial and Account Rolls, which are a feature of the thirteenth century.
' The Rules of Saint Robert Groseteste,' the good bishop of Lincoln, made for
Margaret, countess of Lincoln, widow of John de Lacy, who died in 1240,
' to guard and govern her lands and hostel,' show how a great estate was
managed.

Every year at Michaelmas, he writes, when you know the measure of your corn, then
arrange your sojourn, for how many weeks at each place according to the seasons of the
year and the advantages of the country in flesh and fish, and do not by any means burden
by debt or long residence the place where you sojourn, but so arrange that something
remains on the manor whereby it can raise money for the increase of stock, and especially
cows and sheep, until your stock acquits your wines, robes, wax and your wardrobe. . . .
I advise that at two seasons of the year you make your purchases, your wines and your wax
at the fair of St. Botolph . , . your robes purchase at St. Ives.

A survey* in 1283 of the bishop of Lincoln's manor of Stow gives a
practical example of such management. The way in which the require-
ments of the bishop and his household are provided for is remarkable. A
little ready money is provided by the rents of the tenants, by the returns of

' Liber Niger. ' i'»'- ^- i^d g. vi, 237.

» Gale, Re^ster of the Honor of Richmond, 29, 40. ' Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. bdles. 243, 3913.

' Assize R. 483, m. 53. ' Cal. Pat. 1 377-8 1, p. 82.

' Royal Hist. Society. ' -^"oc. Archit. Soc. Rep. xxiv, 299.

294

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

the fisheries, the ferry and the fairs, and the perquisites of the courts held ;
but evidently the utmost endeavour is made to make the estate self-supporting.
We are told of the labour services of the villeins, how a villein had to
work for the bishop sixty-five days in the year, how the ploughmen ^ had
to plough for him, how his demesne land was partly manured by the sheep
of his tenants which had to lie in his fold, how his free-tenants had to help
his villeins to reap his corn and plough his land, how his villeins carried his
corn to the mill, ground it and carried it to the bakehouse, while other
villeins made malt of the bishop's barley and brewed it, finding firewood
from Stow Park, how villeins carried the food of the bishop, when necessary,
to other manors where he was residing, how they went to Axholme for
timber and turf for the bishop's use, how they provided food for his horses,
thatched his booths, or houses, and paid a rent of 434 hens, besides some
money payments. Moreover, a tenant collected his rents, summoned the
work-tenants to their work, superintended them at it, saw the hens were
delivered at the manors they ought to be sent to, and made the distraints.

The actual accounts of a smaller manor tell the results of bailiff manage-
ment. At Stallingborough in 1341-2^ the receipts were £1^ 4-s. io\d., of
which £6 gs. 4J^. came from rents. The corn brought in £/\. 1 8s. 6%d. ;

3 quarters 5 bushels of wheat sold for 41, a quarter ; 33 quarters 5 bushels
of drage at 2j. 6d. An ox sold for 3J. 6d.; 20 hens at ij^. each ; and 100
eggs for 4(3'. Herbage and hay sold for i8j. The expenses were
jTiJ 7-f- iii^. ; these included £6 i^s. 4^, paid to the lady of the manor,
and 9J-. 4^, for expenses of persons staying at StaUingborough, but still there
was a loss of over ^3 on the farm account. The cost of ploughs was
I2J. iold.\ of carts ioj. Jld.\ of shoeing 4 horses /^s., and 2 others^ on the
fore-feet is. Wages came to z8s. 6d. ; thrashing 45 quarters 5 bushels of
wheat at 2d. a quarter ; and 100 quarters of drage and 21 quarters 5 bushels
of peas at id. a quarter; came to ijs. 8jd'., nothing being paid for winnowing
because it was done by the ancilla curie. A horse was bought in the summer
for 9J., and another* for 5J, lod. Fifteen men hoeing corn for four days
were paid id. a day. Mowing at 4^. and 3-^. a day, and making hay, cost
igs. yd. Forty acres of corn were reaped at 5^., and 62| acres at 6d. an
acre. On the back of the roll is the account of the grange. The receipts
of the manor are increased by 34 quarters of drage sent to Sturton to make
ale; 40 acres are sown with 2 bushels of wheat each, 42 J acres with

4 bushels of drage each; 34 acres with 2 bushels of peas each ; 14 quarters
of wheat are mixed with 14 quarters of peas and given to the carters and
ploughmen, who receive a quarter each for 12 weeks; some drage and peas
are used for the horses, oxen, sheep and pigs ; and the reeve and six servants
receive 2 bushels of drage each pro potagio. As 167 quarters of corn were
grown on 102 J acres the yield was i\ quarters per acre. It will be noticed
that no wool is mentioned, and as 12 stone of wool from the same manor
sold for 65J-. in 133 1-2,' we may conclude that altogether a small profit
was made. Other manors were of equally small value, which may account
for the indebtedness of Lincolnshire landowners to Jews.*

' Carucarii. * Addit. R. 25861 (B. M.). ' Affri.

* AfFr'. 6 Addit. R. 25860 (B. M.).

« Cal. Pat. 1216-25, P- 179 ; Ibid. 1272-81, pp. 80, 83 ; Cal. Close, 1227-31, p. 499.

295

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

The accounts,^ however, of the estates of Henry de Lacy, earl of
Lincoln, give quite a different impression, for nineteen Lincolnshire manors
bring him in hard cash ^1,529 in 1296, some ^23,000 as money is now.
He had already given up the old practice of making his manors self-supporting.
His estates were so many that he could not visit them all, and he was
seldom in Lincolnshire, while he must have wanted ready money for many
purposes, so that it is not surprising that the products of his manors were
sold, and the money paid over to his constable at Bolingbroke. The manor
of Sutton in Holland was much the most valuable, sending jC443 fo^ the
year, the Marsh came next with £1571 Swaton, Wrangle and Ingoldmells
send over ^C^oo each: but there are some small amounts ; Sedgebrook sends
£25^ Saltfleetby only ^^ii ioj. The Bolingbroke accounts show how some
of the money was spent : the steward's fee was ^^13 6^. 8d'.; the fee and
robe of the constable >C^2 ioj.; the wages of the porter 45^. 6^.; his robes
6s. SJ. ; certain weapons cost 24J. gd. ; £126 were spent at Stamford fair,
principally in cloth for the earl, his knights, clerks, esquires and grooms ;
;^i24 were spent at Boston fair for like purposes ; ^(^16 were paid to the
earl's armourer, while a merchant of Brabant was paid over ^^62 by means
of ID sacks and 2 stone of wool for cloth bought. Some of the rents paid
in kind by divers tenants were 41 J lb. of pepper, 24! lb, of cummin, 6 pairs
of white spurs, i o pairs of gloves, 2 pairs of white gloves, and 3 pairs of gilt
spurs. After the expenses and purchases were paid there remained about
^^900 for the earl from his Lincolnshire estates.

The farming accounts are so long that particulars ot only one manor can
be given. At Sutton the total receipts are ^501 ; the expenses £s7) leaving
a revenue equal to ^(^7,000 now. Lands of 'new acquirement' at Sutton and
Lutton have probably been reclaimed from the marsh or sea, and let for over
£^y. Farms let brought ^59 ; six mills >r26 ; 44 acres of demesne land are
let at 2 J. 6d. an acre ; and the tenants pay £i() 1 ^s. instead of doing accustomed
works of ploughing, harrowing, etc. The demesne farm produced £2g^ ;
corn brought ^C^ 3^ ; wheat, drage, rye, here, oats and beans being grown ; oats
making ^^58 ; rye ^^38 ; and wheat £2^. Wool brought over £6^, but was
the clip of three years; the dairy brought in £i2> cheese being y^. and
butter 9</. a stone; 70 swans sold for £^ 17J.; live stock fetched ^31 i8j-.;
13 oxen and cows sold for los. 2d.\ 17 calves for u., sheep for \s. 6^/. and
lambs I od. , and 3 3 pigs for 2j. each ; wax was 'id. a lb.

The expenses are so small that they prove that the labour question was still
solved by the customary services of the villeins. Six ploughs cost in repairs,
including the smith's wages, 9J. jd. ; ploughmen were allowed 3^. a day for
meat and drink, harrowers and sowers, \\d.\ 2 pairs of new wheels for carts cost
lis. jd.; 9 ploughmen and 6 other servants were paid 3^. each ; 3 shepherds 2j.
each for the year, having allowances of corn besides. 25J. 4^. was paid for the
meals of bondmen reaping in the autumn at 3 boon days, and 22J.for 1 1 quarters
of 'here' for their bread, stocking the corn being done by bondmen's works ;
19J. i\d. is paid for shearing the sheep, the washing being done by the
bondmen; cleaning dykes cost 28J. 5^.; mending the sea wall 19J. iod.\
thrashing 970 quarters of corn, at about i\d., cost £6 4J. The two largest
receipts deserve some further notice. The wealth of this district came then,

' Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle. i, No. i.
296

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

as now, from the richness of its soil ; 1,000 acres of demesne land produced
about 1,000 quarters of corn, which, as at least 350 acres would be fallow, is
considerably above the average ; the wheat was 'js. id., rye 5J. 5^., beans 3J. 6d.y
'mixtilion' 5J., 'here' y. iid., drage 2j. 3^., oats zs. 2d. a quarter. The
wool at Sutton both in weight and price was above Thorold Rogers' average
for the year : 2,152 fleeces weighed 14 sacks, the average fleece weighing
251b., worth ^d. alb., but there were also 89 fleeces of inferior wool which
sold for jTi IJ. 3^.: the grange accounts show that 1,456 fleeces, weighing
264J stone, were 'of remainder,' while 798 fleeces of 310 'muttons,'
308 ewes, 180 hogs, weighing 146 J stone, were the produce of the year, of
which 79 stone were the tithes, and 3 stone were given to the shepherd.

Under the great lords were the knights and esquires. In 1303 there
were 449 knights' fees recorded in Lincolnshire,^ of which laymen held 367,
and ecclesiastics 82, but the system of sub-infeudation that prevailed makes it
impossible to ascertain the number of persons who held by knight service.
Turning to the classes who actually cultivated the soil we find that the distri-
bution of the sokemen over the county in 1086 comes out clearly by analysis
of Domesday Book. Of the 10,820 sokemen there were only 422 in Holland ;
in Kesteven and the West Riding of Lindsey the sokemen were fewer in
number ^ than the villeins and bordars combined ; in the South Riding ^ they
exceeded these classes only by some 200 ; while in the North Riding,* where
the Danish element was especially strong, they exceeded them by more than
a thousand. The peasant proprietors of the thirteenth century were probably
more numerous than these sokemen. In Holland it was certainly so. In
1275 the jurors of Kirton wapentake ^ say that the free sokemen on the
the estates of the earl of Richmond are too numerous to number. At Stow
in Lindsey there were at least 40 free-tenants in 1283 to 27 sokemen in 1086,
at Deeping there were 25 free tenants in 1282 where there were none in
1086, at Bourn there were 61 to 7, at Kelby 7 to 3, at Saleby there were 23
in 1303 to 2 in 1086, at Knaith 11 in 1324 to 3 in 1086.® There may have
been exceptions, but an increase was the rule. Many charters of these peasants
conveying small quantites of land still exist, and surveys and court rolls tell of
their social and economic conditions. At Fiskerton in 1125—8^ 20 sokemen,
holding 3 carucates of land, had to plough with their ploughs on the demesne
lands of the abbey of Peterborough and pay a rent of £^ : four times a year
each had to reap an acre of corn, do two boons in August, mow hay one day,
make it one day, and another day help to cart it : at Scotter 29 sokemen work
for the abbey one day a week throughout the year, and 2 days in August,
besides ploughing 2 days and paying a rent. At Weston* each tenant of the
prior of Spalding in socage, holding half a bovate of land, containing 25 acres,
rendered some money payments, did some ploughing, harrowing, and sowing,
owed 3 boon-days mowing in autumn ' at the food of the lord,' gave pannage
for his pigs, and gave tallage, and even merchet for his daughter at the will
of the lord ; he also did the bank of the sea and marsh and all other commons
of the vill according to the size of his tenement, and cannot make his son a

' Feud. Aids, iii, 127 et seq.

' Kesteven, 3,223 to 2,287+1,122 ; West Riding, 1,389 to 1,177 + 536. ' 2,438 to 1,439 + 773.

• 3,348 to 1,585+738. ^ Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 307.

^ Eng. Hist. Rev. xx, 702. ''Peterborough Chronicle (Camd. Soc), 164.

' Cole MSS, vol. 43. The date is uncertain : circa Edw. I.

2 297 38

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

clerk without the lord's licence. Whatever may have been the case elsewhere
the monastic houses in Lincolnshire were not easy landlords. On the estates
of the bishop and lay lords the sokemen fared better. At Stow ^ a tenant
held one bovate of land by 4J. a year, he owed 5 ploughings annually, as if
, he was ploughing for himself, and to reap one day in the autumn, having his
food if he worked the whole day, and it is stated that he and others
were enfeoffed of the old feoffment. At Bourn * a free tenant, holding one
bovate, rendered 4^., and owed suit of court and foreign service, while
another held 2 bovates and rendered 6s. 8^. a year, besides suit of court, etc.,
no free-tenants on any of theWake manors being said to owe any agricultural
viTorks. Many of these small freeholders had to attend their lord's manor
court 'from 3 weeks to 3 weeks,' or as often as it was held, but sometimes
they were able to avoid attendance at the court of the superior lord because
their immediate lord had to acquit them thereof. Thus in 1 245* Robert son of
Eylric, who held only the fifth part of a bovate in Sausthorpe, and had been
distrained by the earl of Derby to do suit from 3 weeks to 3 weeks at his
court of Greetham, successfully impleaded Jordan de Asfordby, who was mesne
between them, it being decided that he acquit him of the service.

In the manor court the freeholders held a very important position, indeed
their presence on certain occasions was necessary to its existence, and they
took a prominent part in the proceedings,* served on the juries, joined in the
presentments, formed with the villeins the court which found the judgements,
sued and were sued. They had, however, this great advantage over the villein
that they could go to the king's court if they wished. If their freehold was
in danger this was the safest course. Thus in 1 245 Martin the carpenter at
Fotherby ^ recovered at the assizes half a rood of land of which he had been
disseised by the prior of Ormsby. In the agricultural arrangements of the
vill the freeholder was personally interested. He had his land in the common-
fields side by side with the villeins : if the cattle broke into the corn he
suffered as well as they ; he had rights of pasture in the vill according to his
holding ; his consent was considered necessary to enclosures before the statute
of Merton; thus a defendant in 1245 pleaded that he enclosed a pasture 'by
the assent and provision of the whole township,' and another that he had en-
closed a certain close * ' with the common assent of the whole vill.' He was
a member of the organized community, called the township, and if it was
amerced he had to pay his share of the fine : and if, as at Navenby,'' the men
of the vill took the manor at a rent he joined in the management, the expenses,
and the profits.

It is difficult to give an accurate account of the Lincolnshire villein,
because his position varied on different manors, and the manor for which there
is most evidence* was probably easier than many. The ordinary holding of
the villein was a bovate of land, containing from 10 to 30 acres, to cultivate
which he had one or two oxen, and for which he owed customary labour
services and some money payments to his lord. The bordars of Domesday
Book became the cottars of the later surveys, and, as their holdings were

' ^ssoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. xxiv, 322. * Ibid, xxv, 24.

' Assize R. 482, m. 18. * IngoUmells Ct. R. xvi.

* Assize R. 482, m. 36 </. * Ibid., 482, m. 29, 25 d.

1 Line. Cathedral Charters, D ii, 83, 2. There is an instance at Caistor of the free sokemen taking the
manor to farm. Hund. R. i, 360. ' Ingoldmells.

298

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISIORY

small, probably worked for the sokemen and even villeins, as well as for their
lord. At Thurlby ^ c. 1120, eight villeins hold 8 bovates, and work 4 days a
week in August and 2 days a week for the rest of the year, each ploughs one
acre, they find ploughs on two boon-days, render yearly 33^., and each mows
a cart-load of material for roofing. At Spalding^ a tenant in bondage,
holding 24 acres of land, renders yearly 4J. 4//., owes tallage and merchet,
ploughs and harrows i day in Lent, carries i day with his cart, owes
pannage and 3 boons in the autumn, and pays one hen at Christmas. A
tenant of work-land, holding 40 acres, works every day in the year at
whatever work the lord will with cart, shovel, flail, fork, and sickle, ploughs
with his own plough for 3 days, and harrows the land ploughed, and fetches
the seed with his horse from the granary, gives 12s. lod., owes tallage,
merchet, and pannage, and two hens at Christmas, and id. for his head for
frankpledge, and id. for every male of 5 years, and, if he have a horse worth
20J., he may not sell it without the lord's licence, nor may he cut a tree
growing above the height of his house without licence, he bakes bread' for
the use of the mowers, and ' defends against the sea and marsh for i bovate
of land.' A tenant of 26 acres works for 3 days a week, and renders like
but less services and rent. At Skellingthorpe * a bond tenant holds i bovate,
and renders yearly i zd., and for a custom called morelay 4^., and for another
called maltsilvre 3^., and 10 eggs or ^d., and at Christmas one hen or id.:
he ought to work from Michaelmas to Christmas for 1 2 weeks, i day each,
and from the quindene of Christmas to the feast of St. Peter ad Vincula for
29 weeks, i day each, and from the said feast to Michaelmas for 8 weeks,

2 days each.^ At West Rasen in 1336, a bondman® with a messuage, a toft,
and 4 bovates, gives 8j. 3^. yearly, and winter, autumnal, and summer work
every week — except seven weeks which are allowed for holidays — yearly, total
92 works ; he renders at Christmas a bushel of malt, a cock and 3 hens, and
at the Purification 2d. for ' heysilver,' also 45 eggs at Easter, and at the
Ascension ^Id. for ' wyskgilde,' and two geese at St. Peter ad Vincula, and

3 boon-days in autumn with two men to reap, and an aid at Michaelmas.
At Ingoldmells'' the labour services of the villeins had already in 1291 been
commuted for an annual money payment of ^d. per acre, with on alienation
an additional rent of 8</. per acre, there being then no demesne farm.^ The
legal position of the villein is clear. He had, with slight exceptions, no
legal rights against his lord, though against a third person he had the same
rights as a freeman. In a case at Lincoln assizes in 1202,' a lord claims the
chattels and house of a deceased villein as his own, while he denies
wounding, housebreaking, and robbery, and the appeal is declared to be null.
At the same assizes ^° another villein acknowledges that he holds half a bovate
of land of Osbert, son of Nigell de Ingoldby, in villeinage, so that Osbert can
remove him when he shall wish. Thus he shelters himself under the power
of his lord, and the plaintiff is told he may obtain a writ against Osbert if he
likes. In a case in 1366" a monk of Selby and others were accused of taking

' Peterk Chron. i6o. '' Cole MSS. vol. 43.

' ' As many quarters as are necessary for one working man for the whole autumn, and of every quarter
60 loaves according to weight and measure.' * Assoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. xxv, 28.

* This work is worth \\d., at the other times \d. " Cal. Close, 1337-9, P- 250.

' Ingoldtnells Ct. R. vi, xxviii. * Engl. Hist. Rev. xix, 74, 297. ' Select Pleas of the Crown (Selden Soc), 9.
'» Assize R. 478, m. 7 d. " Coucher Book of Selby, i, 85.

?99

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

chickens and goods of one William Bene, threatening him and his wife, and
beating and wounding another man ; the defence was that the monk seized
William as the abbot's bond-tenant, and ordered him to come to Selby to
answer for his villeinage as a villein ought, and that the chickens and goods
carried off were the abbot's chattels and taken to his use, as was fully
allowed, and the threatening, beating, or wounding are denied,* William Bene
claimed to be a freeman, but later it was decided that he was a villein. That the
villein had no remedy against his lord in the king's courts when his land or
goods were concerned is abundantly proved. A villein of Margaret de
Hiltoft complained ^ that she had unjustly disseised him of 3 acres in
Ingoldmells, when she says he is her villein as of the manor of Hiltoft, and
that she is seised of him as of her villein ; and Robert cannot deny this, so
he takes nothing by his writ.

On manors of the ancient demesne of the crown, even when they had
passed into other hands, it was different. In 1282 the men* of the bishop of
Carlisle, of his manor of Horncastle, brought a writ against him, stating that
whereas they hold their lands by certain * services, he in despite of the king's
prohibition exacted from them other services ^ and distrained them therefor ;
and eventually the bishop does not come, and he and his pledges are in
mercy. Here we seem to be taken back to the times when the men of the
vill had rights against their lords, which their successors have lost unless they
lived on royal demesne manors. Still their condition was not, at least on the
best manors, so bad in actual practical life as might from legal theories
appear. Even in the king's court, when the personal condition of the
villein was at stake, the burden of proof was upon the lord ; he must bring
absolute proof that the kinsfolk of the person he claims as his villein were
villeins by descent. In 1 245 ^ Thomas de Multon claimed Walter Gamel as
his bond-tenant and fugitive, who says he is a freeman and so was his father,
but his parents are tenants of Thomas and do villein services, and dare not
say they are free. Thomas sets forth an elaborate pedigree; he says Walter's
grandfather was a villein, and produces his grandson and great-grandson in
the female line, who acknowledge themselves his villeins, and states that two
other grandsons paid him 4 score marks for their liberty. In the end
Walter ^ put himself on the mercy of Thomas de Multon, who quitclaimed
him and his sequels from all servitude for ever, and gave him 5 marks as a
gift, and also the mark he had offered for a jury. In the manorial courts
the villein held much the same position as a freeman. Here * he could bring
his action for land ' in the nature of an assize mort d'ancestor,' or of ' novel
disseisin ' ; here his land could be conveyed by ' surrender ' and
' admittance,' and leased by licence of the court. He was by no means
dependent upon the mere caprice of his lord, but was ruled in accordance
with the customs of the manor, having too a real share in the system of
self-government which prevailed. Downtrodden, wretched or miserable he
certainly was not as far as our records show, and we actually find a freeman
at Ingoldmells proving that his wife was a nief when all he could gain

' No verdict appears. ' Massingberd, Hist. ofOrmsby, 68. ' Assize R. 485, m. 57.

' Fixed. ' 100/. for franlcpledge, £2^ on the appointment of a new bishop.

* Assize R. 482, m. 33.

' Walter says his grandfather and his sons were free, but took as wives niefe with villein land, and
being afraid to lose these lands are unwilling to call themselves free. ' Massingberd, IngildmelU Ct. R. xxix.

300

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

thereby was four acres of bond land. We have just seen tenants of villein
lands unwilling to relinquish them even to claim their liberty, and the
Ingoldmells Court Rolls do not record a single instance of difficulty in
obtaining tenants. Moreover villeins were thus early growing more
prosperous. They were able to purchase small quantities of freehold land,
as is proved by the Ingoldmells Court Rolls, and the Ministers' Accounts of
the duchy of Lancaster, for which they had to pay their lord a small rent of
zd. an acre, a fine being also due upon each admittance.* Already too some
few were obtaining their liberty.^ And in the early part of the fourteenth
century, commutation of labour services was becoming common. We have
already seen that at Sutton a considerable portion of the accustomed works
were remitted on a money payment. The survey ' of the barony of Bayeux
in 1288, giving details of the manors, v/hether retained in hand or held by
tenants, shows that then at Thoresway, Grimoldby, Calcethorpe, Linwood,
South Witham, Stainby, and Elsthorpe villein lands were put at a full rent,* and
at Stewton ' the pleas and perquisites of court are not extended because there
are no suitors except tenants-at-will and for a term of life,' while on other
manors such tenants are mentioned. In 1341 on a property at Stalling-
borough, of the abbot of Wellow, called a manor in 1409, it is stated^ that
' there are no bond-tenants.'

But some original documents at Ormsby give us the clearest view of
what was happening, telling us how the lord of the manor was granting to
tenants-for-life small holdings at a fixed annual rent, these holdings being
probably villein land, for in later days we find the demesne lands still in hand.
In 1324 Simon Fitz-Ralph of Ormsby granted" to Thomas de Tutbury of
Boston and his heirs 1 3J. \d. of annual rent, three boon-days in autumn,
and two advents at his court, and all other services of Stephen Neil of
S. Ormsby to be received of a certain toft and croft and one bovate of land
with appurtenances in Ormsby which the said Stephen holds for the term of
his life ; also the same premises after Stephen's death. This same system of
leases for lives or years was prevalent elsewhere, and explains the extinction
of villein holdings in many parishes, the villeins being turned into lease-
holders, though some became freeholders and others doubtless agricultural
labourers.

For the social and economic history of Lincolnshire towns the
records are of a different character, and, while giving many significant facts,
are wanting in the details which surveys and account rolls supply for the
country. For Lincoln, the fact that it was in 1086 a city governed by
twelve lawmen, with 910 inhabited mansions, reckoned at eighteen hundreds,^
paying a rent of >Cio°> ^^<^ having a mint that paid >C75> speaks volumes
for its wealth and importance. The population must have been about 5,000,
and the rent represents some jCs^Soo of our money. In 11 30 the burgesses
of Lincoln gave ' 200 marks of silver and 4 marks of gold that they might
hold the city in chief of the king, and in ii6o-i we find the citizens of

' Ingoldmells Ct. R. xxxi.

' Massingberd, Hist, of Ormsby, 237 ; Assoc. Archit. Societies Rep. xxiv, 322. Final Concords (see index
under ' villeins ').

' Line, N. and Q. viii, 51. * ' Ad altam firman.'

' Addit. MSS. 6165-74. ° Massingberd, History o/Ormsiy, 290.

' The Lincolnshire hundred of 1 2 carucates. ' Hunter, Magnum Rot. Pipae, 3 1 Hen. I.

301

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Lincoln accounting^ for a payment of jC^oo of assize, the sheriff of the
county having accounted for the farm of the city in the two preceding
years. The question how the citizens could raise such large sums may be
partly answered by the entries on the Pipe Rolls* of ^6 a year from the
weavers of Lincoln for their guild ; the wealth of Lincoln came largely
from wool and cloth. The mint, too, must have been a source of wealth to
the city, as it certainly was to the king.* But in order that trade might
flourish it was necessary that the citizens should have their free liberties and
customs, that they and their property should be secure, and that they should
be able to offer security to incomers ; hence the importance of the charters of
Henry II and other kings confirming all their liberties, customs, and laws, and
their merchant guild.

In 1 29 1 Lincoln was appointed one of the staple towns, and the
provisions * for the staple of wool, leather, and skins, laid down regulations for
mercantile transactions for handicraftsmen, workers in wool, dyers, fullers,
hucksters, regrators, etc. An officer is to be appointed to weigh stapulary
articles, and four discreet men are to have the custody of the profits of tallages,
tolls, etc. The regulations concern alien merchants as well as those of
England, but those of Gascony and the duchy of Guienne under the obedience
of the king or his son are not to be considered as aliens. The advantages of
being a staple town were great, for merchants had to bring their wool, etc.,
there for sale, the trade of the city was promoted, rich merchants settled
there, and considerable sums were derived from tolls and dues. The staple
town was linked with a convenient port, Boston being the port of Lincoln;
wool was sold, weighed and certified at Lincoln, then it was conveyed by the
Witham to Boston, and the customs exacted. What the staple meant to
Lincoln may be seen from the petition of the citizens to Richard II setting
forth the decay of the city. They recounted^ how formerly foreign
merchants who came into Lincolnshire had to bring their goods to Lincoln
and sell them there upon pain of forfeiture, and there was great cloth making
there and the people put in occupation, and the staple of wools of ' Lincolnshyre,
Northampton, Leicestre, and Notingham schires was at Lincoln, and there
stapulled, custumyde, and poysed, wyth other toUes thereto belongyng, to
the behoffe and releve of the payment off the fee ferme of the seyd cite ' ; and
now ' comyth no repayre of lordes ne odur gentylmen, wher thorough that
the craftmen and vittelerz ar departied oute of thys youre cite.' Lincoln itself
still bears signs of the wealth of some of its former inhabitants in the fine
remains of the houses of Jews on the Steep Hill, which remind us how * in
1257 some houses in St. Martin's parish in the cloth market^ which had
belonged to Leo son of Saloman, a Jew hanged for the death of a boy
crucified at Lincoln, were given to the Templars.

With all their privileges and wealth the Lincoln citizens did not avoid
disputes amongst themselves. There had been a quarrel with the lord of a
manor at Boston concerning the amount of tronage due to him, and the
commons of Lincoln would have withdrawn from the fair ; but two sons of
the mayor and two other rich merchants, who did not want their trade

' Pipe R. Soc. iv, i;. * Ibid. ' Ibid.

* Ross, C'witos Lincolnia, 12. * Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. vii, 263.

• Cal. Chart. R. i, 467. ' ' Forum draperie.'

302

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

interrupted, and had command of the common seal gave the lord a charter,
promising a yearly rent of £io, without any assent or consent of the
commonalty.^ In 1 29 1 the discord between the rich and the poor concerning
this still went on, as also touching 200 marks paid to the king by the poor
by distraint of the rich for concealed goods of condemned Jews, and as to
divers tallages unduly assessed on the said poor, and other grievances.'' In
1323 it was still the complaint that while ' les grauntz seigneurs' paid
nothing the ' mean people ' were taxed without their own consent ; they
alone were forced to keep the nightly watch and paid murage tax, and the
rulers used the money for their own purposes and rendered no accounts.' In
1350 a guild was formed of 'common and middling folks,' who strongly
objected to anyone joining them ' of the rank of mayor or bailiffs.'*

Lincoln had a suburb in Torksey, which had 1 1 1 resident burgesses in
1086, and had had as many as 213 before the Conquest, and which had all
the same customs as Lincoln, and with Hardwick paid a fifth part of the
geld of that city. The importance of Torksey depended upon shipping, and
the Fossdyke which connected Lincoln with the Trent becoming obstructed ^
the trade fell off, the rising importance of Boston no doubt contributing to
this also ; so that in 1332 only forty-four persons paid the subsidy to the king at
Torksey." Boston, on the other hand, a town of many vicissitudes, fast grew
into importance. It is not mentioned in Domesday Book, yet in 1204 the
merchants of St. Botolph's town contributed to the 15th from seaport mer-
chants more than those of any town in England except London. The
record^ of the amounts paid gives strong evidence of the prosperity of
Lincolnshire towns, London paid jC^S^ I2j. 10^., Boston £jSo i ^s. gd.,
Southampton £ji2 3J. jid., Lincoln ^^656 12s. 2d., Lynn ^dt^x i u. 6^.,
Hull >r344 14J. \\d., York >Ci75 8j. lod., Newcastle £,\^% 5J. bd.,
Grimsby jTgi 15^. o\d.. Barton >r33 6j. 9^., Immingham j^i8 15J. \o\d.
A return * of the money received of the new custom of wools, fells, and skins,
1278-9, of every sack of wool half a mark, of a last of skins i mark, of 300
wool-fells half a mark, places the port of Boston even before that of London.
An account was rendered of £,l'i,(i of 875 sacks 8 J stone of wool of the port
of Newcastle-on-Tyne ; of ^jo'j gs. i id. from the port of Hull ; of
^2,574 oj. gd., of 7,654 sacks 2 stone of wool, 10,780 wool-fells, and
15 lasts II skins of the port of Boston ; of £^^7 °f ^^^ P°rt of Lynn ; of
£^i 2s. of the port of Yarmouth ; of ^168 12s. lod. of the port of Ipswich ;
of>ri>963 14.S. lid. of the port of London ; of_^24i 6/. 1 1^/. of the port of
Sandwich ; of ^^1,468 41. Sd. of the port of Southampton. For 1279-80
an account' was rendered of >C344 4-f- 3^- of Newcastle-on-Tyne ; of
£i,oig 4J. 4J. of Hull; of £2A°(> i8j. for 146 sacks 8 stone of wool,
1 1,905 wool-fells, and 17 lasts 7 dickers and 3 skins of the port of Boston ;
of >r42 i6j. 7i^. of Yarmouth ; of ;^3o6 loj. /\.y. of Lynn ; of ^^149 9/. 6d.
of Ipswich; of ^^1,823 3J. ^d. of London; of jCi»249 ^s. id. of South-
ampton, For 1 28 1-2 the Boston customs were £2->S99 i J- 6^.,^° London

' Green, Tatvn Life In the \^th Century, 244. » Cal. Pat. 1281-92, p. 451.

' Green, op. cit. 244, Pari. R. i, 433. ' Green, op. cit. 272 «.; Toulmin, English Guilds, 178.

' Henry I in 1 121 improved the navigation (Wheeler, Fens of S. Lincolnshire, 138). There was a
commission in 1335 to inquire and compel the persons interested to cleanse the dyke {Cal. Pat.
1334-8, p. 148 ; 1345-8, p. 237- ' Lay Subsidy R. 1^. ' Pipe R. 6 John, m. 16 J.

' Pipe R. 8 Edvir. I. ' Ibid. '» Pipe R. 9 Edw. I, rot. 3.

303

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

;(Ci,6o2 i6j. 6d., Southampton >Ci>oi9 i i-f-, Hull £i,o%6 los. 8^., Yar-
mouth £() I2J. /i^d. For 1282-3 the Boston customs were ^3,115 13J. 8j^.,^
London £2,087 4J. id., Hull £1,226 4J. iijd'. For 1283-4 the Boston
customs were £3^746 js. S^-, London £2,790 is. 5^., Hull £1,253 ^-f- /i'Si'.
For 1284-5 ^'^^ Boston customs were £3,227 ioj. gd., London
£2,109 ^^-f- 3^-> Hull £1,300 13J. 2d. For 1285-6 the Boston customs
were £2,936 gs. 4^,, London £2,030 gs. ^.d. For 1286-7 the Boston
customs* were £3,049 141. id., London £2,304 5/. 9^. For 1287-8 the
Boston customs were £3,129 ioj. ^l^-, London £2,703 i6j-. iid., Hull
£1,222 iSs. lo^d. For 1288-9 the Boston customs were j^3, 203 ^s. id.,
London £3,206 16s. i^., Hull £1,520 ^s. 6d. For 1289-90 the Boston
customs were £3,361 ys. g%d., London £3,240 9J. iid., Hull £1,289 ^^- ^^^
The Calendars of Patent and Close Rolls show the importance of the export
trade from Boston after this. In 13 15 a Genoese merchant' is to have
£1,017 ^^' °^' of the customs of wools, hides, and wool-fells there ; in 1340
merchants of Almain are to lade 1,186 sacks of wool* there to take to
Bruges without paying custom ; and in 1339 the collectors of customs are to
allow two Lincolnshire wool merchants 20J. a sack of the custom and subsidy
of wool until they receive respectively £2,135 8j-. 8^. and £1,000.^ The
export trade was carried on after 1327 by foreign merchants, who also
imported wines, spices, and other commodities.

The fair was largely attended by English and foreign merchants, and
persons came from all parts to make purchases to last them many months.
In 12 1 8 Boston Fair was prolonged* for eight days after St. John Baptist's
Day (24 June), it being stated that the beginning of the fair was in the
second year of King John's reign. Some merchants would have extended
their stay and sales beyond the appointed period, but were forbidden to do so,
and ordered to go on with their merchandise to Lynn if they wished to do
business.'' In 1327 native and alien merchants had licence to import and
export their wares, and trade at the fair now (26 June) begun at Boston,
notwithstanding the ordinance for holding the staple at certain places.* In
1 3 1 8 the king's Serjeant went to Boston to buy wines for the king's use ® and
in 1333 the king's butler had permission to collect the custom of zs. a tun of
wine in the port of Boston.^" The fact that in 1280 merchants' houses at
Boston, stalls during the fair, and profits of the market court produced an
income of over £248 gives some idea of the trade done. The market court
brought £6 4^., front houses during" the mart render £7 ioj. 10^., twenty
stalls {seldae) £11 14J. 2d., houses called royal booths (bothae regiae)
£2^ 13J. 4^., houses which the merchants of Ypres hold are worth yearly
£20, those of the merchants of Cologne £25 loj., those of the merchants of
Caen, etc., ^^24 6s. 8d., stalls {stallagid) and empty places are worth £89 ioj.^*

After Lincoln the most important town in Lincolnshire in 1086 was
Stamford, five wards of which were in the county, the sixth being in North-

' Pipe Roll, 16 Edw. I, m. 32 d. I omit the ports of which the customs were under ^£1,000.

' Pipe R. 17 Edw. I. ' Cal. Pat. 13 13-17, p. 339.

* Cal. Close, 1339-41, p. 420. * Ibid. pp. 44, 50.

« Cal. Pat. 1216-25, p. 157. ' Ibid. 1225-32, p. 488.

" Ibid. 1327-30, p. 129. ° Ibid. 1317-21, p. 187.

'" Cal. Close, 1333-7, P- 58-

" The rent of houses after the fair until the next fair was £^o I \s. %\d.

'^ Gale, Reffster of the Honour of Richmond, 39.

304

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

amptonshire. In these five wards there were 136 mansions, and nine
lawmen had sac and soke within their own houses and over their men. In
1 1 82 an agreement between the abbot and convent of Peterborough and
WiUiam de Humez, lord of Stamford, mentions dyers, weavers, butchers,
fishermen, and fullers, who are to sell in their houses and courts, thus giving
us proof of what trades were exercised in Stamford. Stamford's situation on
the borders of three counties, where the road to the north entered Lincoln-
shire, enabled it to maintain its position, and we find Parliament meeting
there in 1302 and 1309, and jousts being held there : it had, too, fifteen
churches, and very nearly became a university town.

Grimsby and Grantham also were towns of some importance. Henry III,
in 1 227, granted by charter^ to the men of Grimsby the town and privileges
at a fee-farm rent of ^iii, which rent was reduced to ^^50 in 1256.'' In
1258, in consequence of disputes between the rich men and the poor men
the king by charter issued regulations concerning the trade of the borough.*
At Grantham there were iii burgesses in 1086, besides seventy-seven soke-
men and thegns, and seventy-two bordars, representing a population of 1,300.
In 1272 the burgesses of Lincoln complained that those of Grantham had
erected a weighing-beam to their detriment, jTio, because none should exist
in the county except at Lincoln.^ Grantham was the home of many wealthy
wool merchants : thus in 1297 the king owed* £7'^° 2j. j^d. to sixteen
Grantham men for 132^ sacks 27 stone of wool, of which £^<^t 1 is. %d. were
due to Roger de Beuver, and ^^85 to Elias de Salteby ; and besides, {^^o\ 6s. %d.
were due to Grantham merchants for 36 sacks 2 stone of wool. In 1324
the north and south mills at Grantham, let for £7^6 13J. 4^. yearly, required
extensive repairs, when 40 men carrying clay for the north mill and 30
carting it received 3^. a day each, materials for mending sluices cost 22j.,
boards 13^. 4</., 10 loads of stone i6j., 4 stonemasons to dress and lay the
stone for 14 days received ^d. a day, 4 carpenters T^d. a day for 20 days, one
master-carpenter 4/. a week for six weeks ; for the south mill wood and boards
cost 26s., 2 carpenters 3J. a week for six weeks, awheel 22j. The tenant had
also a lease of market dues, tolls, stallage and picage for ^^36 13J. \d. a year.,
while the tronage was let to another for ^^4 a year.'^ When preparations
were made for the Crecy campaign, 1346—7, Lincolnshire was directed to
find 160 men ; Grantham was assessed at 10 armed men, Lincoln 40, Stam-
ford 12, Boston 10, Spalding 6, but later the quota of Grantham was reduced
to 5, and that of Stamford to 6.^ In 1342 an order' is issued to the bailiffs
of ports to detain suspected spies, which gives us a list of Lincolnshire ports :
Lincoln, Boston, Saltney, Saltfleetby, Wainfleet, Barton upon Humber, Grimsby,
Burton upon Stather, Whitton, South Ferriby, Skyter, North Coates, Swyn-
humber, Tetney, Wrangle, Surfleet, Spalding, Torksey, Gainsborough, and
Kinnard's Ferry. Of some of these a word seems necessary to give some idea
of their position in the matter of commerce. In 1326 Spalding is to provide^"

' Peck, Antiq. of Stamford, v, 17. In 1339 the king owed Henry de Tideswell of Stamford ^4,430 15/. 2d
for his wool sent to parts beyond the sea. Cat. Close, 1339-41, p. 50.

' Hilt. MSS. Com. xiv Rep. App. viii, 237. ' Ibid. 238. * Ibid.

' Hund. R. (Rec. Com.) i, 396. " Ca/. Pat. 1292-130 1, p. 310.

' Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle. 19 10, Nos. 5 and 6.

' Major-General Wrotteslcy, Crecy and Calais. ' Cal. Close 1341-3, p. 485.

'" Cal. Close, 1323-7, p. 613.

2 305 39

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

2 ships to protect the sea coast, with 40 armed men, victuals, etc., chosen from
the better ships in the town ; while in 1322 the king had thanked the men of
Spalding for 20 armed men to be sent against the Scots.^ Barton upon Humber
had a population of nearly 1,000 in 1086, and much the same in 1562—7.
In 1 3 1 3 the good men of Barton upon Humber, having suffered depredation on
the sea by the king's Scotch enemies to the loss of ;(^ 1,000 for goods taken
from 5 ships, are allowed to equip at their own expense two ships to set out
against the king's enemies to repress their malice and forwardness." In 1301
Boston is to send one, Grimsby one, and Wainfleet and Saltfleet two ships
against the Scots.'

Something more must now be said about rents, wages, and prices. In
1246 we have an account* of the stock Hugh Wak had on his manors of
Bourn, Deeping, and Skellingthorpe. At Bourn there were 24 oxen at 6j.,
2 cattle at 5J., 90 quarters of wheat at 2j-., 14 of barley at is. 6^., and 100
of oats at IS., making a total value of ^^22 15J. At Deeping the value is
£57 ^3^- ^'^- » 4° cows are valued at 5J., 30 two-year-olds at 2s. 6d., 18
calves at is. 6d., 30 pigs at is. \d., 20 at \d. each. At Skellingthorpe the
total is ^(^22 5J. 4^., there being 140 sheep at is. each. The prices are very
low, especially for corn.* The difference in the value of land in different
parts of the county was very considerable. At Bourn and Deeping an acre
of arable land was in 1282 worth is.\ at Kelby 8^.; at Skellingthorpe \d. to
even i\d.^ The value of meadow-land varied also, being at Bourn y. 6d.
and 2s. 6d.; at Kelby u. ; at Deeping is. 6d. to 2j. 6d. per acre. At Bourn
an acre of underwood in the park is worth is. and in a wood 6d.; the toll of
the marsh, the sale of turbary, the agistment of pasture and mowing there are
worth ^13 6s. Sd.; two windmills are worth £^ Ss.; and the toll of the
market £6 13J. j^d. At Deeping the agistment of pasture in the marsh is
worth jr2o, and 3 mills >^20 yearly. At Carlton, in 1246, an acre of pasture
is worth I J. yearly, and in other places Sd., an acre of arable 4^., and in
Reston 5^.; an acre of meadow in the Westfen Sd., and in Carlton Marsh lod.,
and an acre of reeds 1 6d. A messuage in Lincoln in 1 248 is worth 24J.
yearly.^ The survey* of the barony of Bayeux in 1288 gives the rent of
land in many different parishes. The arable land was valued by the sown
acre, and so the rent is double what it would be if the whole acreage were
taken. At Linwood and Marston an acre sown is worth is., at Goxhill and
Barrow lod., at Stewton, Welbourn and West Torrington 8^., at Calcethorpe
yd., at Bulby, Boothby, and Thoresway 6d., at South Witham, Stainby,
Elsthorpe, and Roth well j\.d. Meadow is worth 3J. per acre at Marston,
2s. at Calcethorpe, Welbourn, and Healing; is. bd. at West Torrington and
Cockerington ; u. at Boothby, Barrow, Thoresway, and Cockerington ; lod. at
Linwood, and at Stewton values of iSd., i^d., I2d., and lod. are given.
Several pasture is worth, per acre, is. at Welbourn, Sd. at Kelstern,
i^d., 1 2d., lod. and Sd. at Stewton, where 10 acres in crofts are worth as
much as 3J. per acre. At Goxhill fresh meadow is worth is., salt meadow
Sd. per acre. The scarcity of fuel was great, for at Stewton of 2 1 5 acres of
wood each acre is worth ioj., and at Linwood the value is the same, it being

' Cal. Close, 1318-23, p. 549. ' Cal. Pat. 1 313-17, p. 8.

' Ibid. 1292-1301, p. 583. * j^ssoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. xxv, 14. ' Ibid. pp. 24, 27, 32.

= Ibid ' Ibid. 18, 19. ' Line. N. and Q viii, 46, 75.

306

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

also stated that when the wood is cut an acre is worth td. yearly. At
Calcethorpe lo cottars pay \s. yd. each for their cottages. At Linwood the
villeins pay ioj. a year for their bovates as the full rent ; but a certain
bovate which is greater than any other is demised to a tenant-at-will at 1 5J. ;
the value of the buildings there is ^9, and it is said that a man's work,
reaping the lord's corn, and having food, is worth id. a day. At Welbourn
a man's work making hay for half a day is worth ^d., and hoeing the same,
a day's work reaping is worth id., the men also having 2 loaves and
2 herrings ; mowing an acre of oats is worth 2d., each man also having one
sheaf of oats, as much as he can bind in one band, and carting corn is worth
\d. a cartload. At Goxhill a quarter of malt is valued at 2j. 6d., a hen at id.,
and 100 eggs at 3^.; harrowing is worth id', a day, hoeing ^d.; and at
Rothwell a day's work reaping is worth id. and food. At Horncastle the mills
are let for ^10 13J. ^. in 1279, but for ^^8 ioj. in 1280; the common oven
for >^4 in 1279, and for ^3 in 1280; the cottages and stalls for £6 7.7.d. in
1279, and for >^4 i is. 4^. in 1280; the toll of the market is ^ly gs. lod. in
1279, and ^12 OS. i i^d. in 1280; and the crop of 22 acres sown with drage
is sold for 66s.^

A survey of the possessions of the Knights Hospitallers in England * in
1338 gives additional proof of the variations in the value of arable land : an
acre at Skirbeck was worth 2s. yearly, being the highest price anywhere in
England; at Gainsborough, Thorpe in the Fallows, and East Keal an acre was
worth is., at Willoughton Sd., at Maltby, Saxby, Temple Bruer, Rowston,
North Kirkby, Eagle, Wodehouse, and Whisby 6d.; at Cabourne, Lymber,
Waddington, and Thimbleby 4^.; and at Mere and Temple Bruer 2d.
Meadow was 2^d. an acre at Skirbeck, 2s. at Gainsborough, Thorpe, Limber,
Eagle, Whisby, and East Keal; 22d. at Saxby, 18^. at Maltby, Rowston, and
Mere, is. at Cabourne, 10^. at Waddington, and Sd. at Lymber. At Eagle a
cow's pasture was worth 2s., a sheep's only id. At Maltby two water mills and
one windmill were worth ^35 ^t Skirbeck a windmill 16^. The amount
spent on ale was very great ; at Maltby-near-Louth, 70 quarters of wheat for
bread at 2s. Sd. cost £g 6s. 8d., 80 quarters of barley malt at 2J.,;^8 ; while
at Eagle 70 quarters of wheat for bread cost jTS 15J., and 100 quarters of
barley malt for ale >^io. The yearly wages of the bailiff at Maltby was ioj.,
of the 'messor' 6s. Sd., of the cook there and at Skirbeck lOj.; of the
brewer at Maltby ioj., of the chamberlain ioj. at both places ; of the baker
loj., of the porter at Skirbeck 6s. Sd., of the gardener and clerk of the
chapel there 6s. Sd. each, of the preceptor's servant* 6s. Sd. at both places;
of the knight's servant at Maltby 5J., of the kitchen servant at Skirbeck
3J, 2d., at Maltby 3J. 4^., and of the stable servant at Maltby 3J. /\.d. At
Maltby the wages of a cow-herd and swine-herd were 3J. gd. each, those of
a laundress u. The robes, mantles, etc., of the preceptor and two brethren
at Maltby cost >^5, those of the preceptor and a brother at Skirbeck 69J. ^d.
At Skirbeck the clothes of twenty infirm poor cost 2j. 4J</. each, and fuel
2J. 4.d. At Temlby, probably Thimbleby, and Temple Bruer, a dovecote is
worth 5J. At Gainsborough the robes and wages of a bailiff are 26j. Sd.,
and those of his servant ioj. At Temple Bruer the wages of free servants
at the table are ioj., of a 'garcio' 6s. Sd., and of a page 3J. The stipend

' Line. N. and Q. iv, 236. ' Camden Soc. ' Garcio.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

of a chaplain was 20s. The contribution of the county came to four-score
marks ; on the other hand, the Maltby and Skirbeck preceptors each spent
40J. in defending the rights of the house, giving gifts to the sheriff, etc.; at
Skirbeck, as the founder of the house ordained, there were twenty poor in the
infirmary and forty in the hall to keep, besides visitors. For 1304—5 we
possess the evidence of another series of Account Rolls ^ of the earl of
Lincoln's estates. Prices are higher, and at Greetham the corn brings in
>r44 instead of £2^ gs. in 1295-6, made by 44 quarters of wheat at ys. 6d.,
I J quarters 5 bushels of peas at 4/., 64J quarters of drage at 3J. 6d.,
30 J quarters of barley at 4J. 6d., and 40} quarters of oats at 2s. 5^. At Sutton
the corn sold for about ^26 less than in 1295—6, no beans being grown, and
there being less of every kind of corn except 'here,' the acreage being
considerably less ; but the live stock fetched about £6 more, and more stock
was left on the farm. Butter was i o^d. a stone, cheese 7!^. a stone, a goose
ijd'., oxen lys. 3^., cows 9J. 6J., sheep zs. li/., lambs loc/. each, horses^
1 7 J. 2d., swans 2 J. yd. Turning to the back of the roll we find the stock
kept on this very valuable demesne farm : there were 12 horses, 3 foals,
63 oxen, 64 cows, 2 bulls, 45 young cattle, 26 calves, 345 'muttons,' 329 ewes,
203 hogs, 210 lambs, 21 pigs, 75 swans, 14 signets, and 3 geese; the cattle
having increased by 26 and the sheep by 113 since 1295—6. Comparing
this with the actual stock on a wold farm, it is found that while the stock is
now three and a half times the rent, it was then one and a half times, taking
the demesne farm at Sutton to be 1,000 acres at 2s. 6d. an acre, the 1305
value. It is difficult to estimate the rest of the capital required ; if the corn
required for the servants and for seed was worth jr30, and £go is allowed for
ploughs, carts, harrows, etc., that is a generous estimate considering that the
villeins did much of the labour and provided their own implements ; and we
find that the capital required in 1305 was two and a half times the rent,
whereas now it is about eight times. The wool at Sutton in 1304—5 was
from the clip of the year; there were 888 fleeces, of which 88 went in tithes
and 3 to the shepherd, 797 fleeces, weighing 4 sacks 24 stone, being sold for
£2^ I oj., the fleece weighing about 2ilb. As information about wool is
scarce, because it is often not included in the accounts, some further notice
may be useful here. In 1296 the constable of Bolingbroke accounts for
1,966 fleeces of wool received of the reeves of Waddington, Brattleby,
Waithe, Bolingbroke, and Greetham, weighing 1 1 sacks 2 stone, of which
I o sacks 1 1 stone were sold, 1 5 stone consumed, and the rest retained, and
there remained 4 stone of broken wool ; also 137 wool-fells were received from
the same reeves. Further, the wool for the twenty-third year consisted of
374 fleeces, weighing 67 stone, from Waithe ; 192 fleeces, weighing
32^ stone, from Brattleby; 182 fleeces, weighing 36 stone, from Greetham;
and 137 fleeces from Bolingbroke, the Waddington account being missing.
Omitting Waddington, the earl had 1,683 sheep to clip this year on only five
of his Lincolnshire manors, and that he had many more sheep on other manors
is certain, for this same year 161 fleeces, weighing i sack, are sold at North
Thoresby^; and in 1305, in the ' Hildyk ' accounts,* we find 266 fleeces,
weighing 2 sacks, sold for ^T 15 6s. Sd.

' Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle. I, No. 2. ' Affri.

^ Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle. I, No. I. ' Ibid. No. 2.

308

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

For wages there is not such ample information as for rents. We have
seen that at Stallingborough men were paid in 134 1-2 for hoeing corn id.
a day; in 1307-8 and 133 1-2 they were paid^ id. a day there for making
hay, so that it looks as if id. 2l day was the wage of the ordinary agricultural
labourer before the ' Black Death,' especially as the day's work of a villein on
the Wake estate at Skellingthorpe, and often elsewhere, is valued at id.\'^ but
at Sutton in 1295-6 ploughmen were allowed "i^d. a day for meat and drink,
and harrowers and sowers i \d. ; so the Stallingborough wage seems small,
though no allowance of corn is mentioned. At Hildyk in 1305 a shepherd
was paid zis. 4^/. in food and wages for the year, which is less than id. a day,
but we know a shepherd had an allowance of wool." At Stallingborough
mowing hay was £fd. an acre in 1307—8 and 134 1—2; 5^. an acre in 133 1—2;
reaping corn in 1 24-1— 2 was ^d. to 6d. an acre, thrashing wheat 2d. and
drage id. a quarter. At Wrangle in 1295-6 three ploughmen were paid
5J. each for a year's wages ; mowing meadow was a little over /^.^d. an acre,
mowing, gathering, and binding corn gd. an acre, and oats y^d., thrashing and
winnowing corn of all kinds lid. a quarter. At Sedgebrook 8 ploughmen,
I carter and i ' daye ' were paid 40J. for wages for the year. At Steeping
4J. gd. was paid for cleaning 169 perches of dykes ; and at Waithe the cost
of the dairy with the wages of the daye and of two women milking was
5J. 4^.* At Hildyk in 1305 mowing meadow was ^d. an acre ; at Greetham
the wages of 4 ploughmen and i shepherd were 27J. 6d., and thrashing and
winnowing corn of all kinds was not quite 2d. a quarter.^ The Stalling-
borough Roll* of 1 341— 2 tells us that 14 quarters of wheat and peas were
mixed and given to a carter and 3 ploughmen at the rate of a quarter each for
12 weeks, a labourer at id. a. day would earn enough to purchase the quarter
in 8 weeks, so that he would have 2s. over to purchase other necessaries for
1 2 weeks, but on the other hand might have a family to keep. It is possible
therefore that he might obtain food enough when the harvests were good and
prices low, but if a time of scarcity arose he and his family must have been
in sore straits.'' Such a time did arise in 1 3 1 5 when, according to the
Louth Park Chronicle :

there was such a flood of water and rain that the fruits of the earth were entirely destroyed,
and divers cattle, both sheep and oxen, died ; the consequence was a famine of a most severe
kind prevailed throughout the land, so that before Easter it was scarcely possible to find
bread for sale. Louth Park Chronicle (Line. Record Soc), 24.

Then without doubt the landless labourer was in a truly miserable condition,
and it is to be feared not for that year only, though the only indications to
hand of the rise in prices in Lincolnshire ' are that in 1 3 1 6 a quarter of
beans was worth 8j., of drage malt 9J., a sack of wool £^io, and in 13 18 a
quarter of rye flour I2j. Still these prices, high though they were, are much
lower than those given by Thorold Rogers, so that we may hope that the
famine was not so bad here as elsewhere.

' Acct. Rolls at Willingham House. » Assoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. xxv. 28.

' Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle. I, No. 2. * Ibid. bdle. I, No. i.

" Ibid. bdle. I, No. 2. « Addit. R. 25861 (B.M.).

' But the labourer may have been a villein with land, on the produce of which he lived, or at the worst
the relation of a villein living with him.

* IngoUmells Ct. Rolls, 50, 51, 52, 84. It was at this time that a man who admitted a debt of 3/. 6<i.
for beans was condoned because he was a pauper, and two men were sent to Lincoln jail for stealing a bushel
of wheat and a ham, 50, 55.

309

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Two subjects of great importance to the social and economic life of the
people, which in England have long gone more or less together, must now
be considered — local government and the administration of the law. In
Domesday Book we read in the 'Clamores' of the shire, and of the men of
the North, South, and West Ridings of Lindsey, and of Kesteven and
Holland, and of various wapentakes giving evidence concerning disputed facts,
and the townships were represented by six villeins, the reeve and the priest.
When the Lincolnshire eyre was held in 1202 the king's justices had before
them the county — i.e., the freeholders and representatives of every wapentake
and township — and the juries of the several wapentakes make their present-
ments as to murders, robberies, etc. The justices question the townships, the
wapentakes and the county, and then give their decision : we read of the
sheriffs peace as well as of the king's, of the county court, of the wapentake
court, and of the serjeant of the riding : the appellor may be called upon to
carry the iron, and undergo the ordeal, as well as the appellee, and must be
prepared to wage the battle, though instances of this are rare, and crime too
often went unpunished : the coroners appear and bring their rolls, and in one
case the county, admitting that its evidence was false, being contradicted by
the coroners' rolls and the jurors on oath, paid as much as ^2.00 for fine.*
This sum was to be collected throughout the county, ' franchises excepted,'
which reminds us of the exemptions and liberties the great lords had
obtained from the crown for themselves and their tenants, exemptions from
tolls, murder fines, etc., and even a gaol delivery of their own; thus as late as
1 5 1 5 the dean and chapter of Lincoln, reciting royal grants of the manor and
hundred of Navenby with all liberties and free customs and all royal liberty,
and all their justice of all things and matters which can happen within their
said manor, viz. : ' view of frank-pledge of all residents within our manor and
hundred aforesaid as well of our own tenants as of others, and cognisance of
pleas as well of the crown as of common pleas, and our own gaols of
homicides, thieves, and other malefactors apprehended by our bailiffs within
our manor and hundred, delivery and return of all writs and execution of the
same by our bailiffs,' constitute and depute Robert Hussy, John Wymbyshe,
Robert Brown, and John Tailboys, their officers and justices,* 'to execute and
exercise what belongs to the offices of justices of the peace, and to deliver the
gaol of all and singular the persons in the gaol this turn, granting to you full
power to determine and proceed upon pleas as well of the crown as of
common pleas, and to deliver our gaol of any homicides, etc., apprehended
within our hundred and manor.' ' The county court had both a criminal and
a civil jurisdiction, though actions therein for land were few in the thirteenth
century and personal actions limited to 40J. ; it witnessed transfers of land, and
the act of outlawry could only be performed there ; * it was a unit for the
purposes of rating, and probably had been in earlier days the popular court
and council of the district.^ The court met at first twice a year, but that of
Lincolnshire used to sit every 40 days,* and was attended by the lords of
lands and their stewards, and if they could not attend by the reeve and four men
of the vill. The wapentake courts were held temp. Henry I twelve times

' Select Pleas of the Crozan (Selden Soc), xxii, 8, I o, 1 1, 1 8, 1 6. " Justiciarii.

' Cathedral Muniment Room, D ii, 83, 3. ' Pollock and Maitland, Hist, of Engl. Law, i, 540.

' Stubbs, Constit. Hist, i, 130,425. * Pollock and Maitland, op. cit. i, 524, 525.

310

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

a year, temp. Henry III every three weeks, while twice in the year all the
freemen of the wapentake were called to the view of frankpledge or tourn
held under the sheriff,^ there twelve were sworn to make presentments, the rest
being sworn by dozens and by townships to make presentments to them
which they can add to or reject; cases of felony must go to the king's court,
but minor offences, such as nuisances and scuffles, may be adjudicated upon.
Considering his attendances at these courts, that he might be summoned as a
juror to Westminster as well as to Lincoln, and might owe suit every 3 weeks
at his manor court, it is no wonder that the Lincolnshire freeholder made
complaint, and that sometimes suits had to be postponed for want of jurors.
In 1 226 many pleas in the county court remained unheard for lack of daylight,
and the sheriff told the knights and stewards and others of the county that
they must come again next morning, hear the plaints and make the judgements,
which they refused to do, saying that the court should only be held for one
day at a time, whereupon he adjourned seven score cases to the wapentake court,
as he could not alone make judgements. There it was said the knights, etc.,
ought not to make the judgements there or elsewhere outside the county court,
and, though he answered that he should not stay his hand from doing justice
to the poor without some command, they went out, and he had to depart, his
business undone.''

The best idea of local government may be derived from manorial docu-
ments. We find before us a community of peasants, bond and free, to a
great extent self-governing, making and enforcing their own regulations con-
cerning matters of great and daily importance to a rural township, punishing
immorality, and exercising a very extensive and powerful authority within
their jurisdiction of a civil and criminal character. In 13 14 the township
of Ingoldmells presents that the fence between Winthorpe and Ingoldmells
is not made, that the way in the same place has been cut and the water
turned out of its course, that the dykes and ways are to be repaired before
I August, that two men weighed with false weights, and that eleven persons
are in mercy for forestalling ; ' in 1 3 1 5 it presents that John Mareis has
injured the king's way to the detriment of the whole community, that with
the abetment of the graves of the dykes of the south common of Burgh
many persons cut the defence between Scalflet and the marsh, by which the
lands of the tenants of the lord have been inundated, that John Bride drew
blood from Wymund de Westrig, that Sarah Norman raised the hue justly
upon Matilda de Presthorp, that Hawis Sabelyn is guilty of immorality, that
certain persons do not repair nor make the defence between Scalflet and the
lands below Burgh, therefore they are in mercy, and are to be attached to
repair and sustain the same ; in 141 1 two keepers of the banks of the sea of
Skegness were elected and sworn, and it is commanded them by the steward
in the court that they diligently guard and cause to be repaired all defects
of the banks according to the custom before due and of right used under the
pain of >C20, and that they compel all others within the lordship to help
them to distrain for the repair of the said banks in the places defective, as
is of custom, viz. each for his portion, as it happens and is ordained by the
said township under the said penalty.* The tenants, both in socage and

' Stubbs, op. cit. i, 430. ' Pollock and Maitland, ut supra i, 5 36.

' Ingoldmells Ct. R. 38. * Ibid. 43, 220.

311

A. HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

villeinage, of the prior of Spalding had to repair the banks of the sea and
marsh according to the size of their tenements : ^ and in a book of
' customs and customary uses of the manor and lordship of Spalding ... in
a book of record and by the testimony of divers very old jurors and by
other evidences worthy of credit whereby they are proved to be
ancient and far older than the memory of all living persons,' con-
firmed by the lord prior and the chief steward in 1424, it is 'noted that
in free tenements, and in bond lands or lands held in villeinage, and in
demesne lands of the lord let to farm,' every acre, if ever doubt shall arise,
shall be measured by the perch used and known in each township, the perch
in Pinchbeck being 20 ft. long and not less, and in the other three towns as
in an indenture.'' At Ormsby in 1472 :

Because the rector of Ketsby has not repaired his part of a certain sewer in Ketsby, as
was enjoined at the last Great Court on the pain of 6d.y therefore he incurs the said pain,
nevertheless they present that he make the repairs before Michaelmas next under the pain
of 2s.^

In these early days the manor court not only enabled the tenants to thus
regulate matters of importance to them all, but there they could recover
debts and damages for trespasses, and enforce agreements ; there too offenders
against the criminal law were punished, and the judgements delivered were
not those of the lord or his steward, but of the court, composed of the
tenants, bond and free, and they were ruled in accordance with the customs
of the manor defined by themselves.* In cases of felony the prosecutors
' appealed ' the felons, as in the king's courts, who had the right to choose
between trial by the court or before the king's justices. In a case at
Ingoldmells in 1 3 1 6 two women, accused of house-breaking and robbery,
' put themselves for good or evil upon the court, which says that they are
therein guilty, therefore they are hanged,' their chattels, valued at 6^. going
to the lord.^

For some idea of the royal justice we must turn to the Lincoln Assize
Rolls, which at the same time will give us an insight into the habits and
manners of the times. Much the greater portion of these rolls is taken up
by pleas concerning land, dower, and advowsons, but glimpses of social life
are sometimes allowed us. In 1202* two pleas are postponed because Henry
de Longo Campo and John Malherbe are beyond the sea in the king's service;
the Burgh of Stamford gives the king 10 marks to have their ancient
customs and liberties, ' and thereupon let it be inquired by the said Burgh
if assizes of morf d ancestor were wont to be taken touching tenements in
Stamford or not ' ; the prior of Nocton complains that Thomas de Arcy has
deforced him of the common of pasture on 1,500 acres of land which for-
merly were pasture and now are profitable land ; ^ we hear of a landowner
who ' died in the land of Jerusalem,' ^ of a lady dowered at the door of the
church ; ' the Templars and the prior of Sempringham claim that they ought
not to implead except before the king or his chief justice.^" In 1 244—5 ^^
abbot of Bardney claims against Gilbert de Gaunt free passage over the

' Cole MSS. vol. 43. ' Document belonging to the lord of Spalding manor.

' Massingberd, Hist, of Ormsby, 257. * Ingoldmells Ct. R. xxix.

' Ibid. 55, 6z. ° Assize R. 478, m. i. ' Ibid. m. 2.

' Ibid. m. 3. ' Ibid. m. 4. '» Ibid.

312

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

Humber for himself and his household, and horses and carts and harness,
Gilbert and his men refusing free passage for the harness ; eventually Gilbert
grants such way at Barton, but not any passage from Hessle to Barton.^
Gilbert de Gaunt acknowledges that he and his villeins of Skendleby owe
suit to the mill of the abbot of Bardney there." The parson of Frodingham
successfully claimed common of pasture in Santon as belonging to his free
tenement in Frodingham and Brumby, it being admitted that the men of
these vills and the men of Santon used to common with their cattle in their
pastures horn cum horn, though the defendants assert that boundaries were
made since so that each vill knew its certain portion ; ^ the prior of Spalding
complains that Lambert de Multon has set up a market in Fleet to the injury
of his at Spalding ; * we read of 60 acres of marsh newly acquired at Tydd,*
and of pasture in a field which when sown is put in ward by the hayward
of the vill ; ° the pleas of the township of Stamford fill a considerable space,^
one man, distrained by the bailiffs of the fair because he let his houses in
the fair of Stamford against the custom of the vill, recovers his chattels and
40J-. damages ; pleas of the city of Lincoln and county follow ; and the custom
of the vill of Grimsby is said to be that no claim can be sustained by an heir of
full age against a purchaser who has had possession for a year and a day, or
by a wife even for her own land against a purchaser in the same position.^
In 1 27 1— 2 it is stated that the whole manor of Coleby is villeinage, except
the fee le ffauconer : ^ the charter is given of John Deyncourt demising in
1269 his demesne land in Branston to the monks of Kirkstead, the abbot iw
his great necessity having freed him of >C300 which he owed Abraham, a.
Lincoln Jew; ^^ the bridges of the public street between Sleaford and Stow
Church being in a dangerous state the justices are ordered to inquire, by
oath of 1 6 men of the wapentakes of Aveland and Ashwardhurn, who ought
to repair them, and direct the sheriff to enforce the order ; " in the pleas of
the city of Lincoln we hear of a jury of 24 citizens, and Thomas de Bellofago
demands against William de Holegate, mayor, and others, £^\\o, asserting^
that, when the community of the city fined with 1,000 marks for their
trespasses in the time of disturbance in the kingdom, he, being then mayor,,
paid ^11 o for the citizens ; the defendants assert that, they having complained
before the justices that Thomas, when mayor, made many extortions
and took fines, toll, and murage which he did not place to the profit of the
city, it was agreed that he should remise all actions for debts against the
community, and stay all actions for his exactions.^" In 1281 the reeve of
Simon de Driby, distraining a tenant for suit of court, prevented him reaping
his corn so that the cattle of the viU depastured it, and cut some of his
meadow and carried it away, the rest being depastured by the cattle of the
vill, and 2oj-. damages are recovered ; ^' in another case of excessive distraint
it is alleged that 5J. paid by 'warnot' is in arrear for which the tenant
ought to pay double every day ; " in a case concerning common of pasture
the defendants defend by the body of a certain freeman, and the plaintiff
likewise, so there is a duel between them with arms, upon which they are

' Assize R. 482, m.
' Ibid. m. 36, see m
' Ibid. m. \ob.
' Ibid. 483, m. 5.
"Ibid. m. 80, 81.

zod.
. 3id.

* Ibid.

' Ibid. m. 45, 46.
'" Ibid. m. 30.
"Ibid. 485, m. 3.

* Ibid. m. 24.
' Ibid. m. 38.
' Ibid. m. 49 d.
" Ibid. m. 78.
'' Ibid. m. 35.

313

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

agreed.^ In 1289 Geoffrey de Rocheford complains that Robert Saleman,
who has a manor in Pinchbeck near his, has built a high chamber with
windows towards his manor, and lies in wait for him and his servants within
his court and shoots ^ with bows throwing small stones and other bows with
* buzons ' and arrows into his court, so that he dare scarcely go outside his
house, or his servants do any work for him. Robert says he shoots at magpies
and other birds for pleasure, but not to frighten Geoffrey's servants or do
him damage ; the jurors say Geoffrey was often annoyed by stones falling
within his court, and that Robert did this to annoy him and frighten his
servants, therefore he is in mercy and is commanded to cease shooting
towards Geoffrey's manor, so that he or his servants be molested.

Lay Subsidy Rolls' in 1332 make possible some rough calculations
concerning the population of Lincolnshire. Taking the number of sokemen,
villeins, and bordars, as already given, and adding the 1,329 burgesses, 414
under-tenants, and the small number of censarii, etc. and multiplying by five,
the population of 1086 may be put at 116,741. In 1332 the payers of the
subsidy numbered 20,597. Cottagers, labourers,* and probably the poorer
villeins were exempted, and adding a number equal to the bordars and one
third of the villeins of Domesday Book, and multiplying by five, gives a
population ° of 124,825, an increase since 1086 of over 18,000. The whole
of this increase is in the county, neither Lincoln nor Stamford having
increased. In Holland the population has more than trebled.' In Kesteven
the increase '' is almost all in Ness, and largely in the Deepings and Langtoft.
In the West Riding of Lindsey there is an increase of 3,785,* chiefly in
Axholme ; in the South Riding an increase of 3,205,' chiefly in the marsh
parishes of Candleshoe and Calswaith, and in the North Riding there is a
small decrease^" of 335. Thus it will be seen that the population has
increased in the marsh and fen, and in the isle, where the soil was and is the
most fertile, and the most suitable for small holdings. In the wapentake of
Hill, entirely on the wolds, there is a decrease of 410, seeming to show that
already the freeholders and villeins were decreasing there in number. There
were in 1332 twenty-three places with more than 100 payers" of the subsidy,
15 in Holland, i in Kesteven, and 7 in Lindsey, exclusive of Lincoln with
432 and Stamford with 183. Amongst these neither Louth, Horncastle,
Gainsborough, Bourn, Sleaford, nor even Grimsby or Grantham were included.
The amounts paid tell the same tale about the distribution of wealth. After
Lincoln the most is paid by Boston,^^ and Pinchbeck and Spalding both pay
over £/\.o, while 9 other places in Holland pay over >^20, and 1 5 more
over £,10 ; in fact, every parish in Kirton, every parish in EUoe but Crowland
and Tydd, and every parish in Skirbeck but Butterwick and Toft, paid over
j^io. In Kesteven only 6 places paid over £10, including Grantham,

' Assize R. 485, m. 44.

* Ibid. m. z()d. Trahendo de arcubus ad petram cum minutis lapidibus et similiter de aliis arcubus
cum buzon et sagittis in curiam ipsius Galfridi.

' ¥A W-, ¥/• . ' C"!- P^t- 1 3 3 8-40, p. 500.

' In the case of Lincoln and Stamford the payers have been doubled, and then multiplied by five.

^ 19,140 from 6,125. ' 3S>I2° from 33,590.

' 19,880 from 16,095. ' 26,460 from 23,255. '° 28,410 to 28,075.

" Frampton 102, Kirton i5l,Quadring lo5,Gosberton 126, Sutterton 160, Pinchbeck 223, Spalding 149,
Moulton 181, Whaplode 164, Sutton 170, Leek 164, Bennington 119, Leverton 140, Freiston 121, Boston
131, East Deeping 119, Barton-upon-Humber 126, Ingoldmells 123, Skidbrook 137, Mumby 106, Theddle-
thorpe 139, Mablethorpe 112, Helton 102. " ^^60 19;. %\d.

314

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

Bourn, and Sleaford, and in Lindsey only 4, including Louth and Barton,
but not Grimsby or Gainsborough.^

The year 1349 left its mark on the social and economic history of
Lincolnshire more plainly than any other year since the Conquest. In this
year, writes the Louth Park Abbey Chronicler,

the hand of the only Omnipotent God struck the human race with a deadly blow . . .
this scourge in many places left less than a fifth part of the population remaining, it struck
terror into the heart of the world, so great a pestilence before this time had never been seen,
or heard of, or written of: in this year many monks of Louth Park died, among them
Walter of Louth, Lord Abbot.^

The awful effects of this terrible pestilence, known as the ' Black Death,' are
brought very vividly to our minds by the silent testimony of Bishop Gynwell's-
register of institutions of clergy to benefices. For the first five months
of 1349 we find nothing unusual — only, in fact, 5 deaths; in June there are
15 ; then come the clear evidences of the calamity : there are 60 deaths
recorded in July, 89 in August, 61 in September, and 51 in October ; then
comes a drop in the number : for November there are 29, for December only
13 deaths. At Stickford 4 clergy died, and 2 in several places. Of the
towns Stamford suffered the most, losing 6 incumbents by death, besides-
4 through other causes, while Lincoln, with 50 churches, only lost 2. The
parts of Holland escaped better than Lindsey or Kesteven, there being only
7 institutions to churches there in the six months. The figures given are
for the archdeaconries of Lincoln and Stow, and it may be added that in that
of Lincoln there were 302 institutions in the last six months of 1349, the
average for a year being 30 to 40, while for Stow there were 59, the average
for a year being 6. The plague of course began earlier than appears in this-
register, and a monk of Thornton tells of ' a great and wonderful mortality
of men in Lindsey, in South Ormsby, from Easter to Michaelmas.'' He
also records ' another mortality of children about Michaelmas, 1362,' and 'a
third mortality in the Diocese of Lincoln, in the vill of Skendilby, and in,
other places,' in 1369, while there are a large number of institutions recorded
for the end of 1361 and beginning of 1362. Henry Knighton* writes that
in 1349 sheep and cattle were un tended in the fields and perished in large
numbers, and much corn was lost for want of harvesters, but that prices of
all things were low, wages being on the contrary extremely high. He say^.
that in the towns many houses fell down for want of inhabitants, and that in
1 36 1 there was another great mortality, especially amongst the young. The
inquisition of Margaret, countess of Kent, 1349—50, for Greetham, tells of
this ' pestilence and mortality of men arising in those parts, and the poverty
of the country,' ^ whereby customary tenants-at-will, who used to render
^6 5J. 5^. now pay only ^\ ^s. c^d., and certain farmers pay i6j. ^d. instead
of 35-f., and the tallage of the customary tenants is i8j. 2d. instead of"
30J. 2d. At Ormsby a messuage and bovate of land, which was let before
and after the ' Black Death ' for 1 3J-. /^d. a year, was leased to a tenant for
life 29 December 1349, who was to do four boon-days yearly with one man or
woman in the autumn only for all manner of services and customs what-

' 78 payers in Grimsby paid ^^8 js. ^\d., 37 in Gainsborough paid £6 14/. i\d., while in Torksey
there were only 44 payers, who paid ^^'3 i js. %d.

' Chronicle, 38. ' Campbell Ch. xxi, 4 (B.M.).

* Chronicle (Rolls Ser.), ii, 61, 62. ' Chan. Inq. p. m. 23 Edw. Ill, pt. i, No. 88.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

soever.^ Never had the lords of manors been in such a position. The
labour question had hitherto been of no anxiety to them, now they had to
pay double the wages, or leave their corn to rot in the fields and their land
unsown. Their tenants and labourers had suffered terribly, probably half
had died, but now was their opportunity, and they had a right to take
advantage of it, and obtain a large decrease of rent and increase of wages.
There was for some years a struggle ; it ended in a great improvement in the
position both of the tenants and of the labourers. The landlords had three
courses open to them. They could go on — some of them did for a time —
farming their demesne land as before, and trying to make a profit notwith-
standing the altered conditions. Or they could, as some had already done,
let their land on lease to enfranchised villeins or other tenants for lives or
years. Or they could let the whole of their demesne lands to their villeins
at a money rent, reserving also certain ancient customs and payments.

An account roll of the manor of Saleby, 1358—9, affords an instance of a
manor managed on the old system.* Stock sold brought ^S ys. 7.\d.^ a
horse of the lord's selling for 25/., an old ox loj., heifers bs. to 8j. 6^., a
bullock 15J., a bull I2j., sheep \s. 5^. to u. \od. ; wood and fagots sold for
as much as ^(^19 5J. yd., 9 acres of wood selling at 15J. an acre, fagots 5J. a
hundred ; tolls of Alford market from Michaelmas to the Purification were
30J. ; the dairy produced ^o. lys. gld., butter being lod., and cheese yid. a
stone, milk ^d. a gallon ; the Lord de Welles pays ^^13 6s. Sd. for Alford
market tolls sold to him ; the lord advances £g to buy sheep, etc. ; divers
things are sold for ^3 i Ss. Sd. ; and the total is ^62 1 5J. 6id. The balance
due is £y gs. o%d. ; the expenses of ploughs are 19J. ^^d. ; 11 pieces of iron
are bought at yd. a stone, and 4^. a piece is paid for working and putting
them on the ploughs ; making 4 new ploughs of the lord's wood costs is. lod.;
the cost of carts is ioj. /\.d., 12 clouts are is., 200 nails 6d'., 12 shoes for
cart-horses Sd., a pair of wheels bare (of tires) 6s. id. ; iron costs 3J. io|^.,
30 shoes for the lord's horses are 2s. 3^., 300 nails lo^d. ; small expenses are
^i gs. S^d., fat to make candles being is. id. a stone, candles 7.d. a lb., and
a man is paid i^d. a day for making wattles for the fold. The wages of
servants are £z 13J. ; an old sail for the mill is 3J. ; corn purchased is
£1 15J. 3^/., wheat being 5J. id., malt 4J. 4^. a quarter; stock purchased
costs £ig 6s. 2d., an ox is lis., muttons is. lod. to 2s. id., ewes is. yd.,
hogs lod., chickens id. ; the costs of the dairy are 9J. o^d. ; ditching at a
id. a perch 2j. ^d. ; expenses of sheep 3J. lod., 6 men washing, etc. 260
sheep for i day 2d. each, 24 gallons of milk for the lambs is. lod. ; thrash-
ing 58 quarters wheat, 32 quarters peas, 83 quarters 2 bushels drage at 2d. a
quarter £1 ys. 6d., winnowing 2d. per 5 quarters 5J. 6d. ; making fagots gd.
to I J. per 100, £2 ^^^■■> hoeing corn 2s., hire of 8 acres of meadow at Sutton
1 6s., mowing this and 41 J acres in Saleby, etc. at 6d. per acre, by rod of
ly ft., ;^i 4J. yid. ; mowers at 6d. a day, etc. 6s., reaping at Saleby and
Thoresthorpe 6s. 3^., autumn labourers 3^. a day, reaping, etc. 3 acres of
wheat lod. an acre, 8 J acres wheat, peas, and drage yld. an acre ; outside
payments jr4 13J. lod., 30 yds. of cloth 3/., 2 barrels of white vinegar i6j. 6d.,
12 yds. of cloth for attendants of the Baron de Strafford 15J. 6d., wine at

' Massingberd, Hist, of Omsby, 293. « Harl. R. AA. 31 (B.M.).

' The figures of the roll are given.
316

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

Alford when the baron was there 3J., for the reeve's boys at school at Strubby
I IS. 8d'., cloth for a gown for Lady Margaret /\j., divers necessaries for the
house 23J., other payments £iS 13J. i id'., money paid to the lord £4. 2s. 4J.,
provisions for the house ^^9 13/. ^. The total expenses are £j2 13J. 3^^.,
and the adverse balance £g lys. glJ. On the back of the roll the provisions
used in the house from the demesne farm are recorded : — 49 quarters of
wheat, I J of drage, 62 J of malt, 3 J of drage and 9 of peas for the lord's
horses, 4 of malt at the burial of Sir James Stafford, 2 bullocks, 3 calves,
I boar, 10 pigs, 2 1 wethers, and 6 more at the above burial, 10 ewes, 1 1 6 geese,
20 capons, and 37 gallons of milk. In addition there are several items of
expenses of the house struck out, meat £2 ^4^- 9^-> expenses from Michael-
mas to St. Hilary £/{. ^s. 3^., 100 oysters 8//., fish £2 5/., so that we obtain
some idea of the manner of living in the household of a Lincolnshire knight
in the fourteenth century ; bread, meat, and ale were consumed to the value
of £5^> representing £8jo now. Other documents show that the adverse
balance could be made up from the receipts of other manors ; moreover the
Saleby rents are not included, nor the sale of wool. If we take the produce
of the farm used in the house as worth £2(>, the wool from 218 sheep at
^6 6j., and add the sales of stock, dairy and diverse things, we have a total
receipt of £^'/ gs., from which we must deduct the expenses, nearly £2^,
leaving a balance of over >C2i. In 1291 the estimated value of the manor
was £2y js. 5^., 8 bovates of demesne arable land being valued at 13J. 4^.
each, the rent of free-tenants at 56J. 7^., and of 1 8 bovates held by bond-tenants
^12 13J. ^}

In 1359 sixty-five customaries had two meals one day,' on which
they were still bound to work, and received from the store in bread
I quarter of wheat, 2| lb. of butter, 6 J stone of cheese, and 28 gallons of
milk. But the bailiff farming broke down, and in 1425 we find at Saleby a
rental instead of a ' compotus,' a bovate of land and messuage letting for
13J. ^. to 20J., a toft for 3J. to 4/., a toft with croft for 4J-. to 5J., and the
total rental being £ij 8s. \d., besides 39J. \d. from outside tenants.

Instances of lands being let on lease have already been given, so it need
only be stated that at Ormsby the practice was continued, a messuage and
bovate of land being let^ in 1375 and 1383 on a lease for lives at the old rent
of I3J-. \d., and that a similar system prevailed at Tothill* in the fourteenth
century and onwards. The third plan was that at Sutton, where in 1367 a
thousand acres of demesne with fisheries were demised ' to the whole homage
at the parish church of Sutton on the Lord's Day, the Feast of St. Barnabas,
to hold to the said homage and their heirs in bondage, to divide amongst
themselves according to the state and power of each of them,' rendering yearly
^162 \s. bd.^ a rent that had been reduced to £128 13J. (id. in 1422, and
was the same in 1485. This demise when first made may have caused the
lord little loss, for, though his receipts were diminished, he avoided farming
risks, and had his farming capital for other purposes ; but in the end the loss
was very heavy, for his demesne became copyhold land at a small rent, with,
however, fines on deaths and alienations. The earlier commutation at Ingold-

' Chan. Inq. p.m. 19 Edw. I, No. 9. ' Probably boon-days.

' Massingberd, Hist, of Ormsby, 294, 295. ' Charters of Lord Willoughby de Broke.

' Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle. 243, No. 3931.

317

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

mells, already mentioned, was even more favourable in the end to the bond-
tenants, because the fines there became certain. On the other Lincolnshire
manors of the Bolingbroke honour the demesne farm was also given up. At
Waithe Hall 174J acres of arable land were let with the capital messuage to
the community of tenants to farm for >^6 lu. in 1421—2,^ but were 'lately
demised '*" to four bond-tenants for a term of years in 1485 at the same rent.
At Greetham, 142 1—2, the demesne lands were let for 66s. 8^., including
6s. SJ. of increment of rent, and in 1485 the site of the manor and all meadow
and pasture of the demesne, the hall with the chamber excepted, have
lately been demised to the rector for a term of six years, thus the demesne
lands remain in the hands of the lord, and he eventually obtains their increased
value. On other manors we read of demesne lands being demised without
particulars as to the terms. It may be concluded then that lords of Lincoln-
shire manors lost largely by the Black Death, and that even when they had
altered their system of estate management their income was less than in the
thirteenth century.

Many freeholders doubtless died of the pestilence, and their number was
being diminished also from other causes. The wealthier landlords were buy-
ing land. Sir William Skipwith acquired lands at Ormsby, Catdale, and
Calthorpe 1383-91.^ Richard Welby of Moulton, in his will 1465, mentions
lands he has purchased in Moulton, Whaplode, and Fleet, and Robert
Willoughby, Lord de Eresby, in his will 1452, lands purchased in Lincoln-
shire.* It seems, too, that the smaller gentry and wealthier yeomen were
adding to their estates at the expense of the poorer freeholders. In 1424
Robert son of Robert Cracroft of Hogsthorpe was given possession of lands
in Orby, formerly Richard Smyth's.^ In 1479 Robert Cust, flaxman, acquired
a property in Pinchbeck, which had belonged to the Levys family, and both
the Beales and the Randsons were increasing their properties during the
period under consideration.* The villein, after the distress of the pestilence
was over, undoubtedly was a gainer. At first there was a struggle, the lords
resisting the rise of wages, and the villeins trying to free themselves from
boon-days as well as from week-day services. In 1386 the free jurors at
Ingoldmells presented that two men went to Swaby for excessive salary to the
great damage of the lord and the whole community,^ and a fine was imposed :
in 1388—9 two women and five men were amerced for the same offence,* and
then we hear no more of such amercements except of a woman who is put
out at a business at Winthorpe in 1429.'

But the villeins are trying to elude old customs ; in 1356 the township is
amerced for concealing an exchange of lands on which a fine is due," and in
1411a bond-tenant has alienated by charter a messuage in Yarburgh without
the lord's licence, and it is seized and demised to a tenant to farm." In
Lincolnshire the disturbances were slight, but in 1399 Robert de Bernack,
lord of the manor of Driby, ' was spoiled and beaten in Driby by false and
malicious men, robbers and thieves, and Robert Piper, his reeve, and Henry,
his butler, were wounded and slain, upon whose souls may God have mercy,,

' Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle. 243, No. 3931. ' Ibid. 284, No. 3970.

' Massingberd, Hist, of Ormsby, 69 ; Charter at Ormsby. ■* Gibbons, Early Line. Wills, 191, 192. '

' Charter at Gunby. * Records of the Cust Family, 14, 15, 21, 77, 79, 130, 145-57.

' Ingoldmells Ct. R. 180. ' Ibid. 185, 186. ' Ibid. 263.

'"Ibid. 148. "Ibid. 218.

318

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

and many others of his dependents were beaten and' grievously wounded.'^
The weekly labour services on the manors of the priory of Spalding at Spald-
ing, Weston, and Moulton had been commuted for money payments before
'the memory of all living persons' in 1424,^ and in 1444 certain customs at
Spalding, Pinchbeck, Weston and Moulton, such as tallage, boon-days,
pannage, &c., are commuted for money rents ; at Spalding holders
of bond-land agree to pay 4^. of new rent per acre and 14^. for tallage ;
at Pinchbeck 3d', of new rent and i4<2'. tallage ; at Weston 4d. new
rent and lajd'. tallage ; and at Moulton 3^^. new rent and la^d'. tallage ; and
in the same document it is provided that the bond-tenant shall do his fealty
in these words : ' I xall fayth here to the lord of this lordeschep and justify-
able be in body godys and in catell as his oune Mann att his oune Wylle. So
helppe me God att the holy dome and be this boke.' ' Thus the villein
became a copyholder at a fixed customary rent, and there is proof that many
copyholders prospered so much as to become yeomen and even gentlemen.
In 1421— 2 several tenants of bond-land at Ingoldmells had added to their
holdings by purchasing both bond and free land * ; Robert Gryn a/ias Grene,
with Richard his son, acquired in 1392 considerable freehold property in
East Kirkby, and in 1477 Richard Grenne, son of John, is described as ' gent,'
though in 1492 his heiress had to come to the court of Ingoldmells and beg
to be admitted to her lands and pay a fine of ^^5.^

The towns of Lincolnshire were declining in prosperity in the fifteenth
century. Their trade depended largely upon the exports of wool carried on by
the merchants of the staple, and the merchant adventurers were fast getting the
upper hand ; the wool was being manufactured into cloth, and the trade was
leaving the eastern counties for the south and west." Lincoln, so long as it
remained a staple town, continued fairly prosperous. A roll of the staple ^
gives the names of the mayor and constables of the staple of the city of
Lincoln elected by the merchants, foreign as well as English, and admitted
by the king. Sometimes the merchants disagreed; thus in 1354 some
would elect Robert de Dalderby, some Walter de Kelby, and some William
de Spaigne, as mayor, when, ' lest the sale and purchase of wool, etc., be
impeded, or we be deprived of our customs and subsidies,' the king appoints
Walter mayor until Michaelmas, when the matter can be discussed before the
council and terminated. In 1357 a value is put upon different kinds of wool
below which none may be sold, though a seller may obtain as much more as
he can. Each sack is to contain 26 stones of 141b. each, and Hereford
wool is valued at 1 2i marks, Shropshire at 1 1 marks, Lincolnshire, except
Holland, at loj marks, Oxfordshire at 9! marks, Norfolk and Suffolk at
5 J marks, &c., per sack. In 1362 William de Skipwith and other justices
were informed that the mayor and constables of the staple have jurisdiction
within the vills where the staples are of all things belonging to the staple by
the law of merchants, and not by the common law of the kingdom nor by

' Campbell Ch. xxi, 4 (B.M.).

' MS. at Spalding. The rent is i jd. per acre at Spalding, i Sd. at Weston, 1 6 J(/. at Moulton. The
fine on alienation or death is fixed at 2/. iJ. per acre at Pinchbeck, and at Spalding and Weston one year's
rent.

' Myntling Book in Library of Spalding Gentlemen's Society.

■* Line. N. and g. vii, 169. ^ Ingoldmells Ct. R. xxx, 283.

' Green, Town Life in the i^th Century, passim. ' No. i.

319

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

the customs of cities, and this applies to all merchants coming to the staple,
and their servants and families. The transfer of the staple to Boston in 1369,
where Frederic de Tilney was the first mayor of the staple,^ was a great blow
to the trade of Lincoln. In 1399 the citizens informed' the new king of
the decadence of their city since the removal of the staple, and in 1433 Lincoln
was relieved of payment to the subsidy because of its poverty.' Thence-
forward come continual complaints of impoverishment. In 1447 the mayor
and citizens complain that they are so pauperized by the withdrawal of
merchants, and by a great pestilence which has continued there for a long
time, and other worldly misfortunes, that scarcely 200 citizens remain in the
city.* In a petition to Richard II the mayor and citizens speak of the
desolation, ruin, and decay of the city, because of the loss of the staple of
wool, and the great mortality by pestilence, so that the merchants of the staple
of Calais have left the city.^

And yet a suspicion arises that affairs at Lincoln were not so extremely
bad ; there is a temptation to exaggerate misfortunes when taxes are in
question, and in i 377 it is estimated that Lincoln had a population of 5,000,
being the sixth town in the kingdom ; in 1453 *^^ assessment of Lincoln
comes eighth, and fifty years later actually fourth of all English towns ; "
moreover it is clear from the will '' of Robert de Sutton, merchant of Lincoln,
141 3, and from the position his family took in the county, that there were
prosperous merchants at Lincoln. Boston prospered longer because of its
staple. But the course of events went steadily against the trade carried on by
foreign traders, though Edward IV restored to the Hanseatic merchants their
privileges, including their guildhall and steelyard in London, and their
houses in Boston and Lynn.^

Other towns and ports in Lincolnshire were also suffering. Thus in
1458 the king granted to his town of Wainfleet a charter of incorporation,
three fairs, and other privileges, on the petition of his tenants there, because
the town ' being already in great ruin and as it were deserted by the inhabi-
tants, seems to be coming to a complete destruction and perpetual desolation,
unless our royal relief be speedily bestowed upon the place.''

It is difficult to find information for the fifteenth century, but the
account rolls of the duchy of Lancaster give rentals for manors in many
parts of the county. The loss of rents at Greetham because of the pestilence
has been mentioned : before 142 1—2 the rents both of the demesne lands and
of the bond lands have gone back to the old figures, as was the case at
Ormsby ; in 1485 the rents were almost the same.^" At Bolingbroke the
rents, &c., come in 142 1—2 to ^455 the customary tenants paying ^^3 6s. 2d.
for their works at the old rates of 2d. a work for ploughing and id. for
reaping ; 80 acres of arable land are demised for 47 J., they had let for 57J.,
but I 3 J acres lie fallow ; the farm ' del ffryth ' near Revesby, which used to
let for £6 1 3 J. 4^., is now demised for ten years at 1 1 3J. 4^. ; the farm
of the hall is unlet, the dovecote is destroyed, and the water-mill, which

' Roll No. 1 ' Ross, Civitas Line. 20.

^ Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages, 310.

' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 11. ' Ibid. 263, 264.

* T. Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages, 1 1 6, 1 17. ' Gibbons, Early Line. Wills, 1 39.

* Green, Town Life in the i^ti Century, i, 109. ' Line. N. and Q. ii, 12.

'" Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle. 243, No. 3913 (142 1-2) ; Ibid. bdle. 248, No. 3970 (1484-5).

320

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

used to let for 20s., is newly demised for 1 31. /\.d, ; the tolls of the market and
fairs are demised for 26s. 8<^., loj. less than before; 6 acres of meadow are sold
for 15J., and 12 acres of meadow at Northdyk are let for a term of 20 years
for 2gs. ; the cost of the mill in repairs is 32J-. lod., that of the ' Hallehous '
25J. 6tJ. ; in 1484-5 the receipts are £4.8. At Wrangle in 1420-1^ the
receipts are ^61 12s. ; in 1484—5 they are £2^ 12s., the saltpits with tofts
and fisheries letting for ^4 iSj. 3</. instead of £1^, the demesne lands for
£12 8 J. instead of ^(^14 gj. 2d., pasture for £s, instead of £'i i6j., meadow
for i2s. instead of 24J., there being nothing for market and port tolls, the
perquisites of courts being loj-. 8^. instead of ^^3, and there being nothing
for agistments instead of 47^. At Waithe Hall in 142 1—2 the receipts are
nearly ^40, 1742 acres of arable demesne land letting at 9^. an acre ; in
1484—5 the receipts are >C34 ^J"., the demesne lands letting for the same rent,
the loss being in the profit of the courts and in an item of 43^. 4^. for willows
sold. At Sutton the income, which was jC443 i" 1296, was jC39I ^^ ^3^7»
JC356 in 142 1, and ;C322 in 1485. In 1420-1 the 1,000 acres of demesne
land which let in 1367 for ^^162 y. 6d. let for £12^ 13J. 6d., and decay of
rents comes to £2 6s. gd. besides ; in 1484-5 the decay of rents is £12 i-f.,
3 acres of escheat let for 6s. 8d. instead of 9J., another 3 acres for 2s. 6d.
instead of gs., 2 acres for 20^. instead of 6s., and of herbage let, 2 acres of
land and pasture at Pikehale let for 4J-. instead of loj-,, 2 acres at Wrightes for
3J-. instead of Ss. At Waddington,^ 141 2—3, rents of free and bond tenants
charged in the accounts at >r2o gs. ^d. are demised for £j ijs. 6d. only.
Evidently there was no rise of rents in the fifteenth century, but rather the
contrary. A rental of a yeoman at Bicker' shows that in 1468 land there let
for 3J-. 4^d. down to /\.d. an acre, the ' hed ' house letting for 3J-. 4^. At
Bolingbroke, 142 1-2, demesne arable land (80 acres) let at yd. an acre, having
been 8^^. before.

About wages there is quite a different story to tell. The rise because of
the pestilence was immediate and large. At Stallingborough * the wage for
making hay was doubled in 1355-6, being 2d. instead of id. 3. day, mowing
was 6d. instead of /^d. an acre, thrashing wheat was 3^^. a quarter, barley and
peas 2d., mowing and tying corn was lod. an acre, reaping peas 5^. At
Cuxwold,^ 1358-9, thrashing wheat and other corn was 2ld., thrashing drage
I Id. a quarter, mowing hay was 5^. an acre, making 2d. a day, reaping and
binding corn (mixed) 6d. an acre, three servants were paid js. each for the
year, and given 2 quarters 2 bushels of peas for 1 8 weeks from Michaelmas,
and 4 quarters of wheat for 32 weeks up to Michaelmas, besides 6 bushels of
oats for pottage, and 2d. a score was paid for shearing six score sheep and
winding the wool. At Saleby it has been already stated that thrashing corn
was 2d. a quarter, washing and shearing sheep or candle-making 2d. a day.
Skilled labour was about 4^. a day, as making wattles at Saleby, ramming clay
into the mill-dam, and thatching a house at Bolingbroke, in 142 1-2. At
Boston in 1390 a master carpenter was paid 8/, and other carpenters working
on a ship 6d. a day.* A carpenter mending the mill-wheel at Bolingbroke,
1 420- 1 , was paid 5/ a day, but another carpenter working with him only 2d. a

' Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle. 243, No. 3,912 (1420-1). ^ Line. N. and Q. iii, 80.

' Records of the Oust Family, i, 1 5 i . " Willingham Muniments.

' Harl. R. Y. 12 (B.M.), one new plough cost ()d. ^ Derby Accounts (Camd. Soc.) (1894), 27.

^ 321 41

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

day. At Le Fryth, 142 1-2, two men repairing the sea-bank had 4^. a day
each, and a man was paid 4</. a rod for scouring, and id. to \d. a rod for
cleaning dykes. In 1364—5 at Gedney, where the bailiff farming was still
continued, a man with a plough for three days at the winter sowing cost 3*2'.,
a carpenter was paid \d. a day and a thatcher the same ; a man digging roots
of trees 3.3'. a day, the lord's servants \d. a day for the same ; thrashing wheat
and mixture was 'i\d., beans 2^., drage \\d. a quarter, hoeing corn was 2^.,
corn and beans i \d. an acre ; the yearly wages of ' messor,' carpenter, and oxherd
were 5J. each, of the gardener i y. \d., and they have also an allowance of a
quarter of wheat each for 1 2 weeks.^ Wheat was then 'js. a quarter, and a
plough cost 2J. 9^., a spade for the garden is.

The fifteenth century has been termed ' the golden age ' of the
English labourer, and up to the middle of the nineteenth century this may
have been so. Taking corn at \s. a quarter, for the Lincolnshire
agricultural labourer did not live on wheat only, and wages at T^d. a day, he
could purchase a quarter in 3 weeks, and, as the usual allowance was a
quarter for 9 or more weeks, there was a good margin for other necessaries.
Of the comforts of the present day he knew nothing. He lived in a hovel
without a chimney, the fire being lit in the centre of the room, and the
smoke going out of a hole in the roof ; he had to go to bed almost with the
sun in winter, for it took two-thirds of a day's wages {2d.) to buy a pound of
candles, fuel and fagots being very dear. Food he had in plenty, probably
more beef and mutton than a labourer now ; but in the winter his meat was all
salted, for there were no turnips or artificial foods to fatten sheep or cattle
then, and he had no green vegetables, and the result was scurvy, pestilence,
and leprosy, promoted too by filthy habits and ignorance of sanitary
requirements. In many cases he held a small villein holding, or lived with a
relative who did, or he may have even been a small freeholder; but in the fifteenth
century men born villeins were leaving their birthplace to seek better wages
elsewhere. This perhaps eventually helped to increase the number of the
wandering poor of whom we hear very soon, for they could not, as a man
with a villein holding could, surrender their farm, when no longer able to
work, upon condition that an allowance of corn was made to them for life.^

In the matter of education there were more facilities than is sometimes
thought, in the monastic or cathedral school, or by a chantry priest whose
duty it was to instruct boys as well in good morals as in the grammatical
art.' We know that the sons of villeins were sent to school, and became
chaplains* and even bishops,' and the numerous court and account rolls, all
in Latin, tell of a knowledge which we should not otherwise suspect.

In the administration of the law a great change was proceeding.
Legislation during Edward Ill's reign ° provided that justices of the peace
should hear and determine all manner of felonies ; and by degrees the
administration of county business was entrusted to these justices in quarter
sessions. The result was the disappearance of the county and wapentake

' Mins. Accts. bdle. 242, No. 3,888.

'Assoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. xxiv, 310. The allowance for a man and his wife was one quarter of
wheat, half a quarter of rye, the same of barley, and of beans and peas.
^ Chant. Cert. No. 1,477 ; Curtey's Chantry, Grantham.
■* Ingoldmells Ct. R. xxviii. ' e.g. Bishop Grosteste.

' Stat, of the Realm, i, 301, 364. See Cal. Pat. 1377-81, pp. 46, 47, for lists of Line. J.P.s in 1377.

322

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

courts, and a growing change in the work of the manorial courts. At
Ingoldmells cases of felony ceased to be tried ; ^ and as time goes on less and
less space is given on the rolls to police cases, and, though the custom of the
manor is declared to be that a customary tenant should not implead another
tenant outside the manor for any matter which could be determined in the
manorial court, in the sixteenth century tenants had made complaints
concerning the common sewers or sea-banks of the manor before a justice of
the peace.

Amongst other duties laid by Parliament upon justices in quarter sessions
was that of fixing the wages for their district, and we have records of
statute wages as early as 1388 and 1444, but not for the county of Lincoln.
The Statute of Labourers, which followed a proclamation of the king that no
one was to give or take higher wages than were given before the Black
Death, provided that prices should be regulated as well as wages, but the
labourers were masters of the situation, and the attempt failed. There were
certainly disturbances in Lincolnshire at this time: in 1383 bondmen at
Cadney and Howsham had rebelliously withdrawn their services due to the
prior of Newstead;^ in 1384 information is given that certain disturbers
of the peace intend with an armed force to enter and keep the manor of Lea;'
and in 1385 John de Feriby, a J. P., escheator, and lord of Bonby, complains
that certain persons have prevented him from executing his office of
escheator at Fillingham, and from, as a justice, attaching a man there, and
his deputy in his court at Bonby from holding the court.* But men of
position were as lawless as their inferiors ; in 1380 John Pouger, sheriff of
Lincolnshire, complains that, when he, as escheator, intended to hold his
session at Caistor for taking inquisitions, William Gascryk of Barton, Peter
vicar of Cadney, and others, devising to kill him, came there and assaulted
him and his men, and took away his goods : and Ralph Paynell, late
sheriff, complains that John Byron, knight, and others, assaulted him at
Kelsey and Howsham, laid in wait to kill him, rescued a notorious malefactor
at Kelsey, hunted in his free warren there, took away hares, rabbits,
pheasants, and partridges, depastured his corn, and assaulted his servants.^
But the worst case was the feud between Sir Robert Tirwhit and William
Lord Ross. Sir Robert, who was a justice of the King's Bench, in 141 1
laid waste, with a retinue of 500 followers, the manor of Melton Ross ; he
was eventually forced to confess his fault before the king, and agree to the
award of the archbishop of Canterbury and the king's chamberlain, which
enjoined that on a certain day he should prepare at Melton Ross

'2 tunnes of Gascoygne wine, 2 fatt oxen, 120 fatt sheep, and other preparation fit
therefor, and that hee should bringe thither all knightes, esquires and yeomen that were of
his crew, when they should all confess theire faults to ye Lord Rosse, and crave pardon,
and further offer to y« Lord Rosse 500 marks in recompence, and ye Lord Rosse should
refuse y money, grant them pardon, and take y^ dinner only.' *

There is evidence that the law concerning servants was enforced, but
not to the extremity provided, for a man had pardon of outlawry in 1386,
and another in 1387, for not appearing before the justices of the Bench to

' Ct. R. xvii, 294. ' Cal. Pat. 138 1-5, p. 262.

' Ibid. 503. " Ibid. 1385-9, p. 87. " Ibid. 1381-5, pp. 465, 467.

* Jrch Inst. Line. Rep. (1848), p. 66. Quoting Lans. MSS. ^,076 (B.M.), fol. 593.

323

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

answer for leaving their service before the time agreed upon,^ and in 1391 a
w^oman had pardon of her waiver for not appearing before the justices of the
Bench to answer to Thomas de Welby of Kirton for refusing to serve him
in accordance with the conditions contained in an ordinance concerning
servants, she having surrendered to the Flete Prison.'

It cannot be said that Lincolnshire prospered during the great changes
of the Tudor period. Trade was steadily leaving the county, the towns were
constantly proclaiming themselves ' decayed,' many county families were in
straitened circumstances, and at times the wage-earning class suffered
severely. On the other hand villeinage was becoming extinct, and yeomen
families were increasing their wealth and even rising to the position of
gentry. The Wars of the Roses had comparatively little effect upon the
social life of the people. Some great lords were slain or beheaded, and their
estates forfeited, but for the most part these * were recovered by their heirs.
Far dijfferent was it with the effect of the economic changes of the period
upon the fortunes of the county families. Of these, hardly a family
maintained its position in the county beyond the middle of the seventeenth
century, unless it had by marriage or by trade added to its income. The
reasons are fairly evident. As we look through sixteenth-century wills we
find that the county gentlemen, though they may possess several manors,
have very little personal property to deal with. John Langton of Langton
has in 1533 to be content to leave 100 marks, or 10 marks a year at his son's
option, to his daughter ; John Littylbury of Hagworthingham leaves such a
sum as lOJ. a year to his brother for life ; Charles Yarborough leaves to
three sons ^7 each.* Then a manor was producing less, a small manor
court was hardly worth holding,^ the rents of free-tenants did not increase,
the villeins, becoming free copyholders, were able to renounce services that
used to be profitable, and, if rents anywhere were higher, landlords with en-
cumbered estates could not always take advantage of opportunities in the
matter of letting or purchasing lands, or in other ways.

At the same time expenses and demands largely increased. The
extravagance of Henry VIII's court is well known; some Lincolnshire knights
and gentlemen attended, with, we cannot doubt, no good results. Hitherto
the gentry had been content with a rough plenty; now new men, with
money obtained by trade, brought in a more expensive style of living,' and
were able to indulge in luxuries that before were unknown. It does not
appear that the older families attempted to build new houses ; Lincolnshire
remained ' ill-housed,' notwithstanding such houses as Grimsthorpe and
Doddington; but the cost of living must have doubled, and impoverished
gentry with their demesnes leased had to mortgage or sell their estates.
How very small were the incomes of even gentry of family and position may
be seen from examples. John Gedney, of Bag Enderby, left to his son three
manors and lands in eleven parishes, yet the total annual value in 1535 was

' Cal. Pat. 1388-92, pp. 183, 362.

" Ibid. 1388-92, p. 491. " e.g. The Ross, Welles, and Percy estates.

■* Maddison, Line. Wills, i, 9, 10, 42.

° Six consecutive courts at Ormsby in 147 1 brought in 6d., 6d., is., Sd., /^., nil. Massingberd,
Hist, of O rmsiy, 255.

" Fitzherbert writes in Booi of Husbandry, 102, 'at this time (1523) apparel is twenty times more
expensive than 100 years ago' ; p. 103, ' men spend four times as much on feasts as they used to do.'

324

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

only >C43 Sj.^ Sir William Skipwith's net rental in 1579 from six
manors, including over ^^50 from Skipwith in Yorkshire, was only
_^2i5 oj. 3d', a year,' yet he had been M.P. for the county, and high
sheriff twice. The revenue of the Doddington estate of 1,300 acres was
^^142 7J. 4(3'. in 1585, and it was sold for £4.,^^° ^^ ^593-' The decadence
of old families is evident, as Canon Maddison has pointed out,* from a
comparison of the 1634 Visitation Pedigrees with those of 1562 ; but
earlier documents give some particulars of what was going on. Andrew
Gedney had sold his lands in Ormsby in 1570 ;^ his son, Richard, in his will
in 1613,' states that his debts are 'so great that his eldest son will have
very small means to live of.' Numerous documents show the Skipwiths
mortgaging and seUing their estates till, in 1638, their fine Lincolnshire
property was gone.'' When Henry Ormsby of North Ormsby died in
1612, his personalty was sworn at £^6 ' only, and the estate soon was sold.

But, of course, the greatest changes came through the dissolution of the
monasteries and the dispersal of their estates. The annual rent roll of these,
as given in the Valor Ecclesiasticus, a.d. 1535, exclusive of tithes and other
spiritualities, is over £j,ooo. The revenues from 5,700 acres' are given as
^^252, or roughly lod. an acre. To be quite safe ()d. per acre has been
taken as the value of the rest, which gives us 202,742 acres, and a total of
208,442 acres for the county. This is rather less than one-eighth of the
modern acreage, and very far short of the third, of which we hear so much.
But these lands cannot have passed into lay hands without causing a social
and economic upheaval. Instead of a number of ecclesiastics, always
resident, and interested in their lands and their people, there were a few lay
owners, often non-resident, and with little interest in their tenants or their
lands, except for what they could be made to produce. Still, it is easy to
exaggerate the effects of the change ; the grantees of monastic lands were not
the only landowners who did not know their tenants personally ; and it is
possible that more of these lands came into the hands of resident landlords
than would appear at first sight. The magnificent chartularies of Kirkstead
and Bardney in the British Museum tell of gifts to these abbeys of small
quantities of land in many different parishes ; the Valor shows how abbeys
and priories, besides their home farms, had small scattered properties in many
places, to the value of loj. in Stickney, of 4J. in Swaby, of igj. in
Hogsthorpe," &c., and it seems that these outlying freeholds, though
granted out together to large purchasers, were eventually dispersed, and came
into the hands of the lord of the manor or of other landowners in the parish."

It is, however, beyond doubt that a new type of landowner arose in the
sixteenth century with new ways, and money to carry them out on business
principles. New works were written on ' Husbandry,' stress was laid upon
manuring, weeding, and stock-keeping, and a farmer is advised to fence some
closes to put his cattle in, and so save the cost of shepherd and herdman,

' Massingberd, Hist, of Ormsby, 210.

' Ibid. 297. But there were other manors in reversion, or settled on his eldest son at marriage.

^ Cole, Hist, of Doddington, 55, 56. ' Maddison, Line. Wills, ii. Introduction.

" Massingberd, Hist, of Ormsby, 210. ' Maddison, Line. Wills, ii, 94.

' Massingberd, Hist, of Ormsby, 104, 105,111,113. ' Maddison, Line. Wills, ii, 65.

° 'Dominicales terrae.' " Valor Eeel. (Rec. Com.), 35.

" Massingberd, Hist, of Ormsby, 230.

325

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

even if he has only a 20 years lease,^ and ' then shall his farm be twice as
good in profit to the tenant as it was before, and as much land kept in
tillage, and the rich man shall not over-eat the poor man with his cattle.'
Thus we are brought to the question of enclosures. It might be expected
that wealthy landlords would attempt to increase their incomes from their
newly bought manors by overstocking the commons, or enclosing arable
land and converting it to pasture. But it does not appear that in
Lincolnshire there was much to complain of as regards enclosures. The
report ^ for the county in 15 17 of 'decays of houses, hamlets, and arable
lands enclosed by hedges, dikes or other enclosures, and also of parks new
made or enlarged,' shows that the enclosures up to that time only comprised
47 1 acres, of which nearly half belonged to ecclesiastics. There is no case of
a lord of a manor evicting a number of tenants, and enclosing and grazing their
lands ; and with our modern notions it is a little difficult to understand why a
freeholder at Tattershall should not enclose an acre of arable land and turn it
into pasture,' or the lord of Scrivelsby enclose 1 3 acres of arable land into
two pasture closes, when in neither case was a house or building rendered
desolate nor in decay ; still less why tenants or freeholders should not enclose
arable land. Where, as at Ashby by Horncastle, two messuages and ploughs
are in decay, the objection is more obvious, for there is a diminution of the
king's people. But, so far, the movement was chiefly on the part of free-
holders and tenants. As the century went on, it can hardly be doubted
that lords of manors took part in the enclosure movement, but no evidence
has come to light of unjust proceedings.* Thomas Cony, of Bassing-
thorpe, esq., merchant of the staple at Calais, and merchant of the Ad-
venturers of England, had, in 1569, 58 cattle, 17 horses, and more than
1,000 sheep ^ ; of these 40 sheep were in closes to feed, and some of the cattle
were in closes also, but the fact that there were nearly 1,000 sheep in the
unenclosed fields shows that nothing illegitimate had been done in the way of
enclosure. At Gunby, in 1588, the 'Town Book'° shows that in one furlong
all the rigs of a whole ' wong ' belong to the lord of the manor, in another
furlong a great wong is his, containing 2 1 rigs, and closes of his are mentioned,
while the parson and a freeholder have made enclosures also. At Ormsby,
296 acres of the demesne were probably enclosed and let before 1600, as they
were in 1636,'^ the owner in this case being, it would seem, too impoverished
to stock his demesne, and so losing the profits which richer men obtained
from the higher prices of corn and wool.

A word seems necessary about the families which rose to importance.
Some, as Canon Maddison points out,'* had been in Lincolnshire in a less im-
portant position, others migrated fi-om other counties. Then there were such
families as the Carrs of Sleaford, and the Dightons, Welcomes, and Tailors of
Lincoln, who had made money by trade, and invested it in land. The rise
of families of the yeoman class is from a social point of view especially worth

' Fitzherbert, Book of Husbandry, 27, 29, 41, 76. ' Leadam, Domesday of Inchsures, 243.

^ Of course the objection was that less corn would be grown.

* At North Kelsey, because of the inconvenient state in which their lands were situated, the lords of the
manor and the freeholders had agreed in 1591 to enclose the parish and compensate the cottagers, but a large
landowner objected. Chan. Proc. temp. Eliz. B. b. i, 58.

' Line. N. and Q. i, 115. The numbers seem doubtful. * Ibid, vii, 244, 245.

' Massingberd, Hist, of Ormsby, 299. ' Line. Wills, ii, xxi, xxv, xxvi, i, 1.

326

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

attention. The Broxholmes of Owersby, who were enriched by grants of
monastic property, and the Thorndikes, who were also of the yeoman class,^
and purchased monastic lands, rose to the rank, of gentry. But no one can
read the wills and documents ' of the period without being convinced that
many yeomen were gradually improving their position. The rise in prices
benefited them, especially in the rich fen and marsh districts, hence the rise
of Pureys, Custs, Palmers, who all ranked as gentry in 1634. Others, Hke
the Hobsons and Thorys, improved their position by trade as well as by
farming, perhaps* the TroUopes did the same, for Thomas TroUope in 1561
submitted a scheme to Cecil 'for setting up a mill to knocke hempe for the
making of canvas and other linen clothes.''

The actual number of freeholders probably did not increase. A middle
class was rising up and buying land, but on the other hand wealthy landlords
were adding field to field, and poorer ones were making efforts to do the
same,* as it became clearer that only by owning the lands of the manor could
they at all keep pace with the times. A few instances will show how far
the process of buying up the freeholds had been carried ; at Mareham on
the Hill the manor and 1,512 acres there and in Thornton and Ashby are
mentioned in 1570, there being now in Mareham 1,380 acres ; at
Covenham St. Bartholomew in 1571 the manor and 1,250 acres there and
in Covenham St. Mary are mentioned," there being now 1,340 acres ; at
Covenham St. Mary in 1572^ the manor and 1,110 acres there and in the
other Covenham and Grainthorpe are mentioned, there being 950 acres in
that Covenham now ; at Miningsby in 1573 * the manor and 2,606 acres
are mentioned, there being 1,230 acres there now ; at Revesby, Wilksby, and
Wood Enderby in 1575' the three manors are mentioned, and 6,160 acres,
there being there now 6,320 acres ; at Swinhope in 1577^° the manor and
1,700 acres there and in Wold Newton are mentioned, there being now in
Swinhope 1,307 acres. In the marsh and fen, where now there are the most
freeholders, this process did not go on, and, if small freeholds were purchased,
it would be by prosperous yeomen or merchants.

The history of villeinage at this time requires only a few words. It
simply died out. On the small wold manors it was mostly extinct before
1485, and even copyholders became unknown. In Kesteven it was much
the same, but in Holland and in some of the marsh parishes of Lindsey the
villeins became by degrees free copyholders. At Ingoldmells in 1566 " eleven
names appear on the inquisition of bond-tenants, and some account is
attempted of villeins and their progeny ; in 1568 there are six names on the
inquisition of bond-tenants, and in 1578 two ; thenceforth we hear no more
of this inquisition, though as late as 1604 bond-tenants are mentioned. ^^ At
Ingoldmells and other manors where the fines were small" and certain the
villeins and their successors obtained the increased value of the land, while on

' Massingberd, Hist. ofOrmsiy, 230.

' Maddison, Line. Wills, and Lady Elizabeth Cust, Records of the Cust Family, passim.

' Maddison, Line. Wills, ii, xxxiii. " Massingberd, ff;//. ofOrmsby. 14, 226.

' Feet of F. 12 & 13 Eliz. « Ibid. Mich. 13 & 14 Eliz.

' Ibid. Trinity, 14 Eliz. " Ibid. Hilary, 15 Eliz.

» Ibid. Hilary, 17 Eliz. '" Ibid. Easter, 19 Eliz.

" Ingoldmells Ct. R. xxxi, 286, 288.

" In 1582, John Copledilce directs that two * villeynes regardant' belonging to his manor of Freiston be
manumitted. (Maddison, Line. Wills, i, 122.) " zs. an acre.

327

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

other manors, as Bolingbroke and Candlesby, where the fines were uncertain,
and usually two years' rent, the lords had some share in the increased value.
An inventory^ of an Ingoldmells bond-tenant in 1569 gives some idea of his
condition. He had 2 heifers and a calf (63J. 4^.), 15 ewes (66^, 8^.), and
5 hogs and i tup {20s.), ' one swyen ' (2J.) ; a feather bed, 2 mattresses, &c.
(20J.) ; I ' huge ' in the chamber (zs.) ; a cupboard and meatboard with a
form in the hall (loj.) ; 12 'putter dublers,' 2 saucers, i candlestick, i salt
(5J.) ; 3 brass pots, 4 pans (i5J.) ; i dish shelf, i cheese press, i chair with all
other ' husshyllment ' (6j-. 8^.) ; his debts were for rent unpaid £/\. 4J., for
money borrowed £2 14J. SJ., for Easter tithes 3J. 4^., for ' beymes' 2s.; so
that the total balance was £2 ^ ^^- ^'^' Evidently he was not one of the more
prosperous tenants, or he would not have been still a bond-tenant, and he was
considerably in debt, but he had stock of his own, and was able to rent land
of other persons than the lady of the manor.

The decay of the towns of Lincolnshire during the sixteenth century
is undoubted. The position of Lincoln in 1503 and 1524 requires some
explanation. After all the complaints of impoverishment, Lincoln's
assessment in 1503 at £11^ places it as the fourth town of England, and
796 payers there in 1524 were assessed at over ^^148." One reason for this
high position was that in 1524 the villages of Bracebridge, Canwick,
Waddington, and Branston, which had been annexed' to the city in 1466,
were included in the assessment, as were also the Bail and Close, but in
the Wards alone there were rather more payers with a somewhat higher
assessment than in 1332. After this the complaints of decay are continued,
it being stated* in 1528 that '200 houses are clearly decayed, and the
sheriffs have not of certainty where they can gather ^^30 towards their
charges.' In 1589 the payers at Lincoln' towards the subsidy only number
98, so that the decline of the town was then undoubted. We find
' clothiers ' in Lincoln in 1551,* but it was unable to compete with the
rising towns of the west and north in cloth-making. In 1541 Lincoln,
Grantham, Grimsby, and Stamford were among the ' decayed' towns ;'' and
of Boston, Leland writes : ' at last the Esterlinges left their course of
marchandice to Boston, and syns the towne sore decayed.'

The question of rents is enormously complicated by the variations in the
value of land in different districts and parishes, and even in different parts of
the same parish. There is evidence of the value of monastic lands in many
parts of the county in 1535.* The Swineshead lands were the most valuable
at 2J. 5</. per acre, pasture being rented at 3^., meadow at 2s. 8^., arable at
I J. yd., and marsh in Holland Fen at is. '^d. per acre; the lands of St. Kathe-
rine's Priory, Lincoln, were the least valuable, only a little over 2d. an acre ;
land in Bracebridge between the top of the hill and the Witham was 5^.,
arable on the hill 2d., arable on the heath at Canwick \d., meadow there 3^.,
pasture at Boultham 4</., and moor \d. per acre. After that in Holland came
land in the Lindsey marsh, the lands of Hagnaby averaging u. Zd. per acre ;
pasture in Sutton and high pasture in Hagnaby was worth 2s. %d., pasture
flooded in the winter is. \d., meadow \s. \d., and arable \s. id. per acre. At

' At Ormsby Hall. ' Lay Subs. R. -^f, a loth.

' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 1 1. * Ibid. 31. ' Lay Subs. R. f||.

* Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 44. ' Rogers, Agriculture and Prices, iv, 108.

* Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), vol. iv.

328

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

Revesby 42 acres in 4 closes, belonging to a cow-house in the hands of the
monks, are valued at 2s. Sd. per acre ; but the average value of their lands is
I id., though most of it was enclosed, as indeed was the case in a large
proportion of the monastic home-farms, for the monks in Lincolnshire were
not behindhand in this matter. The rent values given do not give the idea
of a rise in rents. The Preceptory of the Knights Hospitallers at Temple
Bruer was let to Hamo Sutton for £1^2 ioj., which shows a very small
increase upon the receipts in 1338, which were £i'yy js. Sd. There was
a loss in the matter of perquisites of courts, which at Willoughton were
£10 I 3 J. /{.d. in 1334, besides smaller sums in other places, none of which are
mentioned in 1534. In the latter half of the century a rise in rents was
established, though without evidence of the rents at different periods of
actually the same lands the amount of the rise cannot be given with any
certainty. In 1535 a messuage and 100 acres in Ormsby were valued at
^^3 6s. 8d., Sd. an acre ; ^ in 1558 a messuage and 10 acres were let for
I3J-. 4</.,* IS. an acre taking the messuage as worth 3J. ^d. ; and in 1579
8 acres of arable land in Ketsby were let for loj.,* is. ^d. an acre ; while in
1596* a sheep-walk of 230 acres in Ketsby, 83 acres in closes, 3 tenements,
the ' inne howse ' and the ' kilne howse ' were let for ^41 13^. 4/, or 2s. Sd.
an acre, though in 1706 the sheep-walk only let for is. an acre. This looks
as if the rents at the end of the century were double what they were at the
beginning. The rise in land values may be proved also by the prices of land
sold in another part of Lincolnshire. In 1494 two acres of pasture in Pinch-
beck were purchased for 50J-., and in 1501 an acre and a halfof land for ^(^5 ;'
but in 1579 6 acres of pasture were sold for ^^42," in 1580 2 acres formic,
in 1592 4 acres and 3 roods for £zo^ in 1595 4 acres of pasture for ^24,
and in 1599 10 acres and a rood of land for >C^io- I"^ ^574 ^5J acres, of
which four were pasture, in Bicker were sold for £60 ;* while in 1600 the
same property, with some addition,' was sold for >Cioo-

For wages the evidence is scanty, though an instance of statute wages
fixed by the Lincoln justices can be given. In 1497— 1 501, ^^ Stamford,
masons, carpenters, and thatchers were paid 5^. a day, a servant 7.d., ^d-, \d.,
and a man hedging ^d. ; in 1502 carpenters, masons, and slaters were paid 6d.,
servants 4^., 3,3'., and a hedger ^d^^ At Louth, 1 501- 16, a master mason was
paid 8,/., an apprentice bd. a day, assistant masons 3J-. \d. for six days." At
Leverton, in 1528, a plumber was paid 8^/., a man \d. a day, and ploughing
an acre of land cost bd}^ In 1533 Lord Hussey paid a man bs. for winding
wool 14 days, besides zs. ?>d. for board ; a woman picking locks 14^. for
1 4 days and 2 J. for board, and a man working about the house j^d. a day with
board also ; in 1534 he paid a man for six days at bd. a day and meat 3J. 3^.,
a man cutting wood two days is., and to several men bs. 'id. to loj. per
quarter for wages, these men being also boarded.^' In 1597 men working on
the Ingoldmells seabanks are paid bd. to 'id. a day.**

' Massingberd, Hist, of Ormsby, 209. ' Ibid. 295. ' Ibid. 297. * Ibid. 298.

' Records of the Cust Family, i, 23. ^ Ibid. 76, 77. ' Ibid. 1 11, 112. * Ibid. 161.

' The acreage is 1 6a. ir. " Rogers, Agriculture and Prices, iii, 617, 6i8.

" Louth Churchwardens' Accounts. The spire was built for ;^305 8/. t,d.
" Peacock, Churchwardens' Accounts, 18, 19.

" Exch. T.R. Misc. Bk. 95. He paid Sir Robert Hussey's servant who brought a fat goose and
2 pheasants \s., a servant bringing a letter 4^., four players ^s., for cloth for 2 shirts for the boy in the
kitchen zs., for candles i %d. a dozen. " Ormsby Papers.

a 329

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

In 1563 the Lincoln city justices met, in obedience to an Act of Par-
liament of the preceding 1 2 January to settle the rates for wages, being charged
by the queen to see and cause the said rates to be kept, and all persons within
the city being charged to observe them on the pains and forfeitures appointed
by the said statute. The certificate ^ was made 1 2 June by the mayor and four
justices, who had consulted other discreet persons, and had respect to the
scarcity and dearth of all kinds of grain and victuals, the quarter of wheat
being sold for 40J-., of ryefor 36J. 8<^., malt 22j., beans, peas, and barley, 26s. %d.,
the quarter of mutton and veal 20<^., of beef its., 5 eggs id., the butter-cake
of 1 1 lb. K^d., the stone of cheese 20^., and other necessaries and victuals very
dear. Masons, carpenters, plumbers, bricklayers, &c., were to have from
mid-September to mid-March with meat and drink 4^., without %d. a day, and
from mid-March to mid-September 5^. or i od. ; their labourers to have 3</. or 6d.
and 4^. or jd. for the same periods. Servants were to have by the year : —
dyers, tile-makers, butchers 40J. with meat and drink ; tanners, glovers,
and braziers 40J. with, and ^^4 without meat and drink ; bakers, parchment-
makers, and fishmongers 33J. 4^d. with meat and drink ; smiths 33J. 413'. with,
and ^^4 without meat and drink ; pewterers 33J. /\J. with, and 66j. %d. with-
out meat and drink ; brewers 30J. with meat and drink ; glaziers, millers,
saddlers, cutlers or armourers, and drapers 26s. Sd. with meat and drink ;
fletchers 26s. Sd. with, and 66s. Sd. without meat and drink ; tailors 26s. Sd.
with, and 53J. /[d. without meat and drink ; shoemakers 26s. 8d. with meat
and drink, and hired by the day 4^. with, and Sd. without meat and drink ;
and walkers or fullers 20J. with meat and drink. Every ' bailey of hus-
bandry ' was to take by the year 40J. with, and ^^4 without meat and drink ;
every other servant of husbandry or shepherd 26s. 8d. or £/\.. Apprentices
or servants in husbandry above 16 and under 24 were to have 20J. and meat
and drink ; those of 10 and under 16, ioj. Mowers were to have ^d. a day
with meat and drink, i od. without ; or ' by the great ' Sd. per acre of mea-
dow, ^d. of barley or oats. Shearing an acre of wheat or rye was to be 14^.,
and by the day 3^. with meat and drink and Sd. without ; thrashing a quarter
of wheat or rye i2d., of barley, peas, beans, and oats ^d. ; reaping an acre of
beans or peas 6d. ; making hay by the day 2d. with meat and drink, ^d.
without ; ditching, setting, hedging of ' newdyk ' of 6 ft. breadth and 4 ft.
depth, 6d. per rod ; plashing and hedging by the day 2d. with meat and drink,
5(^. without, from mid-September to mid-March. The early part of 1563
must have been a time of famine, but before Michaelmas there was an im-
provement, for the jurors then said on oath that wheat of the best kind was
worth i6j., of the second kind 15J. 6d., of the third kind 15J. a quarter, beans
and peas 12s., oats 5^.^

These wages show a large increase since the middle of the fourteenth
century, and with corn about 6s. a quarter, 1 500— 1 540, the agricultural labourer
would be better off than at any period before the present time, being able to
purchase a quarter of corn in 2 weeks and 2 days if the wages were the same.
Even when corn had risen, 1543 to 1582,10 an average of 15J. gd. for wheat
and Ss. gd. for peas,' he was still comparatively well off, except in such dear

' Line. City Records, Register i, fol. l8l. * Ibid. fol. 183.

' Lincoln Corporation Register. For seven years, 1593 to 1595, 1597 to 1599, ^"'^ 1602, wheat averaged
29/. 7(/. and peas 11;. id. ; in 1586 wheat was 36/. ; in 1594, 33/. ; in 1595, 36/. ; in 1597, 40/. a quarter.

330

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

years as 1563, and i 557, when at Easter wheat was 36^. \od. and peas 30/. a
quarter, though at Michaelmas, 1556, wheat was only zy. td. and peas i8j-.
On the whole the labourers were better off than we had feared. But
this does not apply to those who were left unemployed at the dissolution of
the monasteries or to the aged poor. The villein could and did make some
provision for his aged relatives, the labourer could not, and the monks were
no longer there to offer hospitality and relief. At first, while sturdy beggars
and vagabonds were repressed by severe laws, an attempt was made to provide
for the impotent and aged poor through the alms of church-people. Thus in
1569 the archdeacon of Lincoln, by warrant of the queen's command, directs
the curates of his archdeaconry ' earnestlie to exhorte their parishioners to
give their common almes at their churches according to the statute for
the relief of the pore, and to procure remedie againste such as have
wealthe and will not contribute there accordinglie.' ^ As might be ex-
pected, further legislation became necessary, which, however, belongs to
the general history of England, and the consideration of the administration
of the poor laws in Lincolnshire may be postponed until we have before
us the local evidences. But churchwardens' accounts at South Kelsey
prove that something was done; in 1590, while \s. was ' payde forthe to
one which destroyed the foxes,' 8</. was paid to three poor men ; and
in 1594 td. was paid to certain poor in the church, \d. to a poor man
and a lame lad, lod. for maimed soldiers.

Some account of domestic life now becomes possible. In the house of
John Asfordby,** a small squire, we find in 1527 a hall, parlour, little parlour,
low parlour, chamber over the parlour, gallery chamber, buttery, and kitchen ;
in the hall was a folding table, a long carved settle, a throne chair, a form,
and a painted hanging of canvas at the high dais ; in the parlour was a bed,
in the little parlour two, in the chamber over two, in the gallery chamber
two, and two with a tester in the low parlour ; the furniture was scanty, a
chest or two and a chair, ' one bason and ewer of pewter,' but at the same
time a cupboard of plate, which may well excite our envy. Very different
was the house and furniture of Thomas Cony, a prosperous landlord and
merchant, in 1577 ;' he had at Bassingthorpe a house with hall, 3 parlours,
7 chambers, high garret, maids' garret, 5 chambers for yeomen, hinds,
shepherd, &c., 2 kitchens, 2 larders, milk-house, brew-house, buttery, and
cellar ; and tables, carpets, cushions, pictures, beds, curtains, chairs, chests,
and the numerous kitchen and other necessaries for a large house, besides a
quantity of plate. A prosperous yeoman was comparatively better off than a
poor squire; thus in 1554 Richard Cust of Pinchbeck, though his house
was small, consisting'' of a hall, parlour with chamber over, kitchen with
chamber over, brew-house, milne-house, and milk-house, had ample furniture,
a folding table, 4 chairs, 6 cushions, 27 pieces of pewter, 10 candlesticks,
4 basons and i 'laver,' 6 beds, sheets, chests, pans, &c. ; while in 1532
William Gaunte of Theddlethorpe had ^ 1 8 silver spoons, a silver goblet, a silver
salt, and also ' certen inglysh bokes, Legenda aurea, Crownacles, Canterbury
tales, lyttylton teners.'

' Line. N. and Q. vi, 1 1 5.

' See Maddison, ' Domestic Life in the XVIth and XVIIth Centuries,' in Assoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. 1 888, p. 2 1.

' Line. N. and Q. i. ■* Records of the Cust Family, i, 56. ' Maddison, Line. Wills, i, 8.

331

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

For 1562-7 there are returns of the number of families in the arch-
deaconry of Lincoln^ which seem to show that the population has decreased
since 1332 ; in Holland there is no change, in Kesteven a decrease of 2,000,
in the north riding of Lindsey a small increase, in the south riding a decrease
of 4,000, taking our calculations to be correct.

The seventeenth century brought no improvement to the trade of Lincoln-
shire. The wool trade had gone ; Lincoln and Boston had lost their impor-
tance. The prospects of agriculture, however, improved, though the rise in
rents did not save the falling fortunes of decaying families, and it is sad to
think, that the rise in prices, which benefited landowners and tenants, brought
to the labourers increased poverty. The changes amongst the county families
still went on. The Ayscoughs of Blyborough were succeeded'' before 1633 by
the Southcotes, who had made money by trade ; Lawrence Caldwell, a London
merchant, purchased in 1 6 1 7 the manor of North Willingham ; at Burton by
Lincoln the Monsons took the place of the Suttons. On the contrary, the
fortunes of the Meres family were revived by success in trade at Lincoln. The
ruin of royalist families, such as the Skipwiths, was completed by the exactions
of Parliament. But the rise of yeoman families continued ; Henry Cust is a
yeoman in 1617, Samuel Cust an esquire in 1662, Richard Cust a baronet in
1677 ; William Welby of Denton describes himself as a yeoman in 1610, his
grandson is described as a gentleman in 1643, ^^^ "^^^ ^ member of Parliament
in 1654 ; the TroUopes purchased the manor of Casewick in 1621.

About the improvement in agriculture and the rise in rents there can be
no doubt. The greatest advance was reclaiming and securing from the sea by
banks over 25,000 acres in South Holland. South Holland consists of three
districts : (i) the central portion, about 5 miles wide, north and south of the
main road from Spalding to Sutton, between the Roman and the Raven banks,
on which are situated the villages ; (2) a tract of low fen-land, which was
often flooded by the waters of the Welland and the Nene ; (3) the marsh
north of the Roman bank. This last portion has been gradually raised by
alluvial accretions until it has become 13 ft. to 14 ft. above the level of the
sea, and about 3 ft. higher than the land between the Roman and Raven banks,
and before the seventeenth century the process had been completed sufficiently
to enable a large acreage to be reclaimed. In 1632 a marsh of 1,121 acres in
Tydd St. Mary was enclosed, in 1 660 Sutton and Lutton Marshes of
6,760 acres, and 17,374 acres in Gedney, Whaplode, Holbeach, and
Moulton."

The systematic drainage of the fens was a much larger question, with
many difficulties, and causing long and bitter disputes. It is easy to exag-
gerate the evils that undoubtedly existed. A large acreage consisted of meres,
a still larger was flooded in the winter and in wet seasons ; the Fen Slodgers,
who lived with their families in huts on isolated mounds surrounded by
water, gained only a precarious subsistence, and suffered from ague and other
diseases caused by the damp ; yet they were violently opposed to attempts to
drain the fens, where they were used to fish and hunt, and even their neigh-
bours in the villages that were free from floods asserted that the undertakers
' misinformed many Parliamentary men,' and that it was not true that the fens

^ Line. N. and Q. iv, 247. ' Maddison, Line. Wills, ii, Introd.

' Wheeler, Fens ofS. Line. 100, 10 1.

332

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

were of little value, for they bred numbers of horses, cattle, and sheep,
produced fodder for winter keep, and reeds for many uses. One chief obstacle,
moreover, to drainage schemes was, besides the natural difficulties, the
impossibility of reconciling the conflicting claims to the reclaimed lands of
those who provided the money and those who asserted common rights. It
must not be supposed that nothing had been done before the seventeenth
century ; the monks of Crowland and Selby, and many lay lords had at times
cut drains and raised banks, and the Court of Sewers had enforced repairs to
banks and drains ; but there was now a movement which, though thwarted
for the time, was bound to be ultimately successful. Several attempts at
drainage were made, but for the most part the works were pulled down
during the civil wars. The earl of Lindsey,^ under an agreement with the
Court of Sewers, drained 72,000 acres in the Witham fens, and was in 1636
put in possession of 14,000 acres as recompense for his expenses, but ultimately
the works were ruined owing to the lawlessness of the fen men. In 163 1
Sir Anthony Thomas* and other adventurers began to drain the east and
west fens, and it was in 1634 adjudged that the work was so done that the
lands were fit for arable, meadow, and pasture, and certain lands were in 1635
confirmed to the adventurers for their expenses ; for seven years their tenants
occupied and cultivated their land, but in 1642 the commoners broke the
sluices, threw down the fences, and took possession of the land. About 1641
the earl of Exeter and others undertook certain drainage works in Deeping
Fen. Dugdale ' says the land was so improved that it yielded quantities of
grass and hay, and would soon have made winter ground had not the common
people in the times of confusion taken possession and allowed it to be over-
flowed again. In 1664 the earl of Manchester and others* were by Act of
Parliament appointed undertakers to drain this fen, which they were to do in
seven years, and to have one-third of the land as payment ; the work was done,
and they obtained their lands, though later improvements in the drainage
became necessary. The first drainage of Bourn South Fen and of Thurlby Fen
was effected by the adventurers of Deeping Fen. At Crowland some land
was reclaimed by the Bedford Level adventurers.' In the Isle of Axholme,
Cornelius Vermuiden, a Dutchman, undertook in 1627 to drain Hatfield
Chase Level and lands adjoining in the isle, and for this to take one-third of
the drained lands ; but the commoners, claiming the land under a deed of
Sir John Mowbray, and asserting that the scheme would injure rather than
benefit them, burnt his carts and tools and wounded his workmen. In 1642
they renewed their riotous proceedings, much litigation followed, and more
rioting ; moreover, the drainage works were of little value, and the participants
obtained little or no profit.' Under an agreement with the Commissioners
of Sewers, Sir John Monson undertook to drain the level of the Ancholme
from Bishop's Bridge to the Humber, consisting of 18,871 acres, and in 1639
it was adjudged that he had fulfilled his undertaking, and was entitled to
5,827 acres of the recovered land for his expenses and the cost of maintaining
the drains, but during the Civil War the commoners and freeholders entered
upon these lands, and the works were neglected and the sluices decayed.''

^ Dugdale, Imianking, ^\S. ' Ibid. 423. ' Ibid. 208. ^ Wheder, Fens o/S. Line. ^20

' Petty Bag, Bedford Level Decrees, part 3, No. 40, a.d. 1667.

^ Stonehouse, Hist, of the Isle of Axholme, passim ; Dugdale, Imbanking, 141-9.

' Dugdale, Imbanking, 152.

333

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

The rise in rents and land values was large. At Ormsby the demesne
lands in 1579 were worth ^ly a year; in 1636, 296 acres of these, being
enclosed, were let for ^Tioo a year ; and besides, there were 107 acres in the
two fields and sheep runs for 35 score sheep, while the whole value of the
estate was ^2^^ iSj. 8^. ; and in 1698—9, the whole parish having been
enclosed, the rental was ^380 19^. 6d. a year.^ A close in Ketsby, called
the Carrs, containing 8 acres of arable land, which had let for i os. in 1 579
let for ^i in 1706, while its improved value was ^2. Wold land about
1650 was worth ^t^ to £/\. an acre to sell, and y. to ^s. per annum to let,* a
rate that increased towards the end of the century, for in 1687 over 6s. 6d.
an acre was given at Ormsby as rent for 84 acres, of which 50 were arable,^
and js. an acre for 17 acres of pasture in Tetford in 1 686. In the fens amongst
the thriving freeholders there was a like advance in values. At Bicker, in 1 60 1 ,
6| acres of land were sold for £ji, in 1624 twoacresfor ^C^o, while in 1640
nine acres, including these last two, were sold for ^(^1 94. At Skirbeck, in 1 609,
four acres of pasture were sold for j(^ 104, which in 1642 were bought for >C2o8.
At Fishtoft in 1601 nine acres of pasture were bought for £,?)0, in 1624 for
jr86, in 1649 nineteen and a half were sold for >C4°°' On another class of
land the rise was also maintained : in 1624 forty-eight acres at Gunby sold
for ;Cioo» ii^ 1647 two acres for >r8 ; in 1623 58!^ acres at Bratoft sold for
;^305, in 1634 twelve acres sold for ^?)0, in 1648 thirty-one acres, including
these, sold for jCsoo-* '

But it must not be supposed that there were no bad times for landlords
during the century. Sir William Pelham of Brocklesby writes,^ in 1623,
that

manie insufficient tenants have given upp theyr farmes and scheepwalks, soe as I
am forced to take them into my own hands, and borrow munnie uppon use to stocke
them. Our cuntry was never in that wante that now itt is, and more of munnie than
corne, for theare are many thousands in thease parts whoo have soulde all they have
even to theyr bedd straw, and cann not gett worke to earne any munny. Dogg's flesh is
a dainty disch, and the other day one stole a scheepe, whoe for meere hunger tore a legge
out, and didd eate itt raw.

Sir Ralph Maddison also, in 1640 and 1655, complains of the want of money
and the fall in the price of wool to the undoing of tenants, turning up farms,
and the impoverishing of trades.* Agriculture on the whole was being
improved on more modern lines, hedge-rows were appearing, and attention was
paid to manuring and winter forage.

At Eagle, in a petition to the lord of the manor before 1656, the tenants
and copyholders mention the great charges they have incurred for the
improvement of the lordship, and that it would be ' at the leaste 300" damage
to the inhabytants and to the hazardinge of their ruinge and undoinge ' if
these were not perfected. The state of the town and inhabitants is thus
described. Out of 1,300 acres 700 are not worth 6d. an acre per annum as
it has been and is now used; out of 60 families, containing 330 persons,
1 8 have need of and receive relief ; not six families have corn or provisions
but what they buy ; above twenty small farms ' will not yelde stufer and
sumer meat for six draught cattle and foure kine upon which small proportion
of stock no husbandman is able to subsiste and defraye charge ' ; no land

' Massingberd, Hist, of Ormsby, 2()J,2()<), 302. ' Ibid. 162, 175, 303.

' Leases at Ormsby. * Gunby Documents. * Line. N. and Q. i, 16. * Ibid. 40.

334

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

hath been held two generations, but the owners have been forced to sell or
borrow on mortgage ; most of the land now tilled is more proper for grass,
and that moor ground now eaten as common fitter for corn as is proved by
experience amongst our next neighbours ; the corn many times yields little
more than half again because of the barrenness and leanness of the ground,

which we are not able to menor by reason wee have not winter tneate for our
stock also it beinge subject to destruction through ill neyberhoud it being infenced and
lyinge mixt one with another ; our mores and coman not able to keepe halfe the stinte
our stock pine and selves much wronged, the keeping and seeking our catle more then the
worke the continuall charge labor and vexation that wee are at with our catle trespasinge
upon others is intolerable, and without enclosing unavoydable ; for these causes we are
inforsed to improve, which wee suppose neyther reason or law can or will denye.

The lord of the manor consented, and in 1665 it is agreed that the three
fields and two moors belonging to Eagle be inclosed, when plotted out, at the
common charge of lord and tenants ; everyone to have his lands in two plots,
one of good and the other of bad ground, as near his crew-yard as the plotters
think fit.^

At Ormsby the enclosure of the parish was made ' in the late times of
confusion,' 1650 or 1651, the allotment of lands to different owners being
set out by the sworn jurors of the manor court.' The number of freeholders
in the county probably decreased during this century, as prosperous squires
and yeomen ^ were buying land. Where the residentiary properties are now
the process of buying out the freeholders went on. At Ormsby the last
freeholder was bought out in 1639,* at Gunby in 1647.^ The process was
nearly completed by the middle of the century, but in Holland, the Lindsey
Marshes, the Isle of Axholme, and in many ' open ' parishes freeholders are
numerous still.

Evidence concerning prices is difficult to obtain. In 1603 a quarter of
malt sold for 23J., a lamb for 5J., a ewe for 6j. 8*/., a steer for 33/. 4^., a
mare for £7^ is. ; in 1661 coarse wheat was i u. to 12s. a bushel, so that the
poor 'perish for want of bread.' ° In 1637 a quarter of oats was i6j-. %d.,
an ox ^^5 loj., a young beast 33J., a yearling £1, a saddle mare ^^13 6j. 8^.,
a ewe i2j., a hog 9J., swine £1 each.'' In 1652 wheat was 30^., peas 20J.
a quarter, young beasts 14J., sheep bs. bd? In 1679 wheat was zbs., peas I2j.,
oats lOJ. a quarter, a yearling beast £\, a two-year-old 30^., a wether 7J., a
ewe 6j., a hog 3J. bd? In 1672 sheep sent to London sold for js. qd. each;
in 1690 a steer sold for j^3, a heifer and calf for 30J., another for £,2.,z.
wether for loj., a ewe and lamb for 8j. 6d. ; in 1699 an ox was £j\. 15J., a
heifer 45^"., a ewe and lamb 5/., a wether 5j-. 6d., a mare and foal 3 guineas.^"
At last we get again some prices of wool : in 1672, 555 fleeces of wool were
sold at 8j. 6d. per stone, it taking 4, 5, 6, and even 7 fleeces to weigh a stone ;
in 1673 361 fleeces were sold at js. bd. a stone, weighing better, there being
no 7 and some 3 fleeces to the stone." The evidence for wages is sad reading.
The average price of wheat for the century is 4ij-. according to Thorold
Rogers, and even if it was somewhat less here the wages by no means

' Cracroft Muniments. ' Massingberd, ffw/. of Ormsby, 285.

' See Records of the Cust Family, i.

* Ormsby Muniments. ' Gunby Muniments.
' Records of the Cust Family, \, 104,173. ' Cracroft Muniments.

' Gent. Mag. ' Old Lincolnshire, 205.

'° Massingberd, ffi//. of Ornish'^, 309, 310. " Ibid, 309.

335

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

correspond. In 1609 a man is paid bd. a day for ' fellinge of the common
thornes.'^ In 1638, in accounts of repairs of Saleby church a man's wages
are \s. a day, a boy's or woman's \d. In 1667, a man working with a car-
penter, mending gates, is paid bd. a day.** In 1668 men are paid ^d. a day,
and bd. a day for plashing. It was the custom at Ormsby to let a cottage
and a few acres of land to a labourer upon condition that he worked for the
landlord at certain specified rates ; these were from 1 1 November to

2 February, 1684-7, S^- ^ ^^Y^ ^"^ ^^- ^ ^^Y ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ °^ ^^^ year, except
at harvest ; for mowing or reaping corn or hay 1 2d. a day and 3 pints of
small beer, or 1 3^. and no beer, and Sd. a day and 3 pints of beer, or gd.
without beer for all other harvest work.^

The statute wages in Holland were considerably higher. The Holland
justices, at the General Quarter Sessions held at Spalding and Kirton 2 and

3 April, 1680, fixed these rates of wages : a bailiff of husbandry ^^4 a year
and his livery, or £1 for his livery; hinds >C3 6s. Sd., £2 1 3J. 4^., and
£2, and their livery or 3^., 2s. 6d., and is. 6d. ; a common servant
£1 6s. Sd. ; an apprentice of 18 meat, drink, and apparel, and £1, over
2 1 £2 ; a woman-servant as dairy maid £2 and livery ; other women-
servants ^i 13J. 4</. or £1 loj., 16 to 20 23J. /\.d., 16 £1 ; journeymen
clothiers, tailors, saddlers, etc., £^. Winter half-year, mid-September to
mid-March : ditcher from mid-September to AUhallows-tide, with meat and
drink, 6d. a day, without lod., from thence to mid-March ^d. or is. ;
hedger with meat and drink 6d., without is. ; thrasher with meat and drink
from September to Martinmas 5^,, without Sd., from thence to mid-March
4</. or gd. ; master carpenter, mason, tailor, bricklayer, etc., with meat and
drink 6d., without is. a day ; journeymen 4^. or lod. ; apprentices 2d. or
j^d. Summer half-year : mower with meat and drink 8^., without is. 2d.
a day, per acre not above i6d. ; mowing peas and beans i/\J., barley I2d.,
oats lod. per acre ; reaper or shearer of corn or rape by the day, with meat
and drink Sd., without i6d. ; per acre of wheat, reaping and making
ready to cart 3J. 6d. ; haymaker with meat and drink 6d., without
1 2d. or lod. a day; weeder with meat and drink 2d., without /\J.
a day; thrasher per quarter for beans and peas lod., barley iid.,
oats Sd., wheat and rye i/\J. ; ditcher per rod 12 ft. wide 3 spit deep i^d.,
7 ft. wide and 2 spit deep 6d. ; shearer of sheep by the day Sd. with, and
i6d. without meat and drink, or is. per score.* The parish constables are
to take copies of these rates to be read every quarter in their parish church
or some other convenient place upon Sunday or festival day after morning
prayers. Possibly the difference in the crops may explain why less was paid
on the Wolds, for at Oxcombe only gd. an acre was paid in 1 690 for mowing
barley." At Ormsby in 1699 a mason was paid 2s., a carpenter is. 3^., a
labourer Sd., a woman 6d. a day ; servants were paid for a year — a nurse £2,
girls ^i 2 J. and gs. ^\d. ; and a lad i^s.^

Quarter Sessions Minutes now enable us to take a view of local govern-
ment and the administration of justice by the magistrates. A careful perusal
of these minutes happily, and somewhat unexpectedly,^ leaves a strong

» ' Denton Papers,' by Col. Welby. > Ormsby Papers. » Ibid.

* Thompson, Boston, 760-2. ' Line. N. and Q. vii, 86.

^ Massingberd, Hist, of Ormsby, 311. ' Considering what has been written.

336

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

impression that Lincolnshire justices did their duty with fairness and
impartiality, as English gentlemen. It has been said that ' in each county a
few magistrates made revenge the chief duty of their office ' ^ in enforcing
the Conventicle Act, but no instance has been found in these minutes of im-
prisonment for holding an illegal conventicle, though in a few instances small
fines were inflicted for this upon Protestant Dissenters, and in Kesteven the
Thimblebys of Irnham and some others were constantly fined as Romish
sectaries who had not attended their parish churches for three months.
Thorold Rogers asserts that justices had ' the power to consult their own
interests and consulted nothing else' ; '^ but, though their interest was to keep
down the rates, Lincolnshire justices constantly enforced the law in justice to
the poor ; at East Keal the parish authorities were attempting to get out of
their obligations, and in 1674, when a poor man with his wife and children
was sent, there from Wrangle by order of the Kirton Sessions, it was found
that no overseers had been appointed, and there were no officers to receive
them, and for want of harbour they were obliged to lie in the streets, where-
upon the Lindsey justices ordered the inhabitants to provide harbour, and
fined them ^\o for not electing officers. Further, in 1677 the overseers of
East Keal are ordered to allow 5 poor people iid. a. week each whom they
had neglected to relieve. In 1688 some poor persons of Crowland complain
that they are almost starved, not having received any relief for 1 3 weeks for
want of an assessment for the poor, and the Holland justices order the over-
seers to relieve them forthwith. In 1694 the overseer of North Rauceby is
fined 20s. by the Kesteven justices for neglecting to pay is. bd. weekly to a
widow with 4 children as ordered by the court.

The Lindsey Minutes begin in 1665, but those for several years after 1 677
are wanting. The Kesteven and Holland Minutes begin in 1674, and are
better kept and continuous, seemingly being written by the same scribe. In
Lindsey the practice was to hold general sessions at Horncastle, Louth,
Caistor, and Gainsborough or Spittal every quarter; thus in 1677 sessions were
held on 23 April at Horncastle, 24 at Louth, 25 at Caistor, 27 at Gainsborough;
9 July at Horncastle, i o at Louth, 1 1 at Caistor, 1 2 at Spittal. In Kesteven
the sessions were held at Sleaford and at Folkingham or Bourn every
quarter. In Holland the sessions were held every quarter at Spalding and
Kirton.

About the criminal business there are few details. In 1676 the sheriff
is requested to take speedy care to transport a Spalding prisoner to
the Barbadoes. In 1672 a man required to find securities for good
behaviour obstinately refuses, and is committed to the sheriff, who is
to convey him to gaol at Lincoln, there to remain until he willingly does so.
In 1668 two men, apprehended at Gainsborough for fighting, appearing to
be dangerous and suspicious people, with no certain habitation or lawful
business, are sent to Lincoln Castle, there to be whipped as vagrants, and to
be sent from constable to constable the ' ready ' way to Coventry, where they
affirm they were last legally settled. In 1691, three men were committed
to the house of correction at Folkingham for 3 months for killing several
' bunnies ' out of the earl of Lindsey's warren. At the sessions held
1 6 January, 1 674, at Boston, for Kirton, there are several indictments for

' Trevelyan, England under the Stuarts, 342. ' Rogers, Agriculture and Prices, v, 628.

3 Z'il 43

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

wages due, and two men are indicted for harbouring certain vagabonds and
beggars and persons unknown in their houses. In 1673, William Styles, of
Crowland, clerk, and a yeoman are indicted for assaulting the rector of
Crowland in the churchyard, and impeding him in saying divine service and
burying the body of the wife of Nicholas Beales, calling him ' Raskall
Knave,' and snatching the Book of Common Prayer from his hands. In
1678, Thomas Tunnard, of Frampton, is indicted for keeping a dog called a
' mungrell greyhound,' and hunting hares in the snow in winter, and leverets
in the summer, not having lands according to the statute ; Thomas Graves is
indicted for keeping a ' turbulent woman ' in his house, and a butcher for
buying a cow and calf in Boston market, and selling them the same day. In
1683, John Woods, of Gedney Hill, gentleman, was indicted for permitting
persons to sit in his house, taking tobacco, and drinking a wine called
brandy, on the Lord's day, and in time of divine service, to the evil .example
of others, and against the statute. At Kirton, in 1688, it was ordered that
the late rate of wages be confirmed for this ensuing year, and that the privy
sessions be kept only once a year, and that copies of the rates be sent to the
constables of every parish. The indictments against keepers of alehouses are
numerous ; thus, Thomas Askewe, of Wood Enderby, is indicted for keeping
a disorderly alehouse, and suffering idle and disorderly persons to sit drinking
and gaming in his house at unseasonable hours, and this was proved in court
at Horncastle, 11 January, 1669; therefore the churchwardens and over-
seers of Wood Enderby were ordered to levy of his goods by distress and
sale, 20J-. to the use of the poor of the parish, and to discharge him from
tippling or selling ale or beer any more during the space of three years. In
1674, William Norman, of West Keal, kept a disorderly alehouse, and
harboured loose, idle, and suspicious persons ; therefore the churchwardens and
overseers are ordered to levy of his goods, 20s. for the use of the poor, and to
discharge him from tippling or selling ale any more.

In 1669 the judges of assize order the Lincolnshire justices to raise
_^ioo towards the repair of the Middle Part of the Shire Hall House in the
Castle of Lincoln; of this Lindsey is to pay half. In 1677 the court is
informed by credible persons that the parts of Lindsey are much annoyed
with a number of idle, loose, unknown persons wandering up and down
under several disguises, some pretending to be seamen who have suffered
shipwreck, others to be pedlars, petty chapmen, fiddlers, and fortune tellers,
amongst them many Scotchmen, who lately have and do increase, whereby
the peace of these parts is much endangered, and many burglaries and felonies
are like to be committed, for preventing which the justices unanimously
agree that they will be very diligent in putting the laws in execution against
such persons, and all constables are to be very careful to put the laws into
execution, and every person apprehending a vagrant shall have a reward of
2J., while a constable neglecting his duty shall answer for his contempt.

It will be to many a surprise to learn that poor and disabled officers and
soldiers who had fought for King Charles I were given a small allowance by
the county authorities.^ In 1668 William Coxhead, gentleman, who had
faithfully served his late Majesty of Blessed Memory, in the late unhappy
wars, and ascended to the command of a troop of horse in the regiment of

' Under the Maimed Soldiers' Act.
338

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

Colonel Sir Peregrine Barty, until the surrender of Newark, now being
grown into years, and reduced to a low condition, made his address to the
earl of Lindsey for a yearly pension, who has recommended his case to the
justices, who have ordered that he should have the pension ; this we find
later to be £6, and it is augmented by 40J. yearly. The applications from
disabled soldiers are rather numerous, and they are allowed £2 to £^ yearly.

In 1669, a Horncastle woman of a ' lude lyfe,' a dangerous and
disorderly person, who will not continue in service, but Uves by pilfering and
stealing, is, unless she go immediately to service and there abide, to be
conveyed by the constables and overseers of Horncastle to the house of
correction at Louth, there to be set on work, and to receive such punishment
as the law provides. It should be said that there were four houses of
correction in Lincolnshire, at Louth, Gainsborough, Folkingham, and Spalding,
and a very important part they played in the administrative system. In
1 67 1 Charles Kilbourne, who had kept the house at Louth a year for his
brother, setting the persons committed to him to work, and giving them
correction, being willing to give good security to provide a stock of ^40 to
be laid in for setting up a school to set young people to work, and laying in
of hemp and other provisions to keep prisoners at daily work, is appointed
master of the house of correction for the several sessions of Horncastle,
Louth, and Caistor, during good behaviour. In 1669 it is ordered that
^100 be raised to establish a house of correction at Gainsborough, that part of
the county being without one to its great inconvenience. In 1682 it is
ordered that £10 he raised in Holland to repair the house of correction and
gaol at Spalding. In 1685 a Nottinghamshire man in the Folkingham house
of correction, as a loose and disorderly person, is to be whipped and sent away
from town to town till he come to his place of settlement.

Bastardy cases are numerous with the parish authorities as complainants,
because the child may become chargeable to the parish, and the woman has
to contribute to the child's maintenance as well as the father, and is sent to
the house of correction for a year to be set to work and punished. In 1667,
at Horncastle, a man who has begotten a male bastard child is to pay to
the churchwardens and overseers of the parish of its birth i/[d. weekly, and
the mother i^d. weekly towards its maintenance until the child be 1 2, then
the father is to pay 40J. to put the child to be apprentice ; and the woman
is to be sent to the house of correction for a year to be punished and set
to work.

The poor law cases take up much space. Poor persons apply for relief,
usually successfully, parishes dispute at great length concerning the place of
settlement of paupers, apprentices are ordered to go to their places, and
masters to receive them. In 1667 a servant, hired at the Wragby Statutes,
is to go to his master and serve out his year, or be sent to the house of
correction to be punished and set on work as a disorderly person, and his
master is to receive him or answer at his peril. In 1668 a man having
come to Horncastle who may become chargeable to the parish, not farming
a tenement to the value of ;^io, or giving sureties to free the parish from
charges, is on the complaint of the overseers sent back to his last place of
settlement. A tenant of Edward Maddison, esq., complains that he must
leave his present house, and will be destitute of harbour, and have to lie in

339

A hllSlUKY Ut LINCOLNSHIRE

the streets, and it is ordered that, as the common houses of Caistor are full of
poor people, the churchwardens and overseers, with the consent of the
guardians of Edward Ayscoghe, esq., the lord of the manor, build a
house on the waste for the habitation of the petitioner and his wife. In
1672 ' a rude dissolute fellow,' a ' night walker,' who will not work, for his
living, is sent to the Louth house of correction, there to be set on work until
he find sureties for his good behaviour. At Folkingham, in 1 674, a woman
is to be found work by the overseers of her parish, or sufficient harbour. At
Spalding, in 1690, the treasurer of the maimed soldiers is ordered to pay £2
to a miller with wife and three children, formerly an English subject, who
has been forced out of Ireland by the tyrannical usage and oppression of
Lord Tyrconnel.

In 1 67 1 seven persons, who have served their apprenticeships as mercers
and milliners, complain that several Scotchmen, under pretence of being
pedlars, travel lip and down the country selling divers wares and merchandise
to the great prejudice of those who have served their apprenticeships to the
said trades, and all Lindsey constables are ordered to apprehend these
Scotchmen, and convey them before some justice.

We find orders for repairs to bridges and roads, and amongst their many
duties the justices had to enforce precautions against the plague. In 1665
the justices were ordered, at the Lincoln Assizes, to send forth warrants
to all petty constables, because of the fear of the spread of the plague, to
apprehend vagrants and wandering persons, not to permit unnecessary meetings
of strangers at fairs, to examine all travellers and strangers, and not allow
them to receive entertainment in houses unless they can show they are free
from infection. At a sessions at Lincoln Castle, 5 October, it was ordered
that guards be set day and night in the ways and passages of the city, bail
and close, and persons be appointed to go round to see the warders do their
duty. A pest-house was erected in the fields of Gainsborough to harbour
infected persons and suspicious cases, and a letter was written to the bishop,
setting forth how grievously Garthorpe, in the Isle of Axholme, was infected
by the plague, 64 persons being attacked, and requesting that they might
have a weekly allowance out of the monthly contribution of the county for
people infected.

The justices, besides regulating the rates of wages, regulated the rates
of carriage and the prices of salt. At Sleaford in 1696 the justices agreed
upon the following rates for carriage of goods per cwt. : from London to
Stamford and Deeping ^s. 6d., to Bourn 5J. 10^., to Grantham 6s., to
Sleaford and Spalding 6s. Sd., to Donnington 6s. lod., to Boston ys., and for
every parcel of 7 lb. and under 6d., and it was ordered that the prices of
salt should be not more than i2d. the peck of 141b. of Newcastle salt, or
^d. the peck of other sorts. How the poor laws were carried out in the
different parishes may be seen from churchwardens' accounts. But first it
seems well to notice how frequent were bequests to the poor in wills of the
beginning of this century, and what provisions were made by testators for the
benefit of the poor. In 1609 the rector^ left £11 for the poor of Fleet,
which the parson or the collectors for the poor were to hold, paying 20s. for
the use thereof, which the parson was to divide amongst the poor, especially

' Maddison, Line. Wills, ii, 32. He left a large library of books.

340

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

poor widows and fatherless children. The same year Baruch Whittingham
left to the poor of Sutterton £io, which is to be ' letten by the overseers to
such poore men as can put in sufficient securitie ' for the payment of the stock
and the rent, which rent is to be distributed amongst the poorest people.^
In other cases legacies are to be used to buy coal or corn to be sold to the poor
at cost price, or to buy cows to let out to poor people at a rent, which is to
be distributed amongst the poor.** Turning to churchwardens' accounts we
find that at South Kelsey in the years,' 1619-32, the average sum spent was
jCs ; in 1606 the churchwardens receive zys. Sd., of which 20s. is for the
poor man's box ; in 1625 there was found in this box 13J. 4^., whereof
1 8^. was given to Helen Osgerbie by the church to buy her a pair of shoes ;
in 1622 a widow, maintained by the parish, was buried ; in 1634 collection
bills were ' made straight,' and 6j-. Sd. given to the churchwarden for the
relief of an orphan ; in 1654 the overseers have collected 21s. Sd., whereof
they have distributed to Robert Leeming i6s., and paid 4^. for a warrant ;
in 1655 their monthly collection is ^s. 4^., their distribution 4J-. 8d. ; in
1693 George Slight takes a poor child to keep for a year, being paid by the
parish 6J. a week ; another man takes Jane Fetherby for a year, and is to
have I J. 2d. a week ; in 1695 a female orphan is sent to a farmer as an
apprentice until twenty-one, the parish paying him £2 5 ^" 1696 ^^3 is paid
with a boy apprentice, who is to be kept, clothed, and taught to read,
write, and keep accounts.

Though the 1801 census tells of an increase of population, there is no
evidence of any considerable increase of prosperity in Lincolnshire towns in
the eighteenth century, but agriculture made a progress which became rapid
towards the end of the period, a very large acreage of fen lands was reclaimed
and drained, most parishes were enclosed, winter keep for sheep and cattle
was grown, the breed of both was improved, and rents and land values rose,
and wages also, though not sufficiently to make the labourer prosperous
again.

The changes amongst the country gentlemen continue. No longer do
we hear of Ayscoughs, Copledikes, Skipwiths, Thimblebys, Armines as
high sheriffs, but of TroUopes, Custs, Chaplins, Boucheretts, Turnors,
Andersons, Cholmeleys, Sibthorps, though a few names appear again as
before, Dymoke, Amcotts, Maddison, Thorold. Enterprising landlords, with
a little ready money, bought land on purpose to enclose. The young owner
of Ormsby, just of age, thought * of buying Ketsby and enclosing the sheep
walks ; his rental at Ormsby, enclosed by his father, increased to £64.6 ^ a year
from £2^° ^9-f- ^^- ^^ 1698 ; in 1774 the rents were ^^ 1,045 ^9-''- 5^* -^
lease in 1703 gives these rents of lands in Ormsby, 3J. 9^., ys. Sd., 10s. per
acre. Ketsby was valued in 1706, the actual rent being ;!^I20 for 860 acres,
2 J. gd. an acre ; it was reckoned that the improved rent might be ;£i4-6 ys.;
some of the land that was enclosed let for ioj., but two sheep-walks of 576
acres let for under is. an acre. This prepares us for the report in 1801 of
a well-known agriculturist upon the state of Mareham on the Hill. He says
that of 1,370 acres 800 are arable in open fields,* which are not expected to

' Maddison, Line. Wills, ii, 43. ' Ibid. 51, 118, 138.

' Not quite consecutive. ' Massingberd, Hist, of Ormsby, 307.

' Ibid. 303. ° The rest are old enclosures.

341

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

produce more than a crop to a fallow, and one acre in five is so poor and weak
for want of turnips and seeds that it is not capable of producing more than
one crop of corn in four acres ; the improvement will come from saving of
labour through laying the present dispersed lands together, from increased
produce through the introduction of turnips and seeds, and from grass lands
being used for pasture instead of continuous meadow; and he estimates that,
while the present value of the open fields is not more than 5J. an acre, it
will, when enclosed, be worth i 8j-.^

The enclosure awards are so well known that very little need be said on
the subject. The number for Lincolnshire in George I's reign is very large.
The valuers appointed under the particular Act of Parliament proceeded to
mark out the roads and allot the lands amongst the owners as conveniently
as possible, in many cases, too, lands were allotted to the tithe owners in
lieu of tithe. In most parishes, where there were no commons or waste
lands, everything went smoothly, to the great benefit of the owners and
their larger tenants. The case of cottagers who lived in houses with a
right attached to turn out a cow on the open fields is more doubtful.
A proposal to compensate them has been mentioned, and the best land-
lords would find no difficulty in giving them a fair equivalent for their lost
custom ; if they were leaseholders, it would be a legal right so long as the
lease lasted. They might either be given a small quantity of land with their
cottages, as was the case at Ormsby at the beginning of the eighteenth
century,^ or a pasture field might be set apart for them, into which they
might have ' cow gates,' as in some Kesteven parishes. In the few parishes,
chiefly in the fens, where there were commons, common marshes, moors and
waste lands, the complications were much greater, and the claims advanced
most difficult to satisfy. Enclosures and drainage were most important, for
the reclaimed fens are amongst the most fertile soils in England, and the part
they took in providing food for the increased population during the scarcity
of the early nineteenth century must have been very great. Moreover, the
old system was by no means always fair to the poorer cottager ; Arthur Young
tells us ^ of much ' oppressing " or over-stocking of the common ; one
cottager, whose rental was £^ a year, kept 1,500 breeding geese in the fen ;
another, paying ^^i for his cottage and croft, had in Holland Fen 400 sheep,
500 geese, 7 cows, 10 horses, and 10 young beasts ; after the enclosure he
rented 50 acres of the enclosed land at 25J. per acre, and greatly preferred
his new situation, not only for comfort, but for profit also. The chief ques-
tion was, what was the just share of the reclaimed lands of the lord of the
manor ? When it was proposed to drain and allot the East and West Fens*
the proprietors of estates having rights of common met at Stickney in 1800
to protest against the allowance of one-twentieth ' proposed to be given to
the duchy of Lancaster in lieu of manorial rights, and it was stated after-
wards, in a letter, that in Deeping Fen the allowance had only been one-
fortieth ; but the Act of Parliament approved the proportion claimed, and it
must be remembered that the rights of the lords of Bolingbroke in the fens

' Mr. W. Cragg's papers. ' Leases at Ormsby Hall.

' Surcey of the Agriculture of Line. 262, 273. ■* Wheeler, Fem of South Line. 222, 227.

° It was only in a few cases that a lord of a manor got large compensation for his rights in the common
and waste lands. At North Witham two lords got just over three acres each.

342

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

were in early days very valuable. No doubt the lords of manors got a very
good bargain, and so did the country.

The drainage of the fens was indeed a great triumph of perseverance and
skill. It seems that altogether over 330,000 acres in the county have been
reclaimed from the sea or the waters of the fen to a greater or less extent
since the Conquest, including more than two-thirds of Holland.^ Over
50,000 acres have been reclaimed from the sea in Holland, 127,800 acres
have been drained in the Witham Fens, besides 34,000 in the Black Sluice
district, 80,700 by the Welland Trust, 34,000 in Deeping Fen, 850 in
Bourn South Fen, and 1,500 in Thurlby. And this does not include some
reclamations in Lindsey ^ or in the Isle of Axholme. The state of the fens
before these great drainage works was terribly bad. Acres of land, which
now bear heavy crops, were then under water all the year round, and still
more in winter and especially rainy seasons. Near Chapel Hill * the sheep
had to be carried to their pasture in boats, and the cattle swam from island
to island, and large districts were nothing but an unwholesome swamp.
Various reports showed how bad the drainage of the Witham valley was, and
in 176 1 an Act of Parliament was passed for ' draining and preserving certain
low lands, lying on both sides of the river.'* Before this, in 1734, the
Court of Sewers had constructed a new Maud Foster sluice, and cleaned and
deepened the drains of the West Fen, and thereby effected some improve-
ment, and in 1784 the Mill Drain in the East Fen was deepened and
enlarged, but the fenmen complained that the commissioners had ' imbibed
such a rage for drainage that exceeds both utility and Justice,' and the result was
that a sluice was built and the water retained at an agreed height.^ In 1794
an Act ® was passed for improving the outfall of the River Welland and the
better drainage of the lands discharging their waters into this river. In
1738 an Act was passed for the improvement of the drainage of Deeping
Fen.'' Thus throughout the fens the engineer was at work, though much
money might have been saved had the outfalls been deepened and straightened
at first, instead of miles of unnecessary banks being built after the Dutch
custom.

Some more particulars about rents and land values may now be given.
In 1700 arable land at Castle Bytham* was let at 3^. 412'. an acre, sixty years
later 3 acres on changing hands was raised to 5J. 6d. an acre, a smaller piece
was let at 4^., and in ly/S, the last year of the old account book, two
tenants who had had their land 38 years still had it at 3J. /\.d. per acre, all
the others being charged 4^. 6d. The purchase value of wold land may
thus be shown :' In 1714 52 acres at Sutterby were bought for ^^290,
£^ I2S. an acre ; in 17 15 Driby was bought for ^^4,600, £2 lO-f- ^^ a^cre ;
in 1730 475 acres at Ketsby were sold for ;^2,8oo, £^ 15J. an acre; in
1792 735 acres in Walmsgate and Ketsby were sold for ^^14,400, nearly _;/^20
an acre. In 1759 land at Ormsby was valued at ys. 6d., los., and 151. an
acre ; in 1775 12J acres in the marsh at Theddlethorpe let for £iT, ^ year.^"

' Calculations from Wheeler, Fens of South Line, passim.

* In Ancholme Level 18,871 acres were drained — Dugdale, Imbanking, 152.
' Wheeler, Fens of South Line. 395. ■* Ibid. 152.

' Ibid. 209, 2IO, 211, 222. " Ibid. 208. ' Ibid. 322.

" Wild, Hist, of Castle Bytham, 133. ' Massingberd, Hist, of Ormsby, 175, 176, 24.0, 242.

'° Ibid. 312, 313

343

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Arthur Young's General View of the Agriculture of Lincolnshire affords much
information concerning rents in 1797. He gives ^ the rent of the Lowlands
as 23J. an acre, some land in the marsh being worth 40J. ; the Wolds as 9J.,
the Heath as 8j. 4^.; other lands as I4J-. He tells of estates that have
doubled, or even trebled in value, in 50 years/ The benefit of enclosures is
shown by Navenby Rectory having become' more valuable than the total
rent of the lordship before, the farmers being in better circumstances, and
the poor employed ; and by the rents at Dalby, Driby, Langton, &c., on the
Wolds having trebled* since the enclosures. He considers warping the
greatest of all improvements, and greatly to the honour of the county.' He
is agreeably surprised at the change since he was in Lincolnshire 30 years
before ° ; then there was hardly a turnip, and now there are thousands of acres
of them, and the enclosure of heaths and wastes are signs of meritorious
progress. The glory of Lincolnshire is in his eyes the grazing land,'' he
notes its richness, the quantity of stock it will keep, and the reasonable rents.
How a gentleman of small means lived may be seen by an example :
Peregrine Langton, who was the uncle of Bennet, Dr. Johnson's friend, lived at
Partney, in the house opposite the church, which with two or three small
fields he rented for ^28. On his death in 1766 the Doctor wrote to his
friend to give him particulars of a life that ' certainly deserves to be known
and studied; he lived in plenty and elegance upon an income which to many
would appear indigent and to most scanty.' Mr. Langton tells how his
uncle had an annuity of f^'zoo a year; his family consisted of a sister, who
paid him jTiS annually for her board, and a niece ; the servants were two
maids and two men in livery, his table in common had three or four dishes,
and when, as frequently, he entertained company, was well served with as
many dishes as other gentlemen in the neighbourhood; he had a post-chaise
and three horses, he always had a sum of money by him, and set apart a
tenth of his income for charity ; the main particular that enabled him to do
so much with his income was that he paid for everything as soon as he had
it, every Monday morning he settled his family accounts, and gave notice to
the tradesmen of the neighbouring market towns that they should no longer
have his custom if they let any of his servants have anything without their
paying for it.^

It must not be supposed that the eighteenth century was without its
times of agricultural depression. A letter at Ormsby shows that in 1728
the estate was unlet or came into the hands of the widow of the late owner at
Lady Day, except the lands held by small tenants, Skegness being also unlet ;
she let all she could without abating two-thirds of the rents it had been
raised to, but was unable to let it all.'

The poll book for the election of a knight of the shire in 1723 gives
us some idea of the number of freeholders at that time. The number of
freeholders who polled was 4,990. As there were only thirteen booths for
the whole county in 18 18, and probably not more in 1723, it may be con-
cluded that a considerable number of freeholders did not vote because of the
distance, though they had the necessary qualification, and there were also free-

' Massingberd, H/V/. o/0r»//3y, 57. Mbid. 46. ' Ibid. 99.

" Ibid. 105. ' Ibid. 326. " Ibid. 113, 163. ' Ibid. 201, 220.

* Walker, tint, of Partney, 130-3 ; Boswell, Life of Johnson (1887), ii, 17 ».
' Massingberd, Hist, of Ormsby, 307.

344

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

holders whose lands were not valued at ^z a year, but after making allowances
for these there is still a large diminution in the number from the 10,820 soke-
men in 1086. In Holland the voters were almost 900, so that the freeholders
there had more than doubled : in the Isle of Axholme the increase is still more
striking; there were over 400 freehold voters there in 1723 to 84 sokemen in
1086. The decrease is in those parishes where resident gentlemen have been
rounding off their estates. A few small freeholders still remained in
parishes where we should hardly expect them, but the lack of freeholders in
some marsh parishes, as Ingoldmells, Skegness, and Addlethorpe, can only be
explained by the supposition that, while several had not the necessary
qualification, many would not travel miles to vote. Of the Isle of Axholme
Arthur Young writes,^ almost every house you see is inhabited by the owner
of 4 to 40 acres, where, cultivating land of uncommon fertility, he grows an
endless succession of corn, potatoes, hemp, flax, beans, etc.; these men do
nearly all the work themselves, working like negroes and not living so well
as the inhabitants of the poor-house, yet all is made amends for by
possessing land.

Evidence concerning prices continues difficult to obtain until the end of
the century. In the account book ' of George Langton for 1707 we find 43
ewes and 2 tups sold for ^^14, 4 steers and a heifer for ^t loj., a cow and
calf for 50J-. ; he grew turnips and fed them off with sheep , and we find the
interest on money to be 5 instead of 10 per cent, at the beginning of the
seventeenth century. In 1725 Mr. Langton sold wheat at 32^. a quarter in
March ; in April he sold 30 shear hogs for j^2i, 20 hogs for ^11 \ 27 May
he began to mow clover ; in June he bought 2 heifers for £b ; he sold in
November a stone horse for ^(^4, and bought a horse for ^16 ; he pays ^^6 to
a woman for a year's wages and ^t^ to another. In 17 18 some goods landed
at Skegness are distributed amongst friends at these rates, green tea 14J.,
bohea ^Ti a lb., muslin bs. 6d. and 9J-., calico zs. td. and y. per yard ; in
May, 1740, shearling ewes and wethers are valued at I4J-. each, hogs at i u.,
ewes and lambs at 13J. 6^., steers at ^^4 ioj., cow and calf ;^5 5^., heifer ^4,
horses ^\7. and i^iz, 15J., colt 3 years ^8, filly 2 years ;C5-' In January,
1781, tupping ewes are valued at ioj. each, shear hogs and wethers 13^., lamb
hogs IOJ., cows and calves ^\, steers and heifers 3 years ^'x,^ bull £\, milch
cow ^7, calf 30J-., work horse ;^8.* But Arthur Young tells of much higher
prices c. 1797, 3 year-old steers at ^\c),^ bullocks bought for ^\^ sold for
^26, cows sold at ^27 IOJ. ; wethers bought at ^z sold at ;^3, hogs at 30J.,
drape ewes at 30J. 6^., 16 years before at 8j. 6^., lambs I2j. in 178 1, 24J. in
1794; hogs i8j. in 178 i, 34J. in 1794; shearlings 26j. in i78i,50j. in 1794;
tups let at _^4 each. He gives much information about wool ; ' in Holland
Fen 2J fleeces will weigh a tod; on the Wolds 3, sometimes 2, would weigh a
tod; prices 30J. a tod in 1728, £^\ in 1758, i6j. in 1761, 15J. in 1768, i8j.
in 1774, I2J. in 1779, i u. in 1782, 15J. bd. in 1784, 2 3J. bd. in 1792, i8j.
in 1794.

For wages in 1721 we have an agreement^ at Ormsby between the land-
owner and his labourers ; they are to have 7^. a day for ' every statutable dayes

' Gen. View oj Agriculture of Line. 19. » At Ormsby Rectory. ' Massingberd, Hist. ofOrmshy, 311-13.
' Hist, of Doddington, 176. ' Gen. View of Agriculture of Line. 340, 341, 342, 345, 349, 363, 386, 389'
' Ibid. 348, 355, 361. ' Line. N. and g. vi, 92.

2 345 44

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

work, and also the further sum of dd. per day for 58 days between i July
and 7 September, and also id. 2l day from i May to 29 September in lieu of
small beer, item the labourers do agree readily to come at y« rates abovesaid
at three dayes warning ' ; their wives and children to work as the agent
thinks they deserve and none to work for anybody else ; \d. per rood for a
dyke 4 feet wide and 3 feet deep, scouring an old dyke half price ; mowing
saintfoyne 13^. per acre, grass 15^., barley u., oats \od. But the wages had
doubled before the end of the century,^ men on the roads were paid in 1774
I J. to I J-, bd. a. day, and in 1791 a labourer was paid is, id. a day, and zs.
a day for mowing grass ; in 1794 a woman-servant's wages were 9 guineas a
year. In 1754 the statute wages fixed at Boston were ^ — artificers' servants
^(^3 to ^^6 ; ploughmen ^(,'5 and ^3 ; boys under 18 ^z ; artificers is. bd. to
IS. Sd. per day in summer, with meat lod., in winter is. 4^., with meat Sd.;
labourers in husbandry in summer is., with meat 6d., in winter 8d. to lod.,
with meat ^d., mowers is. bd. to zs. according as they work by the acre ;
oats and barley is. bd. ; wheat by the acre, reaping, binding, and shocking
5J-., oats and barley the same ; reaper zs. per day, with meat is. bd., woman
IS. bd., with meat is. ; harvest- man, best, zs. per day, 2nd is. bd. ;
thrashing and dressing wheat and rye zs., oats bd., barley is. zd. ; the price
of wheat was in July 24J., and in August and November zbs., and by the
Assize of Bread the bd. wheaten loaf was to weigh 5 lb. 12 oz. 11 drs., and
the bd. household loaf 7 lb. 11 oz. 9 drs. in July, and 5 lb. 7 oz. 13 drs.
and 7 lb. 5 oz. i dr. respectively in August and November.

Arthur Young ' considered that labour was probably higher in Lincoln-
shire than in any other county in the kingdom. The average he gives at
loj. a week for 26 weeks, loj. 9^. for 9 weeks in spring, 13J. bd. for 9
weeks in summer, zos. for 8 weeks in harvest ; * about Burton upon Stather the
day's wages are — winter is. 3^., spring is. bd., hay zs. bd., harvest 3J. 3d'. ;
twenty years ago they were — winter lod. a day, spring is., haytime is. bd.,
harvest zs. Mutton was bd. a lb., beef bs. a stone, butter lod. a lb. ; in
1759 butter was 3^. per lb., in 1786 beef z\d.^ He says it is impossible to
speak too highly * in praise of the cottage system of Lincolnshire, where land,
gardens, cows, and pigs are so generally in the hands of the poor ; it is gratify-
ing to every honest heart to see the people comfortable ; and the poor-rates
are low, not one-third of what is paid in Suffolk.

The Lindsey quarter sessions minutes for the eighteenth century become
less interesting, and are badly kept, but the diminished entries are in themselves
a proof of the better state of the country. In 1 704 Spilsby had become a fifth
centre for quarter sessions, which in July are held on consecutive days at
Horncastle, Louth, Caistor, Spittal, and Spilsby ; in 1787 the system of
holding the court four times a year, but keeping it open by adjournment to
different places has come in. Thus a court is held at Gainsborough on
October 2, and by adjournment on October 3, then adjourned to Louth to
October 5 and 6, and to Spilsby on October 18 and November 12 and 26.
The Kesteven Quarter Sessions are in April, 1724, held at Bourn, and

' Massingberd, HiU. ofOrmsby, 317, 313. ' Thompson, Hist, of Boston, 766.

' Gen. View of Agriculture of Line. 451, 447 ; corn prices are lower (p. 73).

* Supposing the labourer to pay 60s. a quarter for corn he could, in 1798, purchase a quarter in 5
weeks : zo years before corn was cheaper, and he might purchase a quarter with his lower wages in the same
time. ' Ibid. 451-2. " Ibid. 468.

346

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

by adjournment, at Sleaford, and it became the practice for many years to hold
them the first day at Bourn or Folkingham and the next day by adjournment
at Sleaford.

A few cases will show the business without, however, repeating instances
similar to those given before. In 1700, at Sleaford, the high sheriff was
ordered to ' forthwith provide an instrument for to affix those malefactors
heads in who shall be convicted of larcenies, and sentenced to be burnt in the
cheeke, and do cause the same to be affixed in the Town Hall at Sleeford to
be used for that purpose, under the penalty of £s'~'-' I^ ^7*^5 ^' Gains-
borough the new-built house at Beltoft in the Isle of Axholme is licensed, and
allowed to be a public meeting house for Protestant dissenters, commonly
called Quakers. In 1710, at Gainsborough, John Juett, D.D., treasurer for
the county for the relief of prisoners in Lincoln Castle, is to appoint a fit
person to look over the poor prisoners on work from time to time, as he
shall think fit, and to pay such person a reasonable allowance. This was
before John Howard was born, and shows the Lincolnshire magistrates not
altogether unmindful of their duties towards prisoners even thus early.
Appointments of gamekeepers nominated by lords of manors now become
common, a nomination at Spilsby in 1 740 is given in full : Lord Willoughby
de Broke, lord of the manor of Gayton le Marsh, nominates Alexander
Emerson, of Hackthorn, gentleman, to be his gamekeeper, with full authority
to kill game for his use, and take and seize all such guns, greyhounds, setting
and other dogs, nets or engines for taking hares, pheasants, partridges, or
other game, kept or used by any persons not legally qualified to do the same,
and do all that belongs to the office of gamekeeper. At Bourn, in 1726, a
contract is mentioned, made by the county authorities with a London
merchant to convey and transport eleven convicted felons to some of His
Majesty's plantations in America, the charge being £120, of which Kesteven
is to pay £2°- ■'■" ^7^7^ ^^ Sleaford, an apprentice is ordered to be dis-
charged because he has married contrary to the contract between him and his
master, a tailor. In 1730, at Lincoln, the grand jury presented a man for
extortion in taking 8 lb. of wheat and rye out of one strike of Edward
Beresford's, esq., for grinding it at Nettleham mill. At Louth, in 1733, the
keeper of the house of correction is fined 5J-. for suffering Jonathan Parrott to
escape ; and the treasurer is to provide hemp to the value of £^ to set
prisoners on work, the keeper of the house of correction giving security to be
answerable for the same. At Folkingham, in 1733, William Wright is
presented for suffering his fences to be unrepaired ; and for stealing 7 hens
WiUiam Harrison is ordered to be whipped, and committed to Folkingham
gaol for two months. In 1735, at Lincoln, a man is presented as a common
trespasser in over-stocking Brattleby Common. At Folkingham, in 1736, a
disorderly public-house is ordered to be suppressed, and the keeper is
discharged from selling for the future any ale or other strong liquors in the
said house, of which the sign is to be pulled down by the constables. In
1 74 1, at Sleaford, Thomas Searson is committed to the house of correction at
Folkingham for 3 months, there to be kept to hard labour, for returning from
Eaton, in Leicestershire, being sent there by an order of the justices as to the
place of his last legal settlement. At Caistor, in 1741, a man was indicted
for keeping scabbed horses on Market Rasen Common ; at Spittal a man is

347

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

indicted for selling flax under weight. At Sleaford, in 1742, a Leadenham
labourer was indicted for setting up and exercising the trade of butcher to
which he had not been apprenticed for 7 years. At Kirton, in 1746, a
Haxey wheelwright is to answer for drinking the Pretender's health.

At Folkingham, in 1746, it is ordered that only such cattle are to be
exposed for sale at the next fairs of Corby and Folkingham, as are certified
to have been kept in Lincolnshire, where the distemper amongst horned cattle
is not yet raging ; in 1747, at Horncastle, >C3°o is ordered to be raised for
expenses relating to the infection now raging amongst horned cattle ; at
Spilsby, in 1748, horned cattle are forbidden to be sold at any fair or market
until further order, and at Horncastle 12 inspectors are appointed to cause
cattle dying on the East, West and Wildmore Fens, to be buried immediately
at the cost of the owners.

At Folkingham, in 1748, it is stated that the county magistrates had
agreed to allow the keeper of the gaol at Lincoln Castle £1 ^T, 8 J. 2d. yearly
for 7 years for maintaining the county gaol and county house, and for allow-
ing every felon 8 lb. of good household bread and i lb. of beef weekly, and
to debtors the same, paying also land-tax ; ^2 yearly for coals for the use of
debtors and felons ; for oatmeal for felons £z yearly ; the apothecary what
is needful ; for pots, buckets, &c., ^3 ; and whereas the county has been
much imposed upon by debtors, who lie in gaol and receive the county's
allowance, but are handycraftsmen, and work at their business, and get a
sufficient maintenance, therefore no debtor shall have the allowance unless
they produce a certificate from their parish officers that they are necessitated
persons ; and the keeper of the gaol shall have ^^8 8j. for transporting every
felon, and a fee of 13J. 4^. for every felon. At Folkingham, in 1755, a
woman convicted of obtaining goods by false pretences is ordered to be
publicly whipped, receiving ten lashes on her naked back.

At Bourn, in 1757, an order is made regulating the weight of bread
sold ; a T^d. wheaten loaf is to weigh i lb. 13 oz. 1 3 drs. ; a 3^. household
loaf, 2 lb. 7 oz. 12 drs. ; a 6d. wheaten loaf, 3 lb. 11 oz. i o drs. ; a 6d. house-
hold loaf, 4 lb. 15 oz. 8 drs. ; and the poor are recommended to buy only
household bread, being one-third more in weight than wheaten.

At Sleaford, in October, 1796, the inhabitants of New Sleaford applied
that a watch be kept by night and ward by day, until 6 April, and the petty
constables of the parish were ordered to cause this to be done, and apprehend
all rogues, vagabonds, and other wandering, idle and disorderly persons, and
carry them before some justice. At Spilsby, in 1787, the clerk of the peace
is directed to distribute ^6^0, the amount of the bounty allowed for the
growth of hemp and flax within these parts, amongst the persons found
entitled thereto ; at Caistor a vagrant, brought from the house of correction
at Gainsborough, is re-committed thereto until the next sessions or he enters
His Majesty's land or sea service. At Spilsby an apprentice to a cordwainer,
complaining of not being instructed in trade, and misusage, and the master
failing to clear himself, is discharged.

In January, 1788, an adjournment is made to Lincoln to consider the
present allowance to the keeper of the county gaol in lieu of profits hereto-
fore derived from the sale of liquors in the gaol, and the best means for
employing prisoners, when the justices are of opinion that no allowance ought

348

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

to be made, but they give the gaol keeper an additional salary of £^(>- At
Lincoln, in September, 1788, it is ordered that the apartments of the new-
gaol appropriated to free debtors be also used for the confinement of militia
deserters ; that fees taken by the gaoler for the use of furniture in debtors'
rooms be abolished ; that Cobb's Hall be fitted up for the reception of
vagrants apprehended within the Bail and Close of Lincoln ; and that justices
be requested to inspect the internal management of the gaol, and give such
directions from time to time as they think fit. At Caistor, in 1789, it is
ordered that the house of correction at Gainsborough be inspected, as to
additions and alterations to make it more useful, having regard to the classing
of inmates according to the nature of their crimes, providing proper places
for the employment of persons committed to hard labour, and keeping every
part of the prison clean and wholesome ; when it was found that the average
number of persons annually committed was 24, of which three-quarters were
males, and that the house was thoroughly insufficient ; 1 1 persons were
crowded into a small, dark, close day-room, so extremely offensive as to be
scarcely supportable, the supply of hemp so scanty and precarious as to furnish
no regular system of employment, and no mills or looms ; the appearance of
prisoners forlorn, desperate and abandoned, the gaoler a sensible, worthy man
unable to employ or keep them in order, no places for washing, no provision
for the sick or filthy. The committee viewed with great concern so large a
number of their fellow-creatures thus confined in a place injurious to health,
and daily becoming more profligate from idleness and vicious conversation,
and recommended an entirely new system ; and the court-house at Caistor
being so low and damp that it must be rebuilt, or justices will not continue to
risk their lives, they recommended that one general Bridewell for this district
be erected at Kirton, with a house for the keeper, and a court-house. In
1789-90 plans and contracts for the Bridewell at Kirton are considered and
approved.

In 1800, at Bourn, the sale of finer bread than the standard wheaten
bread is forbidden, except id. or 2d. loaves, and every loaf is to be marked
S. W., and the quartern wheaten loaf is to weigh 41b. 5J oz. In the
Holland Statute Book 20 April, 1796, yearly wages are entered, £^ to
£1^ i^s. for lads, 50J. to ^5 ^s. for girls, being the rates.

Parish accounts now Qive. information concerning the actual working of
the poor law. At first the sums expended are quite small ; about 1780 they
increase largely, and before the end of the century they become excessively
heavy. At Ormsby,^ in 171 5, the overseer's disbursements were ^9 ijs.\
in 1722 they were £\6 igs., and the constable and surveyor's £S 6s.; in
1760 they were ^29 14^.; in 1783 ^ they were ;C695 and in 1803 £2°5-

At Baumber' the disbursements were in 1776 £22 15^., in 1780 £6^,
in 1782 £iog, in 1786 ^83, in 1791 ^72, in 1795 ^107, in 1797 ^142,
in 1799 >C242, in 1800 £,24-7' Amongst the expenses in 1797 were
;^5 I J. 4^. for county stock ; ^3 for rent of poor-house ; 51 weeks' collec-
tion for 5 persons at is. to 5J. each, £^^ i8j. ; to 4 others, ^16 4J. ; coals
and kids, £6 14.S. iid. ; 2 pairs of stockings, 3J-. lod., and a blanket 5J. 6d.
for a blind boy ; the constable's bill, £•/. At Tetney,* in 1774, instead of

' Massingberd, Hist, of Ormsby, 314-15. ' Poor Law Returns, 1803.

" Parish Accounts. * Tetney Parish Books, from Paper by Rev. J. Wild.

349

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

collections each ratepayer undertook to pay according to his assessment one
or more poor, thus Robert Young paid a woman 2J-. a week, Mr. Ludlam
paid 2 persons 4J. and a third 2s. 6d. a week; in 1781 cloth made
by paupers was sold for ^6 lis. at 13^. to \6d. a yard; in 1786 a
workhouse was built for ;^i3i, and in 1790 two men undertook for
;^I05, and a piece of land and the lanes, to maintain the poor there for
a year ; in 1792 the payment was jCqo ; in 1798 the cost of maintaining
the poor waS;^i8o.

Several apprenticeship agreements are preserved at Baumber. In 1765
the churchwardens and overseer with the consent of two justices apprentice a
boy with a blacksmith until he is twenty-four; he is to serve faithfully and
obediently, and his master covenants to provide him with sufficient meat,
drink, and apparel, and that he shall not be any way a charge to the parish,
and to teach him ' the art, mistery or occupation of a blacksmith,' and
provide him at the end of the term, double apparel of all sorts, namely, a
good new suit for holidays, and another for working days. In 1720, the
churchwardens and overseer of Horncastle acknowledge that Anne Elsey
and her family, who desire to remove to Baumber for convenience and work,
are legally settled at Horncastle, and that if they become chargeable to the
parish, they will receive them again.

The larger Lincolnshire towns prospered greatly and continuously in the
nineteenth century. Lincoln, besides being a great agricultural centre, now
sends agricultural implements all over the world, while Grantham and
Gainsborough manufacture agricultural implements on a large scale. Grimsby
from little more than a fishing village has risen to be the greatest fishing
town in England. Boston made rapid progress during the first half of the
century, chiefly because of the prosperity of the rich district around, but,
notwithstanding enterprising efforts to revive the trade of the port, it has of
late failed to keep pace with other large towns. The smaller towns prospered
so long as agriculture prospered, but many of them have suffered since the
agricultural depression set in, Spalding, Sleaford, and Spilsby seeming to be
exceptions, as also Barrow upon Humber. The discovery and working of
iron at Frodingham has brought a new source of wealth.

The beginning of the century witnessed agricultural improvements that
were signal proofs of the enterprise and skill of all classes. In 180 1 an Act
was passed for draining the East, West and Wildmore Fens, containing over
32,000 acres, which were under water every winter, and 4,000 acres at all
seasons of the year.^ Mr. Bower reported^ in 18 14 that 'every wished for
object in the drainage of the whole of the fens was effectually obtained, and
the lowest land brought into a state of cultivation,' and that now ' when the
low lands in every part of the kingdom are overflowed by floods, these fens
are perfectly free.' These fens were also enclosed by separate Acts, and in
1 8 12, seven new townships were formed, Eastville, Midville, Frith ville,
Carrington, Westville, Thornton le Fen, Langriville. The complete
drainage and cultivation caused, however, the spongy soil to subside one to
two feet, especially in the East Fen, and in 1864 an Act was obtained to
improve the outfalls." Drainage by steam pumps was also inaugurated in

' Wheeler, Fens of South Line. 216, 222. ' Ibid. 226.

' Ibid. 231, 359.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

1867^ the benefit being found very great. All over the county, too,
' undergripping ' with tiles was undertaken, the owners usually providing the
tiles, and the occupiers the labour.

The early years of the century were prosperous for landlords and
tenants. Wheat at 154^. a quarter in March 1801, and averaging 6gs.
1802-6, 88j. 1807-16, 74J-. 1817-21,^ made farmers gallop after one
another to obtain a vacant farm, but in October, 1822, wheat was down to
38J., barley 14^., mutton 3d', a lb., prices said to be 'ruinous to the farmer.'
In 1833, wheat in Lincolnshire was 55^. a quarter, and yet there were
complaints, though it is asserted that in Lincolnshire agriculture is doing
better than elsewhere, because the people are industrious and painstaking and
the land is better.''

Of the state of affairs in Lincolnshire, Mr. Cragg writes, in 1831, that
owing to the dry season in 1826, and wet ones since, the employment of
labourers was affected, for nobody would do more than he could help, and a
great number were ' sent out of the way ' upon the roads, and paid the lowest
justices' wages out of the poor rates, whilst the corn was thrashed out by
machinery, so that through want and vexation, riots began in the south of
England, and stacks were burnt, but now happily these outrages have ceased,
and employment in draining land and other improvements have brought better
things.* Thus early Mr. Cragg protests against the depopulation of villages
by the accumulation of large farms, so that there is only one family instead of
two or three, and less opportunity for an industrious man to improve his
position by obtaining a small farm.^

Rents followed the course of events. A farm at Threckingham was let
for ;^i an acre in 1795, 36J. in 1814, 34^. in 1830, zgs. in 1831.° At
Ormsby the rental had advanced to ^1,956 in 1808, and a re-valuation came
to ^2,725 ; in 1864, another re-valuation came to ^^3,482. At Driby,
668 acres were let in 1808 for j^63o, the re-valuation being jr84o ; the rent
was ;^75o, 1840—51 ; in 1865 it was >C88o, about 27J. an acre ; in 1878, a
farm here was let at 36/. an acre. At Ormsby the rents 1840—51 were
higher, a farm of 229 acres letting for 3 4/. an acre, a rate which remained
the same in 1865, but rose to 39J. in 1878.' Never was Lincolnshire
so prosperous as c. 1870. Farmers were again galloping after one another to
hire or purchase land. Rents on the Wolds were 35J. an acre or more,
feeding pasture in the marsh let as high as ^^5. Wold land sold for
^50 up to ;^8o an acre, and marsh land for over ;Qioo. Prices were
high, and the labourer earned the highest rate of wages ever known. In
1879 came a wet and disastrous harvest, and land values have gone
down ever since, for, if now farms are somewhat easier to let, an estate
on the Wolds can only be sold at a price which is little more than the
cost of buildings and improvements. At Saltfleet, good land, which made
-^1,000 in 1872, sold for £j{io in 1904; land at Alvingham sold for
_5^545 in 1863, but in 1904 for ,^200 ; a farm at Binbrook, bought in 1881
for ;^6,ooo, sold twenty years later for ^3,000.* At Brinkhill on the
Wolds, land purchased in 1871 at ^TSo an acre, and let at the request of the

' Wheeler, Fens of South Line. 235. * Rep. Agi-icultwe (Select Committee), 1833.

^ Ibid. ' Cragg Papers.

"■ Ibid. « Ibid

' Ormsby Papers. ' Standard, Nov. 2, 1905.

351

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

seller to him at 38J. an acre, is now let at 25J., and the rest of the estate
has been sold at under ^30 an acre.

Altogether, the affairs of the Lincolnshire squire never were so low
compared with those of other classes as at present. While fortunes are being
made in the towns, he has to watch his patrimony diminishing in value
through no fault of his own, and his expenses, if he is to maintain his
position, are increasing. The yeomen are becoming fewer, though fortunately
a few still survive, while the tenant-farmers, notwithstanding lower rents, are
by no means prosperous as a rule.

The smaller freeholders certainly became more numerous during
the century. At the beginning, lands in the fens were sold in small lots to
pay the expenses of drainage and enclosure, and some copyholders got
their lands enfranchised, but the largest increase of freeholders came from
the sale of large estates in lots, to suit small purchasers, anywhere where the
land and circumstances were suitable. In South Holland the estates of
Lord Eardley, Lord Saye and Sele, and others, were sold in this manner,
with the result that the district has become one of small proprietors, without
resident squires. Some twenty years ago, both here and in the Isle of
Axholme, mortgagees in possession held much of the land, but now they
have sold out, and small holders have purchased the land, and on the whole
are prosperous. In other parts, too, landlords have sold land in the good
times in small plots, wherever possible, and so diminished their charges, and
benefited the community. The poll book of 18 18 shows that 608 more
freeholders voted than in 1723, the voters in Lindsey being 3,124, in
Kesteven 1,417, in Holland 1,057. T^^^ voters' lists in 1905 give 4,000
owners in Gainsborough division, 2,205 in Brigg, 2,034 in Louth, 2,308 in
Horncastle, 1,684 ^^ Sleaford, 1,873 ^^ Stamford, 5,272 in Spalding — 19,376
in all, nearly double the number in 1086, or at any other period, the great
increase being in Holland and the Isle of Axholme, while in Kesteven there
is hardly any. The Wolds and Cliff and Heath are better cultivated by
larger farmers, but even here there are in ' open ' parishes some small
freeholders in suitable places.

The same causes have affected allotments ; there are instances of them in
1833, and earlier, and in the fens and elsewhere on suitable land they have
been a success, but on the Wolds large gardens adjoining the cottages seem
preferable.

As regards prices of corn, the enormous ups and downs, and the
difference in different places in the same county are noticeable. In August
1812, wheat was 150J. a quarter; in October 1822, 38j.^; in January 1801,
at Lincoln, wheat was 131^'., rye 94J"., barley 8oj-., oats 48J. a quarter; at
Spalding, wheat was iioj., rye 84J., barley 6ij., oats 45^.** How prices
have diminished of late years is well known ; wheat was sold in January
1868 at 74J. a quarter, in September at 50J., and barley at 49J. ; in 1894,
wheat was sold at i ys.^ The prices of meat have not varied so much ; in
1804—10, beef was 6|^., bacon 6ld. a lb.;* in i860, butcher's meat was 7|<^.,
bacon g§d.; in 1887 both were jd.^ In 1867 fat ewes were sold at

' Rej>. Agficulture (Select Committee), 1833. * Provincial Literary Repository.

' Ormsby Accounts. * Young, op. cit.

" Prothero, Pioneers of Engl. Farming, 281.

352

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

6ld. a Ib.,^ and the price is much the same now, while bacon is 6d. a lb.
Wool, however, has gone down about as low as corn, much to the detriment of
the high districts where the fertility of the land depends upon the sheep, and
at one time a farmer could nearly pay his half-year's rent with the produce of
his clip. In 1814 wool sold for 44J. a tod f in 1872 it sold for 56J. 6d., in
1875 for 43J., 1877 for 35J., 1885 for 2zs., 1899 for ijs. 6d., 1901
for 1 3 J, 6d.^ As Lincoln sheep sometimes clip 141b. of wool, and will
average 10 lb., the loss to the farmer, who has 500 to 1,000 sheep, has
been very great.

Articles of general consumption, and clothing have become cheaper,
much to the benefit of the poorer classes. In 18 15, the quartern loaf was
IS. Afd., tea bs. a lb., sugar 9^^., candles 'j\d.\ in i860, the loaf was J\d.^ tea
\s. a lb., sugar 4|<2., candles 6</.; in 188 1, the loaf was 4!^'., tea is. 3^.,
sugar 2\d., candles \d. a lb.* At the end of the century tea was \s. 6d.,
sugar 2d. a lb. The question of wages and the condition of the people is a
difficult one. With agricultural wages at 1 2 J. a week, in 18 13, and 15^. in
18 16,' and wheat averaging 88j. a quarter 1807—16, it would take a labourer
six or seven weeks to purchase a quarter, and would make his condition worse
than ever known. But times were good for farmers, and at Ormsby, in
1 8 1 1 , labourers were paid y. 6d. a day, and there is abundant proof of a
liberal, if mistaken, administration of the poor law, moreover, there is
evidence that the labourers were better satisfied during the war than in 1833,
because no good labourer was unemployed.* The young men boarded with
the farmers certainly did not suffer, being paid in 1806 £6 up to >ri8 a year,
while the girls had from £/^ to jQy.'' In 1833, with wages at 13^. 4^.,*
and wheat at 53J. one expects an improvement, but the witnesses of
1833,' while admitting that the labourer is better ofF^° in proportion to
prices of food and clothing, do not on the whole bear out this conclusion,
though Mr. Peyton thinks the Lincolnshire labourer better off than others
he knows of, because of the practice of allowing him to keep a cow,
giving a carter so much and the keep of a cow. In 1836 wages were
1 2 J. a week, and remained the same in 1837 and 1838." In 185 1 wages are
lower (loj-.), with wheat at 38/.^^ In 1867 they are 15J.,'' but wheat is
64J. ; in 1872 they are i8j. in summer, and i6j. 6d. in winter ; in 1873-4
they are i8j.; in 1875 they are down to i6s. 6d. in December; in
1879 they are 15J.; in 188 1-3 1 5/. in summer, 13J. 6d. in winter;
in 1885 13J. 6d., and i2j. in December; in 1888 \2s.; 1890 13J. 6d.;
in April 1891 15/.; in 1894 13J. bd., but 12s. in November ; April 1895
to April 1898 13J. 6^., then to July 1900 15J.; in summer 1 900-1
i6j. td. In 1 85 1 wagoners were paid ^^5 to £12 a year;" in 1868 £,iy,
in 1875 £1% loj. ; in 1876 ^^6 lOj. to ^^20 loj.; in 1883 ;^6 to £,1^; in
1885 ^5 to>ri7; in 1895 ;C9 tOjCi?; in i9oo>Ci8." Those high (1872-5)

' Ormsby Accounts. ' Stamford Mercury.

' Ormsby Accounts But it has risen to 30/. in 1906. * Prothero, Pioneers of Engl. Farmiijo; 281.

' Bowley, Wage! in the 'Nineteenth Century ; table at end.

* Kep. Agriculture, 1833. In 1829 wages were 12/. a week (Cragg Papers).

' Spalding Stat. Book. ' Bowley, Wages in the Nineteenth Century ; table at end.

° Rep. Agriculture, 1833. '" If employed.

" Bowley, op. cit. " Caird, Engl. Agriculture, 480.

" Ormsby Accounts. " Haggard, Rural Engl. 147.

" Ormsby Accounts. All the weekly wages are exclusive of harvest and piecework.

2 353 45

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

wages would purchase a quarter of wheat in three weeks, but the present
wages of 1 5 J. would purchase it in a fortnight. Certainly the Lincolnshire
agricultural labourer, however some may wonder how he and his wife are
able to manage so well on so little, is better off than ever before. He lives
in a house of brick instead of a hovel, he considers what were unknown
luxuries necessaries, famine and plague are things of the past, he has sufficient
food for himself and his family, he can go where he likes for his work,
and has no difficulty in finding it. The inventions of the age have
lessened his labours, for he no longer mows corn or grass, or thrashes with
a flail. His children have free education, and he himself can obtain a book
and a newspaper.

The rates for skilled labour are difficult to obtain. A carpenter in
the seventies received in the country 5^. a day, he now receives 4/. At
Lincoln he has 30J. a week, and a foreman 40J. In the engineering
works there, iron turners and fitters received in 1886 26s. to 30J. a week,
pattern-makers zSs. to 30J., moulders 28 J. to 32J., blacksmiths 28J. to
34J., boiler-makers 30J. to 34J., labourers i8j. to igs ; now the wages are
respectively 28j. to 32J., 30J. to 36^., 30i-. to 34J., 30J. to 36^., 32^. to
36/., i8j. to 20J. ; and men can earn considerably more by overtime and
piecework.

The facts concerning the administration of justice and local government
are easily accessible. Everyone knows how petty sessions have, since 1828,
been established at convenient centres ; how quarter sessions have come to be
held for Lindsey at Lincoln only ; for Kesteven at Bourn and Sleaford ; for
Holland at Spalding and Boston ; how county councils and district councils
have taken over the local government. There seems no doubt that serious
crime has greatly decreased since the establishment of the county police in
1857, the improvement in the condition of the people contributing thereto.
At Lincoln assizes, March, 1 8 1 6, six men and one woman were sentenced
to death — three men for sheep stealing, one for horse stealing, one for
burglary, one for assault and robbery, and the woman for the same ; now
sheep and horse stealing have practically ceased, and night burglaries are very
rare. Altogether the conduct of the people has vastly improved, their
honesty is undoubted, and, with a few unhappy exceptions, the country people
are extremely sober.

The population returns show an increase for every decade, but, looking
closer, we see that while up to 1851 the population has almost doubled, and
the increase has been both in town and country, after 1 8 5 1 both Kesteven and
Holland show a loss, and Lindsey's increase of over 98,000 is accounted for
in Grimsby (including Clee) and Lincoln, leaving Gainsborough and
Frodingham to make up the losses in the country districts, where, until
1 88 1, the population was almost stationary, followed by a drop in 1891, and
a still greater one in 1901. It would almost seem as if the population
employed in agriculture was little greater in i8oi or 1901 than in 1086, for
the Domesday population of the whole hundred of Hill, a purely agricul-
tural district, equals that of 1 801, and is only slightly below that of 1901,
and many parishes give similar results. It will be noticed that the largest
increases and decreases for the country districts are in the ' open ' parishes; the
fact is that some of these became overcrowded, men had to walk several

354

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

miles to their work, some actually riding six or seven miles on donkeys,^ and
in winter-time many were out of work ; now landlords have had to build the
necessary cottages for their farms.

The poor-law reports and parish accounts are for too many years sad
reading, but it is well to remember that the sums ratepayers spent in the
relief of the poor show an intention to do right, and that the poor laws saved
England the horrors of the French Revolution. Modern ideas of a ' living
wage ' were then unknown, and when a working-man could not maintain
himself and his family on his wages they were supplemented out of the rates.
As early as 1803 the amount spent in Lincolnshire in the relief of the poor
had doubled since 1783-5, being ;C95'575 against ^43,024; in 1813 the
amount was _^i 29,343 ; in 1829^^172,427; in 1823 ^^156,184 ; in 1829
^171,565.^ The poor-law returns for 1803 show a large increase of paupers
in most parishes since 1783—5, but there are a few exceptions ; Brothertoft
spends ^60 against ^^74, there being a friendly society witli 9 1 members,
and 61 children in a school of industry employed in knitting stockings and
making worsted. The overseer of West Firsby remarks that the parish
being wholly occupied by himself accounts for there being no chargeable
poor. At Cuxwold are four families for which a cow is kept; they have
gardens and potato grounds, and kill two or three pigs a year ; their children
are employed in agriculture as soon as able to work, and they preserve their
independence and live more comfortably by far than if they had an allowance
of three times the amount they cost the parish. Caistor has united with
twenty parishes and built a house of industry on the common ; the children
begin to spin woollen yarn very well, the old are employed in such
work as they can perform. Turning to the Baumber accounts again
for the ordinary working of the poor law, we find the expenses in
1805-6 ^^278 ; there are the usual 'collections,' and there are bought for a
pauper and his family, seemingly sent to Baumber to be maintained,
2 bedsteads lis., 2 chairs and table 3J., chaff bed is., 2 blankets 12s.,
bed-cord 2s. bd., kettle and pot 'js., 7 yards harden js., thread 2d.,
rack-hooks and teapot is., cups and saucers is., dishes lod., 4 basins %d.,
saucepan 3^., washtub 4J., pail 3J., ' beesom ' 3*/., i sack coals and
5 wood-kids 5J. 4^^/., board for a shelf is., 5J lb. mutton 2s. C)d. ; in
1812-13 the disbursements are >C375» 1814-15 ;r4i9, 1815-16 ^616,
1816-17 ^505, 1817-18 >r452, 1818-19 ^362, 1823-4 ^^282, 1835-6
^249; 1837-8^213,^ several paupers having been sent to the Horncastle
Union House ; 1840-1 ^C^SS. 1861-2 >Ci22 ; the parish loses by the Union
ChargeabiHty Act, for in 1866-7 ^^ payments are ^^jt, and it is not until
1882-3 that there is a considerable decrease, the payments being ;^2io. At
Ormsby the payments are {^ifib in 1825-6, ^^270 1838-9, ^^134 1854-5.
In 1824 the practice of giving labourers part of their wages out of the rates
had mostly been discontinued in Lincolnshire, but those who had children
received assistance, in some parishes where they had four or more, in others
according to their circumstances.* A search of the union accounts of
Horncastle and Spilsby, which probably give a fair idea for the county, shows

■ Caird, Engl. Apiculture (1850-1), 197. ^ Pari. Rep. ' Horncastle Union Accounts.

' Accounts and Papers (Pari. Ret. to Com. on Labourers' wages, 1825), xix.

355

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

there was a large increase in the expenses in 1854-5,^ which continued ^ until
1882—3, when there was a large decrease at Horncastle, and still larger at
Spilsby. Since that time Horncastle expenses have remained stationary,
while those of Spilsby have largely decreased. The conclusion seems obvious
that the condition of the people has improved largely since 1872, not through
any legislation but through the rise of wages, and the fall in prices of food
and clothing. The improvement since 1803 is of course still greater, as
shown by the percentage of paupers being three instead of nine.*

TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801 to 1901
Introductory Notes
Area

The county taken in this table is that existing subsequently to 7 & 8 Vict., chap. 61 (1844).
By this Act detached parts of counties, which had already for parliamentary purposes been amalga-
mated with the county by which they were surrounded or with which the detached part had the
longest common boundary {2 & 3 Wm. IV, chap. 64 — 1832), were annexed to the same county for
all purposes ; some exceptions were, however, permitted.

By the same Act (7 & 8 Vict., chap. 61) the detached parts of counties, transferred to other
counties, were also annexed to the hundred, ward, wapentake, &c. by which they were wholly or
mostly surrounded, or to which they next adjoin, in the counties to which they were transferred.
The hundreds, &c. in this table are also given as existing subsequently to this Act.

As is well known, the famous statute of Queen Elizabeth for the relief of the poor took the then-
existing ecclesiastical parish as the unit for Poor Law relief. This continued for some centuries
with but few modifications; notably by an Act passed in the thirteenth year of Charles II's reign
which permitted townships and villages to maintain their own poor. This permission was necessary
owing to the large size of some of the parishes, especially in the north of England.

In 1 80 1 the parish for rating purposes (now known as the civil parish, i.e. 'an area for which
a separate poor rate is or can be made, or for which a separate overseer is or can be appointed ')
was in most cases coextensive with the ecclesiastical parish of the same name ; but already there
were numerous townships and villages rated separately for the relief of the poor, and also there were
many places scattered up and down the country, known as extra-parochial places, which paid no rates
at all. Further, many parishes had detached parts entirely surrounded by another parish or parishes.

Parliament first turned its attention to extra-parochial places, and by an Act (20 Vict., chap. 1 9 —
1857) it was laid down {a) that all extra-parochial places entered separately in the 1851 census returns
are to be deemed civil parishes, (i) that in any other place being, or being reputed to be, extra-parochial
overseers of the poor may be appointed, and (c) that where, however, owners and occupiers of two-
thirds in value of the land of any such place desire its annexation to an adjoining civil parish, it may
be so added with the consent of the said parish. This Act was not found to entirely fulfil its object, so
by a further Act (3 1 & 32 Vict., cap. 122 — 1868) it was enacted that every such place remaining on the
25 December, 1868, should be added to the parish with which it had the longest common boundary.

The next thing to be dealt with was the question of detached parts of civil parishes, which was
done by the Divided Parishes Acts of 1876, 1879, and 1882. The last, which amended the one of
1876, provides that every detached part of an entirely extra metropolitan parish which is entirely
surrounded by another parish becomes transferred to this latter for civil purposes, or if the population
exceeds 300 persons it may be made a separate parish. These Acts also gave power to add detached
parts surrounded by more than one parish to one or more of the surrounding parishes, and also to
amalgamate entire parishes with one or more parishes. Under the 1879 Act it was not necessary
for the area dealt with to be entirely detached. These Acts also declared that every part added to
a parish in another county becomes part of that county.

L . L

' 1 840-1, Horncastle (>,lSl, Spilsby 7,837.

1854-5, Horncastle 8,141, Spilsby 10,291.

1882-3, Horncastle 6,213, Spilsby 5,702.

1904-5, Horncastle 6,131, Spilsby 3,535.

' Probably the decrease began earlier, but the accounts 1872-3 do not show it.

"North Midland Tables. There vi^ere 18,845 paupers in Lincolnshire in 1803, in 1895 15,333, 'n
1905, 15,116.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

Then came the Local Government Act, 1888, which permits the alteration of civil parish boun-
daries and the amalgamation of civil parishes by Local Government Board orders. It also created the
administrative counties. The Local Government Act of 1894 enacts that w^here a civil parish is partly
in a rural district and partly in an urban district each part shall become a separate civil parish ; and
also that where a civil parish is situated in more than one urban district each part shall become a
separate civil parish, unless the county council otherwise direct. Meanwhile, the ecclesiastical parishes
had been altered and new ones created under entirely different Acts, which cannot be entered into
here, as the table treats of the ancient parishes in their civil aspect.

Population

The first census of England was taken in 1801, and was very little more than a counting of the
population in each parish (or place), excluding all persons, such as soldiers, sailors, &c., who formed
no part of its ordinary population. It was the de facto population (i.e. the population actually
resident at a particular time) and not the de jure (i.e. the population really belonging to any par-
ticular place at a particular time). This principle has been sustained throughout the censuses.

The Army at home (including militia), the men of the Royal Navy ashore, and the registered
seamen ashore were not included in the population of the places where they happened to be, at the
time of the census, until 1 841. The men of the Royal Navy and other persons on board vessels (naval
or mercantile) in home ports were first included in the population of those places in 185 1. Others
temporarily present, such as gipsies, persons in barges, &c. were included in 1841 and perhaps earlier.

General

Up to and including 1 83 1 the returns were mainly made by the overseers of the poor, and
more than one day was allowed for the enumeration, but the 1841— 1901 returns were made under
the superintendence of the registration officers and the enumeration was to be completed in one day.
The Householder's Schedule was first used in 1841. The exact dates of the censuses are as follows : —

10 March, 1801 30 May, 1831 8 April, 1861 6 April, 1891

27 May, 1811 7 June, 1841 3 April, 1871 I April, 1901

28 May, 1 82 1 31 March, 1851 4 April, 1881

Notes Explanatory of the Table

This table gives the population of the ancient county and arranges the parishes, &c. under the
hundred or other sub-division to which they belong, but there is no doubt that the constitution of
hundreds, &c. was in some cases doubtful.

In the main the table follows the arrangement in the 1 84 1 census volume.

The table gives the population and area of each parish, &c. as it existed in 1 80 1 , as far as possible.

The areas are those supplied by the Ordnance Survey Department, except in the case of those
marked * e,' which are only estimates. The area includes inland water (if any), but not tidal water
or foreshore.

t after the name of a civil parish indicates that the parish was affected by the operation of the
Divided Parishes Acts, but the Registrar-General failed to obtain particulars of every such change.
The changes which escaped notification were, however, probably small in area and with little, if any,
population. Considerable difficulty was experienced both in 1891 and 190 1 in tracing the results
of changes effected in civil parishes under the provisions of these Acts ; by the Registrar-General's
courtesy, however, reference has been permitted to certain records of formerly detached parts of parishes
which has made it possible approximately to ascertain the population in 190 1 of parishes as constituted
prior to such alterations, though the figures in many instances must be regarded as partly estimates.

* after the name of a parish (or place) indicates that such parish (or place) contains a union
workhouse which was in use in (or before) 1 851 and was still in use in 1901.

X after the name of a parish (or place) indicates that the ecclesiastical parish of the same name
at the 1 90 1 census is coextensive with such parish (or place).

O in the table indicates that there is no population on the area in question.

— in the table indicates that no population can be ascertained.

The word ' chapelry ' seems often to have been used as an equivalent for ' township 'in 1841
which census volume has been adopted as the standard for names and descriptions of areas.

The figures in italics in the table relate to the area and population of such sub-divisions of
ancient parishes as chapelries, townships, and hamlets.

357

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

TABLE OF POPULATION
1801 — 1901

Ancient or Geographi-
cal County '

Acre-
age

1.693,550

1801

i8n

208,625235,224

1821

283,058

1831

1841

1851 1861

317,288 362,602 407,222 412,246

1871

liiSi lagi

436,624 469,947 472,907

I90I

498,868

Parish

Acre-
age

1801

1811

1821

1831

1841

1851

1861

1871

1881

1891

1901

Parts of

Holland

Elloe Wapentake

Cowbitt ....

4>59o'

366

351

511

556

664

686

649

648

637

577

571

Crowland % . . .

13,450

1,425

1,713

2,113

2,268

2,973

3,183

3,148

3,168

2,929

2,800

2,747

Deeping Fen (part

'5-033

370

463

398

448

540

591

1,180

1,270

1,364

1,325

1,255

of) Extra Par.2

Fleet'

6,836

551

680

776

794

960

1,162

1,172

1,187

1,164

1,039

1,017

Gedney : —

12,377'

1,307

1,378

1,786

1,862

2,277

2,519

2,459

2,482

2,228

2,214

1,965

Gedney t ■ ■ •

—

1,042

1,113

1,442

1,491

1,797

1,950

1,993

2,077

1,884

1,836

1,642

Gedney Hill

—

263

265

344

371

480

569

466

465

344

378

323

Chap, t X

Holbeach*' . .

21,469

2,683

2,962

3,621

3,890

4,637

5,191

5,096

5,520

5,357

4,932

4,909

Moulton ....

11,840

1,228

1,273

1,629

1,850

2,038

2,058

2,143

2,272

2,248

2,088

2,017

Pinchbeck t . .

1 1 ,640"

1,538

1,663

2,099

2,391

2,780

3,062

2,933

3,149

2,995

2,746

2,725

Spalding * f . ■

12,070"

3,296

4,330

5,207

6,497

7,778

8,829

8,723

9,111

9,260

8,986

9,381

Sutton, Long, or

21,636'

2,935

3,155

3,955

5,233

5,845

6,591

6,124

6,406

6,952

6,395

6,505

Sutton St.

Mary : —

Sutton St. Maryt

—

1,723

1,801

2,390

3,510

3,736

4,416

4,051

4,253

4,901

4,443

4,629

Sutton St. Ed-

—

397

433

549

626

776

757

730

734

676

670

614

mund Chap, t J

Sutton St. James

—

308

307

343

391

535

569

526

557

605

596

560

Chap, t X

Sutton St.

—

507

614

673

706

798

849

817

862

770

686

702

Nicholas or

Lutton Bourne

Chap, t

Central Wingland

1,658

—

112

III

143

113

(part of) ■•

Tydd St. Mary X •

4,954

607

629

776

960

920

1,107

977

974

928

837

821

Weston t . . .

5,566

328

406

498

567

681

759

750

807

846

808

773

Whaplode X ■■—

10,688

1,271

1,317

1,744

1,998

2,357

2,564

2,462

2,601

2,375

2,216

2,150

Whaplode . .

8,581

935

962

1,204

1,418

1,614

1,719

1,618

1,666

1,592

1,451

1,473

Whaplode Drove

2,107

338

355

540

580

743

845

844

935

783

765

677

Chap.

Kirton Wapentake

Algarkirkt . . .

6,050'

517

587

602

651

754

843

772

721

733

658

622

Bicker* . . . .

4,068

J485

541

644

{'%

859

819

839

781

746

681

675

Ferry Corner Extra
Par.

1 Ancient County. — The area is taken from the 1901 Census volume, and does not include a part of Crowle with
Ealand Township included for convenience of comparison. There was no change in area notified under the Act
7 and 8 Vic. c. 61. The population given for 1811 excludes 2,410 militia, who were not assigned to their
respective Parishes (see also note to Falkingham).

a Deefing Fen is partly in Elloe Wapentake and partly in Ness Wapentake. It became a Parish as Deeping
St. Nicholas by a special Act (19 & 20 Vic c 65), and is entirely entered in Elloe Wapentake, 1801-21, and 1861-1901,
where the area is shown.

s Holbeach Union Workhouse is situated partly in Holbeach and partly in Fleet Parish. It is entirely entered in
Holbeach Parish.

4 Central Wingland is first returned in 1861. It was then described as Extra Parochial, and consists of land
reclaimed from the sea. The remainder is in Norfolk.

6 Bicker includes part of Copping Syke. This part of Copping Syke became a Civil Parish under the Act
20 Vic. c. 19 ; but, for convenience, is shown with Bicker Parish.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801— 1901 {continued)

Parish

Acre-
age

1801

1811

1821

1831

1841

185 1

i86i

1871

1881

1
1891

1901

Parts of Hol-

land (font.)

Kirton Wapentake

(cont.)
Donington J . .

S.835

1,371

1,528

1,638

1.759

2,026

1,867

1,690

1,753

1,666

1,547

1,486

Fosdyke t . . •

2,761'

271

301

424

401

601

592

549

631

600

543

527

Frampton t ' • •

6,200'

542

628

688

706

784

801

843

825

886

821

777
1,808

Gosberton ft- •

8,820-

1,189

1,301

1,618

1.95 1

2,120

2,091

2.107

2,167

2,104

1,815

Hall Hills ^ . . .

133

—

Hart's Grounds

576

—

Extra Par.

Kirton : —

10,300*

1,340

1.643

1,803

1,886

2,092

2,299

2,265

2.437

2,474

2,312

2,384

Kirton' . . .

9,400

1^38

1,531

1,692

1,763

1,970

2,176

2,141

2,295

2,344

2,187

2,247

Brothertoft

900'

102

112

111

123

122

123

124

142

130

125

137

Chap, t X
North Forty Foot

123

342

261

343

350

300

238

198

159

163

Bank Extra

Par.
Pelhams Lands

740-

Extra Par.t
Quadring f X

4,210-

506

622

704

858

971

993

1,001

938

900

866

82s

Skirbeck (part
of)^:-
Skirbeck Quarter

1,019

171

237

325

323

416

457

642

782

854

975

Hamlet

Surfleettt . . .

3.500"

609

658

812

871

951

945

953

1,069

941

975

941

Suttertonf . . .

6,550*

737

860

1,014

1,093

1.303

1,445

1,338

1.436

1,314

1,194

1,208

Swineshead t '" .

6,125"

1.555

1,561

1,696

1.994

2,079

2,044

1,903

1.923

1,747

1,672

1,724

Drainage Marsh

—

Extra Par.'

Forty Foot Bridge

—

Extra Par.«

\ 49

Gibbet Hills Extra

—

Par.«

Rakes Farm Exlra

—

Par.'

Royalty Farm

—

Extra Par.'

Wigtoft ....

3-587

536

555

637

697

713

741

732

699

672

653

693

Wyberton ft-.

3>23i°

477

353

487

530

584

647

608

617

646

659

627

Skirbeck

Wapentake

Bennington t . .

3.090"

362

335

406

500

539

603

588

620

618

553

527

Butterwick t . .

1.370"

229

240

482

504

i79

625

605

619

628

582

550

Fishtoftt . . .

4.580"

267

293

456

463

562

640

586

683

843

595

656

Freiston t . . .

3,980'

734

801

862

1,089

1,276

1,240

1,239

1,298

1,239

1,101

1,074

Leaket . . . .

5,88o'

911

922

1,417

1.744

1.859

2,062

1,912

1.952

1,843

1,720

1,660

Levertont ■ . •

3.390°

339

387

544

631

687

790

770

818

724

651

598

Skirbeck (part of )t'

3,00 r

368

477

982

1,255

1,515

1,972

2,236

2,376

2,588

3,063

3.649

Wrangle! . . .

6,295

732

843

995

1,030

1,132

1,196

1,198

1,279

i,i6S

1,084

1,028

Boston Borough

5.073

5,926

8,180

10,373

11,240

12,942

15,132

15,078

15,156

15,465

15,132

16,174

and Parish * f

Parts of

Kesteven

Aswardhurn

Wapentake

Asgarbyt • • •

838'

126

Aswarby ....

1,625

108

116

119

107

128

142

129

142

122

1 Frampton includes Bridge Piece, which seems to have, at one time, been deemed to be Extra Parochial

' Hall Hills was not distinguished prior to 187 1. It was described as a Civil Parish in that year, but seems to
have been at one time Extra Parochial. It includes Shuff Fen.

» Kirton Township includes Simon's Weir, which was at one time Extra Parochial, and became a Civil Parish
under the Act 20 Vic. c. 19. There were a large number of men temporarily present in 1871, engaged in reclaiming
a marsh.

^ Skirbeck Ancient Parish is situated partly in Kirton Wapentake and partly in Skirbeck Wapentake.

' Swineshead includes Great and Little Brand End Plots, which appear to have been at one time Extra Parochial.

6 Drainage Marsh, Forty Foot Bridge and Gibbet Hills, Rahes Farm, and Royalty Farm were returned with Swineshead
Parish, 1801-31, where their areas are included.

359

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801— 1901 {continued)

Parish

Acre-
age

1801

1811

1821

1831

184I

1851

1861

1871

1881

1891

1901

Parts of

Kesteven {con

'■)

Aswardhurn

Wapentake (cor

t-)

Aunsby . . .

. 1,269

100

105

117

133

140

139

138

129

104

Burton Pedwar-

1,898

124

io5

125

136

135

161

202

163

154

dine %

EvedonJ . . .

. 1,651

Ewerby . . .

. 2,923

223

281

315

345

433

508

473

461

45'

384

358

Hale, Great :—

. 6,184

627

710

863

966

1,003

1,008

1,059

1,086

1,070

901

838

Hale, Great .

. 3fi96

404

448

577

667

722

661

687

759

708

613

568

Hale, Little

2,488

223

262

288

299

281

347

372

327

362

286

270

Township

Haydor (part
of)':—
Culverthorpe

Chap.
Kelby Chap.

1.953

120

146

185

213

246

248

219

188

184

161

140

899

109

139

135

120

101

. 1,054

103

124

104

107

113

Heckington J .

. 5>302

1,042

1,261

1,438

1,480

1,558

1,581

1,725

1,865

1,766

1,686

1,604

Helpringham J .

. 3-4 10

518

550

693

750

774

829

912

^11

941

758

767

Howell 1 1 • .

. 1.650°

Ingoldsby % . .

. 2,367

254

253

360

345

402

407

427

407

365

361

261

Kirkby-la-Thorj.

e . 2,578

160

156

166

170

213

235

208

230

256

257

234

Kyme, South (p

of) =
Quarrington f ■

art 4.892

292

389

516

493

581

610

549

520

530

456

432

. 1,620'

lOI

109

132

184

236

264

299

340

364

454

865

Scredington X ■

. 2,634

222

253

256

306

364

397

394

341

3'9

285

Sleaford, Old t .

. 1.150°

126

176

215

272

345

357

372

397

526

5'5

669

Swarby . .

. 997

108

119

143

142

200

208

188

175

171

140

148

Willoughby, Sil

kj 2,590

225

197

'93

227

256

237

258

380

275

226

Ave land Wap

en-

take

Aslackby J .

. 4,078

338

383

425

455

507

492

534

528

432

415

405

Billingborough

t . 2,374

537

669

745

831

999

1,048

1,149

1,227

1,189

1,123

1,018

Bourn * % .

. 10,103

1,664

1,784

2,242

2,569

3.361

3,717

3,730

3,850

3,760

4,191

4,36'

Dembleby t .

. 1,101

Dowsby X

. 1,905

,36

140

201

230

232

215

J 95

195

186

171

195

Dunsby J

. 2,671

146

156

190

172

195

203

195

200

223

193

256

Falkingham '

. 1,940

531

659

759

744

820

763

650

696

576

502

462

Haceby . .

. 733

Hacconby .

. 2,596

260

3'3

321

381

406

454

408

453

412

363

322

Horbling X •

. 3,143

387

417

491

559

571

550

546

578

501

482

445

Kirkby Under-

1,094

181

168

167

162

192

185

189

214

213

201

169

wood J

Laughton

. . I, '60

Morton . ,

. 4,851

603

660

765

842

952

938

1,008

973

950

899

794

Newton . .

. 1,361

127

150

162

176

221

220

228

196

173

187

159

Osbojrnby X

. . 1,471

343

364

428

522

599

654

613

606

496

419

392

Pickworth X ■

. 1,474

156

174

186

187

265

261

253

240

227

231

180

Rippingale J

. 3,544

488

509

611

658

694

661

569

590

55'

543

473

Sempringham j

:— 4,332

358

415

462

490

556

595

632

569

580

539

5'9

Sempringhan

I . h9'i9

Birthorpe To

ship
Pointon Cha

wn- 532

p. . 1,8S1

266

324

363

409

450

490

510

465

438

404

403

Spanby . .

. . 1,041

104

Swaton . .

. . 3,274

176

218

298

304

301

297

336

288

271

253

Threekingham

I . 1,540

179

207

202

191

197

180

189

183

143

158

155

WalcotJ. .

. . 1,773

127

128

152

183

173

152

201

193

149

147

129

Willoughby, Sc(

MX 578

Beltisloe Wap

en-

take

Bassingthorpe :

. 1,811

158

136

122

137

487

154

144

136

138

129

' Haydor Ancient Parish is situated partly in Aswardhurn Wapentake and partly in Winnibriggs and Threo
Wapentake.

* South Kyme Ancient Parish is situated partly in Aswardhurn Wapentake and parti v in Langoe Wapentake
(ist Division).

B Falliingliam.— The population for iSji does not include the prison population (39 persons) confined in
the Castle.

360

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801— 1901 {continued)

Parish

Parts of
Kesteven {cant.)
Beltisloe Wapen-
take (cont.)
Bitchfieldt . . ,
Burton Goggles % ,
Bytham,

Castle ' :—
Bytham, CastleJ
Counthorpe
Hamlet
Holywell-with-

Aunby Chap.
Bytham, Little % '
Careby . . .
Corby' , . .
Creeton * . .
Edenhara t . . .
Gunby St. Nicho-

last
Irnham ....
Lavington (or Len-
ton) X .—
Lavington . "1
Hanby Hamlet J
Keisby Town-
ship
Osgodby Town-
ship
Skillington J . .
Stainby ....
Swayfield J ' . .
Swinstead* . . .
Witham-on-the-
HiU X :—
Witham-on-the-

Hill«
Lound and Toft

Township
Manthorpe
Hamlet
Witham, North f t
Witham, South f .

Booth by Graffoe
Wapentake —

Higher Division

Boothbyt . . .
Coleby t . . . .
Eaglet'^ . . i
Eagle Hall Extra '^

Par. J

Harmston J . . .
Navenby J . . .
Skinnaiid . . .
Swinethorpe Extra

Par.
Welboum J . . .
Wellingore X • •

Acre-
age

1.357
7.171

4,080
1,155

1,936

1.233
1,501
2,906
1,049
7,030
666'

3.809
4,265

1,880
1,272

1,113

2,240
1.459
1.553
1,789

4,577

2,167

1,432

978

2,373*
1,764

1801

2,086
2,773
2,450'

2,571

2,677

668

1,048

3.305
3,208

95
219
506

372
35

189

436

513
113

299
280

159
66

244
108

173
306

453

162

196

186
343

174

301

203

235

479
12

360
559

117
231

515

407
30

212

44
464

47
657
136

370
283

137
77

270

145
140
312
476

168

194

114

194

325

1821

161

314

211

251

542

383
613

144
245
736

577
43

116

223

51
581

51
657
149

413
330

123
32

364
158
206
319
563

246

210

107

209
345

1831

155
322
308

333
625

489
727

135
246
781

597
65

119

237

654

777
152

394
341

r77
65

389
186
260
402
530

236

194

100

273
410

173
415
467

405

778

494
752

1841

160

260
855

672
85

311
73

714
64

699

166

436

329

130
44
73

434
igo
265
451
573

235

225

113

300
506

1851

214

427

466

429

942

512
850

209

456

1,250

989
130

131

573
108
958
103
670
172

349
362

152
54

490
180

383
490

635
298
231
106

309

544

208

423

517

414

1.057

592
914

1861

159

288

1,024

813
62

149

362
107
818

79
644
164

347
330

108
67
84

466
168
263
396
548

236

205

107

278
531

1871

218

458

533

414

1,170

664
943

169
280
921

721
78

122

324
138
786
88
635
135

366

327

142
43
78

454
163

255
358
527

221

207

236
488

200

423

SCO
71

368

1,000

677
801

1881

167
257
853

654
73

126

305
168

783
51

563

284
301

• 178
62

393
153
253
349
459

195

168

238
410

168

435

455

345

957

550

790

161

236
998

815
66

117

482
J 49
745
75
528

316
252

136
67

369
141
204

343
456

226

137

269

575

188

426

391

328

803

546
602

1901

lOI

202
786

618
40

128

378
129
718

66
503

265
261

143
69

354
108
178
309
379

196

107

181
396

166

395
340

327

779

504
592

> Castle Bytham Ancient Parish included, in 1851, 342 labourers on Great Northern Railway works.
» Little Bytham included, in 1851, 164 labourers on works in connexion with Great Northern Railway.
8 Corby included, in 1851, 184 labourers on works in connexion with Great Northern Railway.
< Creeton included, in 1851, 30 labourers on works in connexion with Great Northern Railway.

5 Swayfield and Swinstead. The decline in these parishes in i86i is attributed mainly to the removal of labourers
temporarily employed on railway works in 1851.

6 Witham-on-the-Hill Township included, in 1851, 38 persons employed on Great Northern Railway works

? Eagle is stated to be partly in Boothby-Graffoe Wapentake (Lower Division), but the whole is shown in the
Higher Division.

8 See note (2), p. 362.

a 361 46

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801— 1901 {continued)

Acre-

Parish

age

1801

1811

1 821

1831

1841

1S51

1861

1871

1881

i8gi

igoi

Parts of

Kesteven {cont>i

Boothby-Graffoe

Wapentake—

Lower Division

Aubourn :—

2,909

272

309

275

356

374

365

376

309

249

243

222

Aubourn ■ . .

1,860

179

203

222

233

308

304

308

246

213

201

178

Haddington (pari

1,049

106

123

of) Township '

BassinghamJ . .

3.0S7

413

489

613

704

792

892

928

8S3

725

648

614

BoulthamJ . . .

1.330

114

527

671

Carlton-le-

2,252

258

264

294

328

331

409

384

339

310

277

254

Moorland

Doddington X : —

4,204

189

209

227

223

220

264

275

274

233

232

Doddington . .

2,327

140

143

159

163

137

173

174

177

156

147

149

WhisbyTownship

1,677

118

Eagle Woodhouse

So'

—

Extra Par. t "

Hykeham, North %

1,979

254

273

296

317

367

443

464

468

455

499

SSI

Hykeham, South:—

1,201

118

157

116

147

141

15s

118

149

140

134

Hykeham, South

1,201

118

102

116

103

Haddington (part

—

of) Township '

Morton Extra Par.'

498

—

Norton Disney t .

2,341

184

235

214

210

206

234

196

186

171

181

171

Scarle, North % . .

2,020

303

356

434

479

490

595

577

515

482

433

Skellingthorpe J .

5,946

193

244

370

417

533

584

662

726

722

650

772

Stapleford . . .

2,72s

I7S

164

213

185

193

182

204

189

154

147

154

Swinderby t ' . .

2,192

254

307

365

449

49°

541

572

548

52?

470

423

Thorpe-on-the

1,835

190

I7S

235

273

342

379

427

350

286

322

293

Hint

Thurlbyt . . .

1,847

102

145

154

156

142

139

118

112

109

Flaxwell

Wapentake

Anwickf. . . .

1,820'

209

203

246

235

314

307

277

324

348

274

262

Ashby-de-la-

2,689

127

124

155

178

'57

170

176

161

169

167

210

Launde X

Bloxholm (or Blox-

1,41s

116

109

104

IIS

114

ham)

Brauncewell with

2,682

134

125

131

112

139

173

148

128

Dunsby ^ . .

Cranwellt . . .

2,535

102

155

229

230

240

233

219

206

188

138

Digby

2,494

242

227

277

319

364

340

330

307

304

344

351

Dorrington J . .

1,978

225

239

284

371

379

443

467

495

398

366

357

Haverholme Priory

312

—

Extra Par.*

Leasingham X ■ —

3,017

264

329

346

358

472

428

473

505

466

432

Leasingham . .

2,082

215

263

259

397

367

381

390

366

340

314

Roxholm Hamlet

933

113

139

126

118

Rauceby, North .

3,211

150

178

252

262

270

277

279

270

269

252

Rauceby, South .

2,608

137

194

25s

351

367

474

412

388

390

392

Rowston (or Rouls-

ton)t
Ruskington ft' .

1,879

100

123

156

206

228

224

233

226

225

202

4,750*

483

556

678

782

957

1,027

1,089

1,156

1,191

1,082

i,i88

Sleaford, New J :—

2,409

1,596

1,904

2,220

2,587

3,382

3,539

3,467

3,735

4,075

3,686

3,934

Sleaford,

—

1,483

1,781

2,094

2,450

3,184

3,372

3,325

3,392

3,935

3^93

3,824

New*t'

Holdingham

—

113

123

126

137

198

167

142

143

120

110

Hamlet f

Temple Bruer

3,78s

104

149

201

192

155

Extra Par.'

1 Haddington Township is situated partly in Aubourn Ancient Parish and partly in South Hykeham Ancient Parish.
The entire area, and the population in 1801, 1811, and 1831, are included in Aubourn.

2 Eagle Woodhouse was probably returned with Eagle Parish (Boothby-Graffoe Wapentake — Higher Division) in
1801, 1811, and 1831.

' Morton returned with Swinderby Parish in 1831.

* Brauncewell with Dunsby. — Dunsby seems anciently to have been a separate Parish.

' Haverholme Priory, included with Ruskington Parish, 1801-31.

6 New Sleaford Township. — The increase of population in 1871 is mainly attributed to the presence of a large
number of labourers engaged in constructing a railway.

^ Temple Bruer probably included Temple High Grange (Langoe Wapentake — 2nd Division), 1801-31, and does
include it 1861-1901. The two together became a Civil Parish under the Act 20 Vic. c. 19, the area of which is
shown against Temple Bruer.

362

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC

TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801— 1901

HISTORY

[continued)

Parish

Acre-
age

1801

181 1

1821

1831

1841

1851

1861

1871

1881

1891

1901

Parts of

Kesteven [cont.)

Langoe

Wapentake —

First Division

Billinghay % : —

7,86o'

1,132

1,239

1,554

1,787

2,095

2,375

2,247

2.358

2,234

2,027

1.954

Billinghay . .

3,677

579

668

831

1,038

1,243

1,462

1,403

1,501

1,440

1,315

1,283

Dogdyke Town-

sscy

192

195

231

213

217

296

239

248

200

181

175

ship!

Walcot Town-

3^39

361

376

472

514

633

617

605

609

594

531

496

ship

Kirkby Green .

446

134

175

141

123

103

106

Kyme, South (part

of)':—
Kyme, North,

Township f
Timberland : —

3.490"

215

198

283

322

361

448

455

700

696

636

576

8,466

751

891

1.183

1,278

1,649

1,638

1,618

1.635

1.438

1.369

1,268

Timberland . .

2,760

3S8

370

498

511

597

639

589

563

503

443

447

Martin Town-

3,777

303

412

389

640

926

894

909

914

822

777

723

ship U

Thorpe Tihiey

1,929

109

127

126

105

120

158

113

149

Township

Langoe

Wapentake —

Second Division

Blankney % . . .

6,781

410

394

495

543

640

600

560

568

658

627

579

Dunston J . . .

3-372

279

344

406

423

S18

594

575

598

782

652

572

Metheringham J .

5.899

536

601

626

880

1,205

1,522

1.532

1,652

1.857

1,614

1,517

Norton t . . . .

5,968

287

314

376

445

553

510

537

518

628

578

482

Potter Hanworth %

3.573

303

364

374

402

439

458

413

447

435

430

480

Scopwick. . . .

3.537

183

201

232

278

388

413

383

404

399

349

320

Temple High

—

Grange Extra

Par. 3

Washing-

5,080

645

675

874

1,124

1,099

1,180

1,213

1,154

1,476

1,254

1,302

borough X : —

Washing-

—

324

332

478

572

573

597

589

580

729

627

662

borough t

Heighington

—

321

323

396

552

526

583

624

374

747

633

640

Chap, t

Loveden

Wapentake

Ancastert . . .

2,869

336

381

439

491

530

589

682

646

650

600

557

Beckingham . .

1,964

357

392

430

401

462

450

431

388

346

282

272

Bennington, Long .

4,333

723

805

881

982

991

1,100

1,066

941

910

804

737

Bennington Grange

281

—

Extra Par.

Broughton, Brant J

2,990

567

530

596

627

650

749

755

685

679

657

558

Carlton Scroop

1.372

136

143

148

199

219

271

266

212

227

231

223

Caythorpe J . .

4.272

437

475

567

720

821

889

822

850

897

903

Clay pole* J ^ . .

2,915

486

484

605

586

663

853

774

783

678

593

542

Doddington, Dry .

1,603

'2'

'2^

227

230

215

252

283

245

225

178

149

Fenton ....

1.231

102

120

131

103

Foston ....

2,068

243

384

426

441

497

519

479

393

357

342

297

Fulbeck ft. . \
Maiden House )

3,900'

397

481

555

650

690
4

743
6

728

695

645

664
7

636
9

Extra Par. f °

Hough-on-the-

HillJ
Hougham . . .

4,028

385

442

533

565

582

605

655

640

619

509

522

2,477

175

205

290

304

337

345

349

298

271

287

200

Leadenham f ' . . 2,260*

517

530

574

56s

598

735

706

696

673

634

605

' See note ('), p. 360.

' Martin Township included, in 1841, 79 visitors at the annual feast.

* See note (7), p. 362.

■• Claypolc—Tiie increase of population in 1851 is attributed to the presence of labourers engaged in constructing
a railway.

* Maiden House was annexed to Leadenham Parish under the Act 20 Vic. c. 19, and there included 1861-81.
Leadenham also includes, 1851-1901, Bayard's Leap— an Extra Parochial Place, which became a Civil Parish under
the Act 20 Vic. c. ig.

363

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

TABLE OF

POPULATION

, 1801-

-1901 [continued)

Parish

Acre-
age

1 801

1811

1821

1831

1841

1851

1861

1871

1881

1891

igoi

Parts of

Kesteven [cont).

Loveden Wapen-

take (cont.)

Marston ....

2,470

326

337

393

419

434

488

403

356

307

302

244

Normanton . . .

1,509

160

151

189

204

200

179

172

155

143

149

Stragglethorpe . .

729

100

StubtonJ . . .

1,177

118

128

174

182

170

186

157

169

132

127

Westborough . .

2,070

181

183

227

215

250

236

245

.217

181

138

153

Ness Wapentake

Barholm ....

1,104

145

151

154

155

165

251

192

188

179

188

173

Baston X . . . .

2,514

457

S18

682

709

765

863

787

763

774

656

558

Braceborough %

1,767

148

161

198

219

231

210

220

228

184

174

161

CarlbyHt • • •

1 ,020"

162

185

186

206

216

349

183

175

163

149

103

Deeping St. James J

4,293

1,160

1,220

1,385

1,587

1,733

1,849

1,763

1,720

1,648

1,501

i,5'3

Deeping Fen (part

—

342

433

507

—

of) Extra Par.^ .

Deeping, Market J

1,548

803

899

1,016

1,091

1,219

1,294

1,337

1,235

1,212

1,079

978

Deeping, West

1,296

216

244

302

301

306

361

349

338

285

26s

318

Greatford % : — . .

2,356

320

317

360

296

264

271

280

26s

301

266

263

Greatford . . .

1,U1

240

22s

258

227

194

205

219

213

220

182

186

Wilsthorpe Chap.

909

102

Langtoft't . .

2,133

386

464

485

606

778

701

746

698

584

533

A77

Stowe

419

Tallington %. . .

1,791

236

205

240

220

246

267

239

258

l'^^

253

238

Thurlbyt . . .

3.936

508

551

622

632

699

799

833

844

814

782

726

Uffington X . . .

4,165

456

445

466

481

530

573

510

441

462

439

425

Winnibriggs and

Threo Wapentake

Allington, East "!
Allington, West /

2,066

243

310

357

\ 82

276
120

280
136

275
135

267
141

213
118

} 291

239

Barrowby J . . .

4,440

465

524

671

687

799

801

862

869

807

817

905

Boothby Pagnell J.

1,817

100

116

132

120

112

133

130

129

156

Haydor (part
of)^:—
Haydor Town-
ship

Honington X • •

2,892

199

278

337

362

401

400

346

363

399

380

1,486

106

126

156

177

149

152

157

171

177

183

189

Ponton, Little t .

1,987

102

124

180

200

212

180

208

212

229

216

211

Ropsley J : — . .

3,740"

402

440

554

578

673

777

845

856

751

715

672

Ropsley f . .

—

321

371

489

502

604

686

746

766

647

593

590

Little Humby

—

104

122

Hamlet t

Sedgebrook X

1,676

207

201

230

252

250

279

269

245

221

208

194

Somerby ft • •

2,990"

194

219

246

282

267

297

234

271

1,189

1,717

1,770

Stoke, South (part
of)=:—
Stoke, North

1,873

114

112

128

124

118

129

104

150

156

115

111

Township

Stroxton X • • •

993

140

124

112

107

112

100

lot

SystonJ . . . .

1,653

137

188

203

226

325

238

221

224

196

187

Welbyt . . . .

2,817

236

275

377

399

475

481

499

490

390

376

385

Wilsfordt . . •

3,007

251

298

341

393

429

484

641

647

689

687

656

Woolsthorpe X ■ •

1,949

372

456

566

650

674

632

615

656

598

594

640

Wy ville- with- Hun-

1,63s

112

124

128

137

135

155

137

116

125

112

gerton J

Grantha7n

Borough^ with the

Soke

Barkston X • • ■

2,118

276

270

416

430

413

551

540

521

499

476

413

Belton X • • • ■

1,745

147

165

178

160

176

182

142

176

183

193

160

Braceby ....

951

123

155

151

168

138

' Carlby included, in 1851, about 140 persons employed on Great Northern Railway works.

2 See note (»), p. 358.

' Langtoft — A club feast held here on Census Day, 1841.

* See note (•), p. 360.

' South Stohi A ncient Parish is situated partly in Winnibriggs and Threo Wapentake and partly in Grantham Soke.

364

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

TABLE OF

POPULATION, 1801-

— 1901

continued)

Acre-

Parish

age

1801

1811

1821

1831

1841

1851

1861

1S71

1881

1891

igoi

Parts of

Kesteven {cont.)

Grantham

Borough, with the

Soke (cont.)

Colsterworth % . .

3.624

649

806

776

889

1,017

1,345

1,163

1,068

986

894

804

Denton J . . . .

2,644

446

473

577

553

626

650

637

572

547

546

642

Gonerby, Great J .

2,943

559

610

743

916

1,049

1,433

1,145

1,212

1,202

1,053

1,218

Grantham : — . .

5,516

4,288

4,777

6,077

7,427

8,691

10,870

11,116

13,225

16,442

15,700

16,467

Grantham

408

3,303

3,646

4,148

4,590

4,683

5,375

4,954

5,028

6,080

5,715

5,762

Township '

Manthorpe-with-

1,304

446

552

1,175

1,720

1,968

2,344

2,241

2,777

3,567

3,467

3,767

Little Gonerby

Township

Harrowby Town-

1,S43

118

116

336

272

244

ship

Spittlegate,

2,261

488

538

709

1,063

1,980

3,084

3,803

5,304

6,459

6,246

6,694

Houghton,and

Walton Town-

ship J

Harlaxton J . . .

2,683

297

351

389

390

428

494

488

441

383

396

389

Londonthorpe . .

1,722

125

139

195

187

182

222

228

227

183

173

162

Ponton, Great! .

2,744

411

410

418

446

469

680

561

500

477

456

400

Sapperton . . .

679

Stoke, South (part

of)»:- . .

Stoke, South .

3,213

205

243

300

314

338

272

290

332

353

306

300

1,429

159

127

140

144

134

136

123

Easton Hamlet

1,784

154

168

206

221

179

145

150

188

219

170

177

SiamfordBoro ugh

All Saints 1 1 • ~

1,131

1,114

1,388

1,769

1,978

2,246

2,070

2,010

2,612

2,615

2,591

St. George f % .

877

867

1,191

1,410

1,600

1,976

1,881

1,833

2,092

2,067

2,146

St. John the Bap-
tist f J . . .

1,839

J 76s

844

1,003

1,109

1,211

1,350

1,199

1,180

1,262

1,010

888

St. Mary t 3. .

383

343

357

365

337

354

359

364

306

245

St Michael t J . ,

[ 866

1,157

I, III

1,184

1,259

1,406

1,305

1,299

1,325

1,355

1,348

Parts of Lindsey

Aslacoe {East)

Wapentake

Caenby %. . .

1,456

119

108

121

176

185

146

125

123

129

116

120

Firsby, East : — .

1,226

lOI

108

Firsby, East . .

544

Firsby, West

682

Township

Glentham J . . .

2,81 1

258

319

372

399

477

536

516

424

410

369

376

Hackthorn . . .

2,748

218

214

256

244

246

258

234

248

278

280

258

Hanworth, Cold .

817

Normanby . . .

1,755

235

290

328

435

471

514

478

458

397

347

307

Norton, Bishop J: —

3,500

319

323

413

426

475

464

459

468

465

422

378

Norton, Bishop .

2,449

224

254

303

314

333

330

364

370

356

321

283

Atterby Town-

1,051

110

112

142

134

109

101

ship

Owmby ....

1,721

'|3

190

196

227

256

249

314

272

266

231

237

Saxby

1,368

105

124

140

120

112

114

129

108

SnitterbyJ . . .

1,737

183

143

153

182

235

283

286

300

274

284

219

Spridlington { . .

2,298

126

179

199

250

292

313

311

284

291

269

252

Aslacoe [West)

Wapentake

Blyborough % , .

2,446

157

138

184

201

197

199

209

210

249

213

200

Cammeringham J .

1,820

III

118

142

134

139

141

137

139

156

125

138

Coatest . . . .

1,034

Fillingham J . .

3,596

242

280

279

308

312

326

316

307

283

260

Glentworth X . .

3,128

193

187

275

298

324

316

340

325

368

316

295

Grantham includes Grantham Grange, which was formerly Extra Parochial, but which became a Civil Parish
under the Extra Parochial Places Acts. Grantham Grange contained no population in iqoi

2 See note (*), p. 364.

3 Stamford. St. Mary.— The 1811 population is an estimate based on local information.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

TABLE OF

POPULATION, 1801-

-1901 (

continued)

Parish

Acre-
age

1 801

1811

1821

1831

1841

1851

1861

1871

18S1

1891

1901

Parts of

LlNDSEY {cont.)

Aslacoe {West)

Wapentake (cont.)

Harpswell J . . .

2,165

103

104

135

125

120

lOI

Hemswell % . . .

2,663

258

283

271

347

399

436

465

391

373

338

326

Ingham % . . .

2,126

225

250

287

361

514

612

646

617

596

522

473

Willoughton % . .

2,799

320

302

409

477

581

657

620

606

520

457

416

Bolingbroke {East)

Soke

Carrington Town-

2,660-

—

139

140

229

167

197

192

219

204

194

ship f

Eastville Town-

2,749

—

118

136

142

228

246

304

359

342

287

ship'

HaltonHolegatet.

2,106

410

399

460

520

544

539

531

606

499

427

406

Hundleby»t . .

980*

218

242

348

420

612

824

704

735

690

619

577

Keal, Eastt . .

1,934

268

278

313

357

382

475

393

424

395

350

319

Lusby t • . • •

760*

126

140

148

143

132

120

122

109

103

Marvis-Enderby f.

1,5 10«

125

140

189

203

211

207

186

176

157

160

143

Midville Town-

2,619

—

139

162

161

142

152

174

204

198

166

ship'

Raithbyt • . •

68o'

149

180

175

167

204

217

202

192

173

155

Spilsbyf. . . .

2,340*

932

963

1,234

1,384

1,457

1,461

1,467

1,623

1,549

1,556

1,483

Steeping, Little t ■

1,490"

255

215

278

263

289

326

327

272

224

201

Thorpe St. Peter t J

2,880"

207

196

381

498

557

626

593

649

550

534

466

ToyntonAUSaintst

3,120"

229

252

342

475

483

5'i

471

440

377

352

390

Toynton St. Peter f

2,530"

245

239

394

372

439

486

433

419

398

381

323

Bolingbroke

{West) Soke

Asgarbyt . . .

838'

140

131

100

Bolingbroke f • ■

2,570"

283

361

753

725

919

980

i,oi8

947

707

579

469

Frithville Town-
ship t '
Hagnaby t J . .

2,900'

—

272

261

333

367

317

316

309

303

276

640"

Harebyt. . . .

750"

Keal, West t . .

2,030°

447

451

502

484

576

549

493

415

350

340

Kirkby, East % • •

2,050

285

309

347

396

436

481

432

411

354

319

277

Miningsby f ■ .

730"

105

114

134

354

498

492

477

444

371

281

235

Revesby f • . .

4,66o"

498

565

572

646

693

668

614

686

613

587

515

Sibseyt' . . •

5,460"

948

1,151

1,354

1,364

1,431

1,372

1,297

I,2l6

1,127

1,022

969

Rowlands Marsh

117

—

(or Pepper Gowt)

Extra Par.

Stickford ft . .

670"

253

271

343

425

426

427

357

389

357

306

300

Stickneyt . . .

2,106

495

556

763

809

895

917

851

816

689

641

559

Westville Town-

2,042

—

102

118

139

137

ISO

132

127

123

130

ship'

Bradley Haver stoe

Wapentake

Ashby cum FenbyJ:

1,696

132

154

191

179

211

244

274

296

264

227

204

Aylesby % . . .

2,134

142

144

201

172

130

121

112

120

III

Barnoldby-le-

1,305

188

201

220

232

292

269

242

208

212

150

BeckJ

Beelsbyt . . .

2,248

148

164

160

158

181

176

181

187

171

190

182

Bradley J . . .

1,554

106

108

Brigsleyt . . .

925

108

125

137

152

165

139

108

112

Cabourne J . . .

2,927

100

105

173

166

165

171

184

174

139

161

Clee :—

3.598

387

490

560

674

1,002

1,034

1,555

3,826

14,460

23,081

38,978

Clee with Weels-

2,402

103

113

154

177

199

193

323

2,038

11,620

18,775

26,400

by Township

Cleethorpe with

1,195

284

37S

405

497

803

839

1,230

1,768

2,840

4,306

12,578

Thrunscoe

Township '

' Carrington, Eastville, and Midville (Bolingbroke-East-Soke), Frithville, and Westville (Bolingbroke- West-Soke),
Langriville, and Thornton-le-Fen (Horncastle Soke) were created Parochial Townships by Parliament (Act
passed in 18 12) on the occasion of the very extensive drainage of fen lands, and are not dependent on any Ancient
Parish.

2 Sibsey includes the area of Salt Pits, and the population, 1861-1901. Salt Pits is in Horncastle Soke.

8 Cleethorpe with Thrunscoe. — The increase of population in 1841 is partly attributed to the presence of visitors at
the annual feast.

366

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801— 1901 {continued)

Parish

Parts of
LiNDSEY {cont.)

Bradley Havers toe
Wapentake (cont.)

Coates, Great %

Coates, Little J . .

Coates, North %

CuxwoldJ . . .

Fulstow J . . .

GrainsbyJ . . .

Grimsby, Great ' .

HatcliffeJ . . .

Hawerby with

Beesby t '

Healing J . . .

Holton-le-Clay % ,

Humberston j . .

Irby-upon-

Humber J

LacebyJ ....

Marsh Chapel J .

Newton, Wold { .

Ravendale,

East X :—
Ravendale, East
Ravendale,

West Chap.

Rothwellt ■ • •

Scartho J ...

Swallow X • • ■

Swinhope X • • •

Tetney X ■ • • •

Thoresby, North X

WaitheJ. . . .

Waltham X ■ ■

Calceworth

Hundred —

Marsh Division

Aby ....

Anderby . . .
Belleau : —

Belleaut . .

Claythorpe Chap,
Calceby . . .
Cawthorpe, Little X
Cumberworth . .
Gayton-le-Marsh X
Haugh Extra Par. .
Hogsthorpe t . .
Huttoft X ■ • • •
Legboume J . .
Mablethorpe St. T
Mary I
Mablethorpe St. f
Peter J
Mumby t . . . .
Reston, South J .
Sutton-le-Marsh X
Swaby t t • • .
Theddlethorpe All
Saints t X
Theddlethorpe St.
Helen f
Thoresby, South j
TothiUt . . . .
Trusthorpe X • •

Acre-
age

1-493

1.437

1,344'

583-

761

634
471
1,274
2,279
585
31325"
3,450
2,365

3,191

2,620'
803
1,807
1,160'
2,645*

3,530'

952

891

1,498

1 801

2,688

208

1,049

2,348

154

1,590

2,844

332

1,168

1,912

1,524

1,395

1,202

1,336

1,516

134

2,994

199

1,828

192

2,122

368

3,175

354

1,996

1,588

771

2,872

138

1,252

135

2,650

1,323

5,441

440

2,571

378

751

2,196

385

122
167
113

46
98
132
238
14
451
286
280

164

461
56
120
197
194

220

150
72

iq8

181I

216

136

356

2,747
77
56

105
161
218
196

440

328

40
14

163
133
108
118
489
342
45
384

115

194

124

151

229

515

340

308

■ 180

494
76
110
200
187

207

146

196

1821

237
47

154
60

389
114

3,064
99

94
220
217
217

523
411

125
95

63
32

197
148
122

94
622
484

30
526

192

226

145

130

170

276

591

401

412

200

582
III

135
302
211

239

149

72
262

1831

235

215

448

116

4,048

96
66

102
207
258
263

616
477
158
104

78
26

231
147
168
126
647
544
31
545

204

217

168

107

137

188

306

698

470

449

■ 242

619
139
183
396
266

275

142

67
286

1841

245
40

225
62

501

103
3,700

139
87

90
263
269
215

755
503
146

61
51

290

199
221

117
819
623

49
656

312

243

193

124

196

183

312

790

515

461

■ 261

'786
182
274
391
326

347

138

273

1851

236
42

239
68

550

118

8,860

147

92
319
259
253

1,001
659
179
135

76
59

265
211

215
128
869
733
53
782

394
280
217
133
84
74
233
235
326

832
586

551
266

839
186
323
474
356

360

156

59
289

1861

206

59
290

577

124

11,067

159

297
277
235

1,021

671
189
144

94
50

267
188
239
105
917
824

43
856

407
276
214
114
100

66
223
266
331

17
874
710
512
336

786

235
368

498
300

426

162

332

1871

228
66

323
108

519

116

20,244

181

102
306
254
189

1,025

735
180
129

83
46

224
210
243
117
923
774
58
807

450

299

188

54
204
261
317

14
878
651

543
414

762
286
362
467
358

422

148

348

1881

245

266

lOI

565

148

28,503

203

117
283
264
224

1,017
658
165
16s

108
57

260
224
238
140
807

745
60

743

352
279

154

167

223

248

719

597

476

■ 640

639
238
360
414
329

414

159

334

I89I

igoi

217

294

«3

262

257

III

467

433

143

123

33,283

36,857

180

158

118

227

306

257

254

234

193

176

986

942

564

528

172

146

180

178

118

705

219

227

190

219

205

180

106

775

636

573

629

764

740

315

267

230

198

155

122

146

140

193

166

251

209

651

577

535

469

464

369

728

934

609

538

203

179

495

571

364

305

265

231

345

322

139

108

304

287

' Great Grimsby. — Docks were being constructed in 1851.

" Haweriy-cum-Beesby. — Beesby was anciently a separate parish.

367

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801— 1901 {continued)

Parish

Parts of

LiNDSEY [cont.)

Calceworth

Hundred —

Wold Division

Alford

Beesby-le-

Marsh +
Bilsbyt . . . .
Claxby ....
Farlesthorpe % • •
Hannah (or

Hannay) f
Maltby-le-Marsh %
Markby f
Rigsby .
Saleby % .
Strubby J
Ulceby J .
Well ' .
Willoughby X '
Withern . .

Candleshoe

Wapentake —

Marsh Division

Addlethorpe f %

Burgh-le-Marsh .

Croft I . . . .

Friskney % . . .

Ingoldmeilst t
Northolme (or

Wainfleet St.

Thomas) f X
Orby t t . . . .
Skegness % . , .
Wainfleet All

Saints f %
Wainfleet St.

Mary +
Winthorpe . . .

Candleshoe
Wapentake —
Wold Division

Ashby-by-PartneyJ
Bratoft . .
Candlesby J .
Dalby . . .
Driby . . .
Firsby f • •
Gunby St. Peter
Irby-in-the-Marshf
Partney . . .
Scremby X ■ ■
Skendlebytt •
Steeping, Great
Sutterby X ■ ■
Welton-le-Marsh f

Corringham
Wapentake

Blytont . . . .
Greenhill, or Red-
hill Extra Par.
Corringham ' . .

Acre-
age

1,138

1,200

2,901
1,087
1,077

i,oio'

1,409

208

652-

i,os8

104

1,789

211

2,081

I9i

1-947

I6s

1,608

los

5,146

395

2,750

295

2,006'
4,399
5-539
6,844
1,857'
30'

2,088
1,823
1,598-

6,179

2,368

1,026

1,833
1,061

1,356

1,370

910*

675
1,090'

943
1,342
1,710'
1,746

477
2,600'

2,830'
412

6,366

1801

1,040
131

337
78
88

190
716

379

691

137

183

134
506

421

221

114

131

172

261

185

174

207

184

377
4

427

1,169
126

373
87
86
84

210
59
93
222
215
166

85
456

323

192
709
390
888
137
89

196
132
690

475
174

120
129
198

71
61

118
47
74

296

175
234
202
21
281

423
10

474

1,506
132

416

97
101
106

199

94
107

235
255
214

135
514
343

176

903

483

1,268

155
155

282
150
878

544

233

140

179

251

119

293
200
210
278
33
355

504
II

1831 1841

1851

1861

1,784
159

453
loi

94
97

209

220

201

218

557

390

175
906
546

1,457
206
104

287

185

1,135

660
244

170
201
216

142

75
96

389
204

253
281

34
363

551
7

479 i 559

1,945

2,262

157

168

584

6ri

132

126

109

112

122

114

229

293

102

103

120

233

248

268

287

204

191

661

748

435

503

238

288

1,095

1,215

649

776

1,607

1,695

259

286

140

173

381

405

316

366

1-386

1,365

731

717

273

299

160

162

235

266

247

245

106

115

196

222

J39

203

468

489

217

205

289

326

285

343

396

431

647
24

564

716
18

684

2,658
174

572
103
135

140

332

III

102
244
295
212

785

528

302

1,223

784

1,604

319

162

357

322

1,392

730
305

148
280
240
"5

79
237

82
169
487
184
299

334

468

746
12

717

1871

2,881
159

530
95

121
124

334
127
96
256
281
179
116
752
452

240
1,236

858
1,668

301

202

374

349

1,355

721
285

141
266
235
15s
100
270
80
170

495
197
295
340

35
448

713
8

1881

1891

782

705
26

744

igoi

2,894

- 1
2-843

145

127

510

450

104

114

117

302

251

118

102

112

223

195

289

270

176

160

124

108

617

524

457

447

243

210

1,136

969

752

635

1,477

1,373

241

204

201

187

410

1,338

1,488

1.349

1,259

705

718

337

326

124

218

190

247

236

152

135

117

lis

235

228

178

141

442

345

172

187

270

258

266

225

375

322

715
27

704

2,478
117

387
87
81

234

177
215

169

114

5'3

403

210

974
656
1,302
163
178

308
2,140
1,055

669
379

102
199
235
112

85
213

63
136

302

IS'

232

233

265

756
14

566

1 Well and Willoughby should probably be treated as one area, 1801-31, because there seems to have been
considerable uncertainty as to which Parish Mawthorpe Hamlet belonged, but from 1841 onwards it has always been
returned with Willoughby.

' Corringham includes the area, and the population, 1881-igoi, of The Paddocks.

368

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

TABLE OF POPULATION

1801-

-1901 {continued)

Parish

Acre-
age

1801

1811

182I

1631

1841

1851

1861

1871

1881

1891

1901

Parts of

LlNDSEY {cont.)

Corringham

Wapentake (cont.)

Gainsborough : — .

5.057

5,112

5.915

6,764

7,535

7,860

8.293

7.339

8,655

12,307

16,109

19,232

Gainsborough * .
Morton Town-

3,446

4,506

5,172

5,893

6,858

6,948

7,261

6,320

7,564

10,979

14,468

17,740

848

390

488

580

543

569

682

623

681

917

1,137

1,048

ship!
Stockwith, East

488

161

203

224

269

266

290

313

330

324

419

366

Township
Walkerith Town-

275

ship
GrayinghamJ . .

1,726

141

137

157

'5?

135

166

167

158

144

Heapham . . .
Kirton-in-Lindsey t

1,238

100

105

112

143

125

156

129

141

144

132

121

4,690

1,092

1,152

1,480

1,542

1.835

1,948

2,058

1,904

1,851

1,623

1,585

Laughton %: — . .

4.725

346

360

422

441

483

508

515

487

425

418

371

Laughton Town-

3,686

270

319

309

336

364

365

336

295

300

253

ship
Wilds worth

1,039

—

103

132

147

144

ISO

151

130

118

Hamlet

Lea J

2,188

180

222

199

197

198

229

194

162

186

188

208

Manton (part
of):-'
Cleatham Town-

1,094

117

109

143

114

lOI

103

ship
Northorpe . . .

1,837

105

102

127

128

141

179

194

208

182

196

181

Paddocks, The

—

Extra Par.'

Pilham-with-

1, 100"

102

100

132

Gilbyt:
Scotter 1 1 . . •

4.630'

666

764

938

1.043

1,172

1,158

1,167

1,094

1,070

1,062

1.059

Scotton : — .

4,920*

384

443

515

494

490

488

482

446

403

337

333

Section 1 1 . •

242

301

364

353

363

347

320

307

260

235

230

East Ferry (part

—

142

151

141

127

141

162

139

143

102

103

of) Hamlet t^

Southorpe Extra

467

Par.*

Springthorpe % . .

1,186

176

167

200

194

209

300

260

237

214

176

163

Gariree {North)

Wapentake

Asterby . . . .

1,103

154

199

189

231

256

313

304

295

213

16&

154

Baumber (or Baimi-

burgh)
Belchfordt . . .

3,361

261

290

319

356

371

407

393

373

391

366

407

2,542

275

416

490

517

554

673

638

571

488

403

362

Cawkwell . . .

687

Donnington-on-

1,801

188

203

269

300

344

489

552

485

473

432

343

Baint

Edlington % . . .

2.739

137

189

263

216

254

182

212

243

213

199

189

Goulcebyt . . .

1.440'

191

192

244

252

347

379

344

302

250

198

166

Hemingby t • • •

2,306

231

244

297

366

373

407

473

420

402

401

332

Ranbyt . . . .

1,291

121

109

116

115

142

149

132

140

141

Scamblesby . . .

2,002

272

300

347

413

500

532

471

461

364

325

289

Stainton, Market %

1,204

130

131

132

184

142

108

100

123

Stenigott .

1,330

107

lOI

Stuiton, Great . .

1,588

108

130

145

138

127

138

179

130

145

126

109

Gartree {South)

Wapentake

BucknallJ . . .

2.543

187

203

241

276

303

339

406

381

336

331

278

Dalderbyt . • •

408'

Gautby . . . .

1,457

118

122

118

109

113

128

100

Horsington % . .

1,992

183

216

322

323

345

399

418

397

360

266

220

1 Manton Ancient Parish is situated partly in Corringham Wapentake and partly in Mauley Wapentake (East)

2 See note ('), p. 368.

^ East Ferry Hamlet is situated partly in Scotton Ancient Parish (Corringham Wapentake) and partly in Owston
Ancient Parish (Manley Wapentake — West). The whole area and the entire population in 1801-1831 and in 1881 are
shown under Scotton.

4 Southorpe was rated for the relief of the poor in 1851, but does not appear to have been connected with any
ancient parish. It was probably anciently a parish.

369

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801— 1901 [continued)

Parish

Parts of
LiNDSEY {cont.)
Gartree {South)
Wapentake (cont.)
Kirkby-on- Bain : —
Kirkby-on-Bain
Tumby Town-
ship f
Kirk stead t . . .
Langton near

Horncastle t
Martin t . .
Minting J .
Scrivelsby f .
Stixwould X •
Tattershall : —
Tattershall f
Thorpe Tatters-
hall Town-
ship!
Thornton t . . .
Waddingworth . ,
Wispington J . ,
Woodhallf . . .

Jrni Hundred

Ashby Puero- "l
rum' I

Holbeck Extra I
Par.i J

Aswardby . .

Brinkhill . . .

Claxby Pluckacre

Enderby, Bag .

Fulletby % . .

Greetham J . .

Hagworthingham J

Hameringham

Harrington .

Langton-by-
Spilsby J

Ormsby, South

Oxcombe J ,

Salmonby { ,

Sausthorpe .

Scrafield . .

Somersby

Tetford J . .

Walmsgate .

Winceby J .

Worlaby . .

Horncastle Soke

Acre-
age

T • •
ir.t J

'Ashby, West f

Coningsby \

Haven Bank
Extra Par,

Langrick Ferry
Extra Par.''

Haltham-upon-
Bainf

Horncastle *t . .

Langriville Town-
ship t ^

Salt Pits Extra
Par.*

i>755'

941

1,209

2,240'

1,631

1801

i;,iio-

454

1fiOS

185

3,302'

269

1,540-

131

980"

5«

764"

2,598

190

2,142"

2,421

200

4,580'

661

1,590'

5,560'

175

2,610°

2,510'
1,630'

496
165

97
59
70

145

744

873

861

627

1,867

190

1,280

III

2,403

376

1,238

129

i,o6g

1,368

132

2,456

238

1,015

1,001

748

130

692

611

1,818

326

827

853

875

I8II

297
'1,301

IIS

2,015

455
201
254

no
80

33
192
126
220

714
506
208

107
49
73

162

1821

370
1,658

154
2,622

591
256
335

132
100

55
270

153
214
896

627
269

153
59
70

191

117

1831

378
1,651

196

3,058
195

596
274
322

179
115

60
301
129
221
883
599
284

216
63
91

196

80
116

25
114
250
152
593
158

70
230

237
32
90

206
36
69

690
72
65
34

391

1,773

143

202

1841

680
336
344

180
177

58
280
130
203

907
607
300

236
64
84

307

1851

734
395
339

175
231

74
408

153
255
987
650
337

240
71
83

275

117

1861

168

67
171

102

116

243

272

177

600

179
651

171

201

107

114

194

190

259

261

116

259

33
59
778
84
70
28

193
38
64

799
79
78
36

534
1,959

515
2,098

253

243

4,521

5,017

221

292

683

363
320

158
226

56
422
168

547
301

281
82

85
276

- 149

175

303
152
666
188
104
188

261

loi

144
47
72

793
77
67
37

526

1,938

215

4,944
312

1871

686
344
342

148
239

82
406
129
241
738
455
283

208
56
96

326

133

60
155
51
56
271
180
6X2

199
133
223

275

25
119

126

54
710
90
68
57

484

1,778

214

4,947
300

1881

580
261
319

128
203

70
347
138
227
782
481
301

192

109

281

147

149

257
147
484

175
123
219

294
28

102

141
53
43

590

73
64
66

490

1,544

224

4,885
328

1891

561
247
314

138
232

117
336
136
219
768
491
277

189

54
100
561

148
63
59

161

131

477
144

lOI

177

238
33
95

148

481

55
61

461

1,347
21

2l6

4,470
240

1901

528
219
309

120
238

178

335
125
198

709
476
233

176

671

113
62

52
149
129

395
113
102
150

226
47
86

115
36
33

381
64
50
45

426

1,153
21

144

4,118
249

1 Holbeck is said (1851 volume) to be assessed to the Poor with Ashby Puerorum Parish

2 Langrick Ferry. — Three Civil Parishes were created out of this area under the Act 20 Vic. c. 19, viz., Great
Beats, Little Beats, and Land south of the Witham ; none shown.

8 See note (i), p. 366. " See note p), p. 366.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801— 1901 {continued)

Acre-

Par;sh

age

1801

1811

1821

1831

1841

1851

1861

1871

1881

1891

1901

Parts of

LiNDSEY [cont.)

Horncastle

Soke (cont.)

Mareham-le-Fen f

1,560'

383

487

609

625

713

885

937

822

736

775

674

Mareham-on-the-

1,380-

122

133

193

189

214

215

218

204

179

187

Hillt

Moorbyf . . .

gijo-

105

118

154

152

159

128

117

111

Roughton t . . .

1,020

106

146

166

131

166

167

150

123

Thimbleby f . .

1,770

224

316

384

364

398

492

477

454

447

354

362

Thornton-le-Fen

380'

—

141

156

186

200

193

210

274

227

188

Township f '

Toynton, High f .

1,210'

121

159

164

199

212

210

190

189

180

15s

Toynton, Low f .

950-

ic8

129

133

155

132

104

119

Wilksbyt . . .

670'

Wood Enderby f .

990"

153

183

210

233

291

244

276

218

225

168

Lawress

Wapentake

Aisthorpe (or East

828

100

112

108

104

Thorpe)

Barlings J . . .

1,686

116

140

245

280

352

433

475

468

469

419

385

BrattlebyJ . . .

1,142

123

127

157

154

168

169

153

122

148

138

148

Broxholme % . .

I.3SI

128

148

137

145

113

125

126

114

III

Burton-by-Lincoln J

2,390

164

165

186

177

206

204

171

209

282

248

266

Buslingthorpe t .

1,096'

Carlton, North . .

1,840

120

143

171

180

178

147

163

135

163

162

Carlton, South . .

1,947

151

i68

194

204

166

183

181

172

175

137

181

Dunholme J . .

2,261

140

171

220

237

310

411

453

450

403

336

289

Faldingworth f

1,820*

226

260

276

296

350

387

365

326

310

281

256

Fiskerton t . . .

2,817

270

318

294

330

410

463

524

515

440

423

386

Friesthorpe f . .

586°

Greetwell t t • •

1.113°

Nettleham X . .

3,491

377

464

572

714

841

944

919

922

958

914

955

Reepham t . . .

1,819

183

196

247

295

341

368

436

377

356

396

387

Riseholme' , . .

1,547

102

127

121

134

154

139

Saxilby J ...

4,432

389

450

561

719

1,058

1,137

1,174

1,158

1,191

1,092

1,055

Scampton J . . .

2,203

133

170

238

242

224

228

235

248

230

231

253

ScothernJ . . .

2,445

328

241

366

497

611

572

579

522

49S

425

418

Snarford ....

1,146

102

105

Sudbrooke J . .

873

103

Thorpe-in-the-
Fallows (or

873

3S.

West Thorpe)

Torksey (part
of) 3 :—
Torksey . . .

2,467

236

240

267

301

485

319

287

273

239

273

285

1,489

—

420

243

205

203

160

195

202

Hardwick Town-
ship
WeltonJ. . . .

978

—

3,910

380

368

484

S16

566

604

692

682

660

609

Willingham,

980'

102

111

148

173

146

156

123

145

Cherry tt

Louth-Eske

Hundred —

Marsh Division

Alvingham . . .
Carlton, Castle . .

1,794
471

214
46

223
44

264
62

292
54

313
52

317
55

350
45

353
32

267
21

251
27

249
20

Carlton, Great J .

2,402

202

213

242

280

352

342

338

276

261

245
138

237
134
115
638
301
139
37
153

Carlton, Little f .

1,006"

105

131

136

155

181

187

169

Conisholme J . .

1,240

127

170

146

153

167

171

138

120

Grainthorpe \ % .

4,955'

408

446

503

517

556

655

738

774

712

619

Grimoldby J . .

1,854

246

255

298

267

309

321

337

363

321

Manby 1 1 ■ • •

1,460*

144

188

236

207

211

240

210

207

180

162

Reston, North f t .

703*

35
169

23
153

Saltfleetby All

Saints f t

1,169*

148

169

218

180

181

200

I9S

186

1 See note f"), p. 366.

2 Riseholme includes Grange de Ligne, which was formerly Extra Parochial, but became a Civil Parish under thp
Act 20 Vic c. 19.

> Torhsiy Ancient Parish is situated partly in Lawress Wapentake and partly in Well Wapentake.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801— 1901 {continued)

Parish

Parts of
LiNDSEY (cont.)
Louth-Eske Hun-
dred— Marsh
Division (cont.)
Saltfleetby St.

Clement \ \
Saltfleetby St.

Peter 1 1
Skidbrooke with
Saltfleet
Haven J
Somercotes,

North!
Somercotes,

South X
Varborough (or

Yarburgh) %

Louth-Eske

Hundred —

Wold Division

Authorpe ft . .
Burwell ....
Calcethorpe J . ,
Cockerington,

South (or St.

Leonard) f X
Cockerington,

North (or St.

Mary) f
Elkington, North
Elkington, South
Fatworth . .
Gayton-le-Wold
Grimblethorpe

Extra Par.
Hallington .
Haugham X •
Keddington %
Kelstern X
Louth : —
Louth * .
Louth Park

Township f
Mucktont . . .
Raithby-cum-

Maltby
Ruckland . .
Stewton X ■ •
TathwellJ . .
Welton-le-Wold X
Withcall X ■ .
Wykeham, East '

Ludborough
Wapentake

BracTcenborough
Covenham St.

Bartholomewtt
Covenham St.

Maryt X
Fotherby . . .
Grimsby, Little
Ludboiought .
Nun Ormsby (or
North
Ormsby) X
Utterby t ■ •
Wyham-cum-

Cadeby J

Acre-

1801

1811

1821

1831

1841

1851

1861

age

1,030"

114

126

109

126

139

2,003"'

146

183

185

200

246

251

308

2,404

298

355

365

362

351

404

361

6,005

601

623

684

753

819

1,039

1,178

2,642

284

290

301

320

375

400

419

1.330

182

189

207

175

210

245

279

921'

100

121

117

126

134

2,044

155

161

181

174

153

159

i>io3

i,88o'

148

143

186

214

246

305

300

1,750"

170

155

206

202

227

261

265

1,001

100

104

108

3,085

158

208

268

271

273

281

333

1,970

105

103

i,i6i
632

1 ^"^

122

127

125
12

114
10

118
10

1,511

1,908

100

III

117

115

1,045

150

162

179

172

157

166

138

2,626

154

166

179

200

211

195

196

3,620"

4,258

4,761

6,055

6,976

8,935

10,553

10,667

2.749

4,236

4,728

6,012

6,927

8,848

10,467

70,560 )

871'

107

1,025"

100

131

118

105

102

106

1.963

120

147

167

163

145

734

1,030

4,356

268

326

272

338

365

429

405

2,690

lOI

132

144

241

356

368

335

2,544

117

121

S34

736

1,340"

170

185

219

222

277

273

298

950"

114

III

142

163

169

195

196

1.342

141

159

198

207

227

250

267

823

2,164

254

234

284

322

321

372

401

1,716

III

128

132

131

155

1,577

118

121

165

198

209

246

326

1,498

107

128

135

I87I

154

339
417

1,302

455
268

186

«53

262

298

357
109

I'S
12

lOI

123
144
218
10,610
10,300
110

88
145

99
410

359
168

72
284

150

257

378

175

322
100

1 891

133
327
415

1,219

435
206

159

216

267

356

143

151

112
132
153
235
10,827
10,691
136

96
169

lOI

422

334

237

67
278

128

237

347

180

275
139

115

304
384

1,125

415
189

119

164

89
229

226

82
366

134
118

115
no
119
221
10,154
10,040
114

38
112
420
289
250

190I

66
226

129

228

284

183

258
121

246

349

979
392
170

125

143

196

213

95
355
134
loi

84
130
in

175
9,619
9,518

101

92
166

24
100

372

260

209

72
198

212

239

122

199
112

1 East Wyktham is said (i85i volume) to have been Extra Parochial before the operation of the Act 20 Vict. c. 19.

OCI

D ECONOMIC

HISTORY

TABLE OF

POPULATION, 1801

— 1901

(continued)

Parish

Acre-
age

1801

1811

1821

183 1

1841

1851

1861

1871

1881

1891

1901

Parts of

LiNDSEY {cont.)

Manley

Wapentake —

Eastern Division

Botlesford :—

6,643

603

654

853

1,055

1,586

1,507

1,616

1,726

2,464

2,659

2,819

Ashby Town-
ship
Bottesford

2,23S

192

239

288

378

429

456

503

669

1,462

1,634

1,845

1,778

104

101

112

153

144

157

144

124

Township f '

Burringham

1,SS3

233

239

338

410

624

551

632

574

542

565

537

Township '

East Butterwick

—

198

159

144

138

100

(part of) Town-

ship'

Holme Town-

1,077

—

ship'

Yaddlethorpe

—

106

133

146

124

136

168

215

196

Township f '

Broughton . . .

6,918'

729

7'^7

827

915

913

1,240

1,280

1,205

1,308

1,510

1,559

Frodingham : —

8,055-

S50

495

552

599

701

789

910

1,753

4,296

5,920

9,322

Brumby Town-

3,024

136

133

128

115

160

159

204

178

203

756

904

ship

Crosby (part of)
Township f *
Frodingham

2,981'

180

140

146

174

179

214

225

288

304

299

1,019

113

577

1,663

1,384

1,369

Township

Scunthorpe

1,031

169

174

210

240

289

303

368

710

2,126

3,481

6,750

Township

Hibaldstow % . .

4>557

443

523

522

632

688

801

77i

764

800

818

726

Manton (part

of)«:—
Manton . . .

3,420

102

172

184

195

136

132

2,176

—

106

777

139

Twigmoor Ham-
let
Messingham : —

1,244

—

6,851

505

888

1,103

1,250

1,548

1,374

1,362

1,342

1.352

1,259

1,289

Messingham

Township f •
Butterwick, East

—

377

697

855

924

1,368

1,117

1,086

1,110

1,132

1,071

1,069

—

128

191

248

326

180

257

276

232

220

188

220

(part of) Town-

ship t'

Redboume J . .

3,973

200

215

270

300

354

320

336

367

321

303

Scawby cum Stur-
tonf

3,930'

518

658

838

942

1,050

1,606

1,570

1,586

1,549

1,595

1,561

Waddingham J

3,752

343

377

447

523

678

834

812

723

715

610

562

Manley Wapen-

take— Northern

Division

Appleby with
Raventhorpe ' %

6,334

394

385

534

517

505

481

579

607

570

610

583

Alkborough . .

3,03s

368

428

467

528

468

497

487

399

427

420

Burton upon
Stather't

3,860'

482

526

762

760

799

899

983

1,099

971

830

820

Flttborough : — .

2,651

173

199

216

210

231

221

236

258

22Q

242

196
196

Flixborough . .

2,651

173

199

216

210

211

799

214

246

229

242

Crosby (part of)

—

Township <

incluLdth ?h\?o7Bttte°sford%'o:nship"'' "'"^ ^°""^'"' '"""'"^''^ '" '«°^- '^''^ ^^^ °^ ^'"''^"'^-^ ^--^'^ -

and tne^^lSd-^^x'LTtl^-telp^oryT^^^^^^^^^^^ '^ ^-<="°^^ "^'-^

^ East Buttermtch IS paxt\y situated in Bottesford Ancient Parish and partly in Messingham Ancient Parish The
entire area is included with Messingham, under which also the whole of the population is shown for i8oi-:,t
D ■ wif -^ '%?.^''^.'? i='»'0^.-«^Aa« -4 »«■«»< PansA (Manley Wapentake-East) and partly in Flixborough Ancient
PamA (Manley Wapentake-North) . The entire area is included with Frodingham, under which also the whole poo u
lation IS shown, 1801-31 and 1881-igoi. "uuic jjupu

' See note ('), p. 369.

6 Messingham Township included, in 1841, 283 persons attending the annual feast
laboure^r^CSafwo/ks"'^'-"^''" increase of population in 1861 is mainly due "to the temporary employment of

8 Burton upon Slather extends into Corringham Wapentake, but is wholly entered under Manley Wapentake—

Z7i

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

TABLE OF

POPULATION, 1 801

— 1901

'continued)

Acre-

Parish

age

1801

1811

1821

1831

1841

1851

i86i

1871

1881

1891

1901

Parts of

LiNDSEY {cont>i

Manley Wapen-

take— Northern

Divsion (cont.)

Halton, West f . .

4,870-

204

322

374

359

424

425

422

431

355

315

330

Roxby-cuni-Risby J

4,908

273

269

350

373

339

330

348

374

417

392

389

Whitton ....

1,369

207

187

212

245

217

190

215

214

201

257

173

Winteringham % •

3,588

678

709

746

726

694

824

858

779

671

584

595

Winterton J . . .

3,8i8

773

821

1,015

1,295

1,373

1,665

1,780

1,756

1,601

1,400

1,361

Manley Wapen-

take— Western

Division

.■\lthorpe :— . .

5,460'

593

614

877

981

1,184

1,347

1,316

1,432

1,499

1,391

1,559

Althorpe Town-

1,352

208

195

252

313

366

335

391

458

527

467

539

ship

Amcotts Town-

2,517'

227

248

346

359

417

410

374

412

397

332

300

ship t X

Keadby Town-

1,591

158

171

279

309

401

602

551

562

575

592

720

ship

Beltonf ....

8,530-

1,259

1,285

1,437

1,597

1,707

1,738

1,871

1,941

1,719

1,445

1,523

Crowle : — ...

8,239

1,471

1,575

1,961

2,113

2,544

3,008

3,182

3,813

3,353

3,095

3,223

Crowle-with-

6,926

1,343

1,424

7,729

1,889

2,262

2,548

2,648

3,122

2,826

2,641

2,769

Ealand Town-

ship'!

Eastoft Town-
ship
Epworth f . . .

1,313

128

151

232

224

282

460

534

691

527

454

8, 140'

1,434

1,502

1,763

1,825

1,843

1,944

2,097

2,295

2,178

1,890

1,829

Haxeytt . • •

8,470'

1,541

1,627

1,888

1,868

2,071

2,129

2,157

2,213

1,982

1,840

2,020

Luddington % : — .

3,680'

795

821

962

924

982

1,090

1,264

1,355

1,157

981

973

Luddington f

2,300-

407

402

462

470

511

588

684

775

628

495

532

Garthorpe

1,380'

388

419

500

454

471

502

580

529

486

441

Township f

Owston : — ...

5,350'

1,390

1,507

1,969

2,207

2,445

2,613

2,520

2,Z77

2,040

1,992

1,878

East Ferry (part

—

of) Town-

ship''

Owston Town-

—

917

1,003

1,300

1,409

1,551

1,693

1,585

1,527

1,322

1,325

1,241

ship!

West Butter-

—

473

504

669

798

865

893

907

827

718

667

637

wick-with-

Kelfield

Chap.t X

Wroott , . . .

3,386

210

261

28s

289

335

349

392

391

356

333

356

Walshcroft

Wapentake —

North Division

Caistor (part oO' :—

Holton-le-Moor
Chap. '
Claxby ....

1,892

117

135

ISO

160

190

180

195

178

167

163

1,728

136

159

184

205

220

262

237

357

325

226

237

Kelsey, South X ■

4,198

449

537

623

632

622

623

633

620

615

583

498

Kingerby J . . .

1,455

106

108

106

112

100

Kirkby-cum-

Osgodby
Newton-by-Toft .

1,761

123

168

214

350

474

492

477

438

374

353

332

1,009

Normanby-le-

1,981

122

129

149

138

162

142

139

128

Wold

Owersby, North .

3,443

223

242

272

297

356

351

421

359

343

390

305

Owersby, South .

1,446

136

124

106

Rasen, West % . .

3,180

162

194

210

252

286

275

245

248

251

218

204

Thornton-le-Moor X

1,533

102

108

127

119

102

Toft-next-Newton .

1,305

Usselby t . . .

853

i Crowle with Ealand Township is partly in Yorkshire, West Riding, but is entirely shown, for convenience, in
Lincolnshire. The area in Yorkshire seems to have had no population upon it until about 1871. Crowle with Ealand
Township is entirely in Crowle Ancient Parish.

2 See note (8). p. 369.

8 Caistor Ancient Parish is situated partly in Walshcroft Wapentake — North, and partly in Yarborough Wapentake
— South.

374

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801— 1901 (continued)

Acre-

Parish

age

1801

1811

1821

1831

1841

185 1

I 1861

1871

1881

1891

1901

Parts of

LiNDSEY [font.)

Walshcroft

Wapentake —

South Division

Binbrook St.

5. 39 1

255

■

r 686

765

1,334

1,260

1,157

1,084

922

Gabriel '2

• 392

497

616

■

Orford Extra Par.

L 22

—

Binbrook St.

—

229

263

293

414

501

520

—

Mary 12

Croxby %. . .

. 1,640

106

114

147

140

127

LinwoodfJ. .

. 2,316"

118

146

138

169

226

232

20 r

180

184

193

183

Rasen, Market J

. 976

774

964

1,166

1,428

2,022

2,110

2,563

2,815

2,612

2,497

2,188

Rasen, Middle t %

. 3.470'

463

459

508

685

831

948

1,063

982

928

810

709

Stainton-le-Vale "

• 3.032

108

100

121

118

148

144

191

215

158

195

211

Tealby^J . .

■ 3>3i8

469

629

755

824

996

861

863

677

654

558

555

Thoresway % .

. 2,845

106

116

158

189

175

196

220

258

259

220

Thorganby % .

. 1,569

102

108

116

120

140

137

144

140

134

WalesbyJ . .

• 3>695

167

188

239

247

326

331

351

325

322

305

267

Willingham,

2,332

191

194

211

223

210

234

203

194

211

172

206

North t

Well Wapentak

Burton, Gate % .

• 1,114

lOI

126

104

109

118

Kettlethorpe J :—

3,280

294

295

399

463

501

541

486

56s

508

434

4S1

Kettlethoipe t

. 2,077'

141

749

201

237

247

237

209

251

240

196

Fenton Town-

7,203

153

146

198

226

254

304

277

314

268

238

285

ship

Knaith t • • .

. 1,640"

116

105

Marton J . . .

• 1,277

374

342

395

494

523

544

487

498

439

376

319

Newton-upon-

Trent J
Stow t ■■—

1,575

205

240

295

310

399

366

325

319

313

307

264

4,890

551

622

698

808

943

1,049

1,070

1,060

1,007

861

875

Stow and Nor

- 2,786

263

288

355

402

442

448

432

401

361

289

304

manby Town

ship

Sturton and

2,104

288

334

343

406

501

601

638

659

646

572

571

Bransby

Township

Torksey (part

of)^:—

Brampton Town
ship

- 952

103

130

119

Upton : — . .

• 3.180

303

275

392

460

505

577

527

543

562

513

498

Upton t . .

. 1,603'

161

145

221

233

236

254

255

242

238

199

198

Kexby Townshi

p r,S77

142

130

171

227

269

323

272

301

324

314

300

Willingham J .

■ 2,307

233

254

292

392

426

499

S20

517

460

406

399

Wrag-goe Wapen

take-

East Division

Barkwith, East J

1,325

'51

198

195

187

25s

321

387

342

339

323

307

Barkwith, West %

904

113

130

143

150

123

119

132

j^ 1
115
296

65
179
283

Benniworth J .

3,024

277

302

346

373

488

466

431

411

381

357

Biscathorpe . .

861

Burgh-on-Bain %

1,597

173

128

131

155

177

203

210

170

154

Hainton % . .

2,324

216

212

228

268

322

323

302

276

304

297

Hatton t . . .

1,847

104

133

165

203

197

199

207

178

157
97

156

203

Kirmond-le-Mire

1,120

138

Langton-by-
Wragby'i

2,399

144

173

193

206

262

287

321

351

296

250

1 Binbrook St. Mary, and Binbrook St. Gabriel are stated (in the 1851 volume) to be united by Act of Parliameni
for all purposes, and are consequently shown together, 1861-1901, as Binbrook St. Gabriel.

2 Orfori.— There is some doubt as to where this area was included 1811-31. It seems to have been claimed as an
Hamlet by both Binbrook St. Gabriel and Binbrook St. Mary. It was, however, treated as Extra Parochial under the
Extra Parochial Places Act (20 Vic. c. 19), and added to Stainton-le-Vale, where its area is included and also its
population, 1861-1901.

» Tealby included in 1841 a number of workmen employed in building a large mansion

4 See note (»), p. 371.

5 Langton by-Wragby includes the area of Langton Woodhouse and its population 1871-1901.

375

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801— 1901 {continued)

Acre-

Parish

age

i8oi

1811

1821

1831

1841

1851

1861

1871

l88i

1891

igoi

Parts of

LlNDSEY (cont.)

Wraggoe Wapen-

take—East

Division (cont.)

Ludford Magna f "1
Ludford Parva f /

3,788

314

337

426

/ 322
I 206

367
303

386
376

356
462

416

384

390
341

334
345

273
266

Panton ....

2,018

150

182

172

157

159

150

141

Sixhillst. . . .

1,968

131

117

141

169

205

175

164

163

175

153

112

Sotby t ....

1,646

109

128

157

156

152

164

149

191

166

125

Willingham,

2,043

180

182

202

212

296

341

340

307

330

313

280

South X

Wraggoe Wapen-

take—

West Division

Apleyt ....

1,670

121

129

139

152

162

192

221

231

189

167

149

Bardney % , . .

S,4i8

703

814

954

1,098

1,192

1,329

1,425

1,460

1,393

1,378

1,417

Goltho X :—

2,540'

137

133

140

143

159

151

157

163

170

Goltho. . . .

1,382

107

102

707

104

106

113

122

Bullington

1,158'

—

Chap.t

Holton-cum-Beck-

1,889

104

143

142

168

191

185

179

152

165

135

eringt

Langton Wood-

—

house Extra

Par.'

Legsby J . . . .

2,922

184

185

231

236

326

383

365

354

336

278

262

Lissington ft- •

1,526'

153

150

183

182

186

224

245

289

259

220

202

Rand J :—

2,120

130

154

124

147

148

165

159

139

128

III

Randt . . .

—

102

Fuhietby Chap.f

—

SnellandJ . . .

1,281

109

133

105

127

138

124

133

130

100

Stainfieldt . . .

2,102

103

136

154

132

164

178

203

167

156

Stainton-by-Lang-

3,021*

1 66

187

182

238

222

227

220

239

255

221

223

worth with New-

ball t»

Torrington, East .

1,527

120

125

114

104

Torrington, West .

1,151

133

126

138

133

165

190

160,

160

144

Tupholme' . . .

1,797

Wickenby J . . .

2,033

119

144

125

137

181

289

288

293

269

232

216

Wragby ....

1,580

410

509

633

601

610

619

581

508

546

494

Yarborough

Wapentake —

East Division

Brocklesby*t • I

■ 242

229

240

Newsham Extra \

3,86o'

207

157

256

■

• 232

260

262

286

281

Par.* J

. 19

Croxton ....

1,517

123

103

105

122

124

120

Habrough t • • .

1,570*

275

245

286

313

334

368

364

394

391

373

357

Halton, East % . .

3,325

350

478

468

515

627

675

727

673

647

505

493

Imminghamt • •

3,715'

144

164

207

199

221

242

261

237

270

235

230

Keelby J . . . .

1,860

313

361

462

638

719

859

842

837

742

702

658

Killingholme :^

5,290-

343

395

438

480

681

749

736

770

774

743

763

Killingholme,

2,804

118

129

151

142

181

184

181

196

225

206

233

North Town-

ship

Killingholme,

2,486

225

266

287

338

500

565

555

574

549

537

530

South Town-

ship t

Kirmington . . .

1,904

203

200

243

310

367

379

405

419

401

427

420

Limber, Great . .

5,228

345

357

421

451

480

531

514

541

489

530

498

RibyJ ....

2,803

158

160

168

163

184

247

242

222

273

288

248

Stallingborough X ■

4,517

274

291

343

366

437

516

433

461

483

449

420

1 See note (s), p. 375.

» Stainton by Langworth includes Coldstead, formerly Extra Parochial, but which became a Civil Parish under the
Extra Parochial Places Acts.

8 Tupholme. — -The figures for 1801 are an estimate. This place was sometimes described as Extra Parochial.
* Newsham was added to Brochleshy under the Act 20 Vic. c. ig.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801— 1901 {continued)

Parish

Parts of

LlNDSEY {cont^j

Yarborough

Wapentake —
North Division
Barrow-upon-

Humber %
Barton-upon-

H umber St.
Mary t
Barton- upon-

Humber St.
Peter t
Bonby % . . .
Elsham J . .
Ferriby, South J
Goxhill %. . .
Horkstow X . .
Saxby J . . . ,
Thornton Curtis J
Ulceby . . . ,
Woottont . . ,
Worlabyt . . ,

Yarborough

Wapentake —

South Division

Bametby-le-Wold
Bigbyi . . .
Cadney-cum-

Howsham'' f
Newstead Extra

Par.2
Caistor (part of)' :

Caistor * . .

CUxby Chap.
Grasby % . . .
Kelsey, North f %
Melton Ross
Nettleton % . .
Searby-cum-

Owmby f +
Somerby J .
Wrawby ' : — .

Wrawby *

Glanford Brigg
Chap.

Lincoln City,

(County of), and

Liberty

17,807 acres

Branston *% .

Bracebridge* %

Canwick ■* . .
St. Benedict.

St. Botolph X .
St. John-in-New-
port"

Acre-
age

5,06s

6,345

2,467

4,154
1,614

5,737
2,138
2,406
4,934
3,664
3,067
3,349

2,584
3.440"

4,860'

4,565
3,30*
1,261
1,089
5,370'
1,812
3,602
1,860'

989
5,070-

1801

5,679
1,527
2,381

188

926
674

1,035

178
310
280
596
144
215
242

413
302
223

211

178
236

930
861
69
168
489
102
259
244

1,610

283

1,327

445
145

215

547
354

lOI

1821

1,129
976

1,228

268

347
420
660

157
216
300
446
334
228

273
188
239

1,118
7,057
67
217
509
106
295
218

1,742

381

1,361

527
153
211

550

455
133

1,307
1,191

1,305

275
383
453
736
200

233
^28

455
397
262

316
190
303

1,320

1,253

299

573
126

353
247

2,130

456

1,674

183 1

702

155
223
628
585
159

1,334
1,704

1,529

339
471
500
801
240
260
362
694
459
309

532
190

334

1,421

1,375

287

648

158

385
252

2,418

638

1,780

1841

859
158
201

654
614
216

1,662
1,842

1,633

386
458
542
892
228
287
393
787
529
426

679

245
411

1,873

1,828

374
767

175
457

234

2,702

880

1,822

1851

1,122

127
190

693
727

205

2,283
2,048

1,818

454

448

580

1,138

251

278

497
959
606
500

845
270
544

2,217

2,766

455
916

159
524
289

3,132

931

2,201

1,325
340
213

6go
917
324

1861

2,443
2,125

1,672

471
409

573

1,192

245

293

483

1,048

591
526

1871

828
249
570

2,168

2,747

433
870
168
536
263

120
2,961
7,257
7,704

1,469
836
228

653

1,027

28s

2,517
2,374

1,958

413
443
721

1,172
250
286
478

1,036
597
557

773
294

515
48

2,057

2,072

408

923
171

545
261

127
2,996
1,304
1,692

1,337

1,203

241

631

1,209

333

2,711
3,180

2,159

406
502

733
1,181

274
327
471
961
580
582

849
360

449

I89I

rgoi

2,695

2,808

3,056

3,515

2,170

2,156

341

313

457

434

638

738

1,152

1,174

243

193

302

298

489

477

941

865

506

439

540

493

926

1,144

403

383

428

404

1,912

1,823

7,567

1,788

411

347

844

818

176

191

482

446

217

234

118

2,921

2,787

7,264

1,342

7,657

1,445

1,431

1,221

2,123

2,494

488

602

628

519

3,347

4,456

500

1,604
7,567
37
353
797
173
383
219

101
2,827
7,469
1,358

1,216

2,967
711
432

5,473
132

Btgby includes Kettleby Hamlet 1841-1901, but it was included with Wrawhy Ancient Parish 1801-^1

2 Newstead probably returned with Cadney-cum-Howsham, 1801-31.

' See note ('), p. 374.

* Branston, Bracebridge, Canwick, Mere Hospital, and Waddinpton comprised the Liberty of Lincoln Citv Mere
Hospital was returned with Waddington in 1801 and 1811. Canwick includes South Common, which became'a Civn
Parish under the Extra Parochial Places Acts. South Common is in the City of Lincoln

' St John in Newfort.~The increase of population in 1881 is mainly due to the erection since 1871 of the new
County Hospital. The houses m this parish in 1891 and 1901 are the hospital buildings only

377

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

TABLE OF

POPULATION, 1801-

— 1901

'continued)

Parish

Acre-
age

1801

1811

1821

1831

1841

1851

1861

1871

1881

1891

1901

Parts of

LiNDSEY ((r<7«/.)

Lincoln City,

(County of), and

Liberty (cont.)

St. Margaret (in the

—

303

403

359

330

378

452

504

41S

456

429

Close) "t

St. Mark t . . .

263

322

430

450

445

666

722

909

997

933

912

St. Martin ' . .

1,187

1,487

1,768

1,942

2,283

3,020

3,232

3,879

4,245

4,441

4,439

St. Mary Magdalen

659

708

701

646

613

630

62s

569

610

564

538

(in the Bail) ' «

St. Mary-le- Wig-
ford =
St. Michael-on-the-

612

503

599

590

702

912

1,187

1,746

2,504

3,573

4,452

5,948

468

509

716

843

1,135

1,363

1,303

1,400

1,259

1,182

1,181

Mount ^

Mere Hospital

1,395

—

Extra Par.''

Monk's Liberty

—

1,231

Extra Par.t

St. Nicholas-in-

—

147

228

223

442

1,053

1,233

1,515

2,250

4,462

5,404

5,775

Newport \

St. Paul (in the

—

316

387

423

447

492

746

789

919

820

768

1,002

Bail) ' t

Castle Dykings

—

139

167

188

218

181

179

Extra Par.t

St. Peter-at-Arches

413

420

498

534

548

62s

562

588

528

456

350

St. Peter-in-East-

—

584

456

453

505

658

1,000

1,033

1,187

1,453

1,569

1,244

gate * t ' *

St. Peter-at-Gowts

149

413

481

549

661

875

1,430

2,055

3,197

6,560

8,133

9,900

St. Swithin J . .

154

940

1,553

1,869

2,202

2,634

2,961

4,665

6,294

7,328

7,373

9,134

Waddington % * .

3,333

674

727

686

754

814

962

909

855

878

695

770

Lincoln Castle

—

[Prison] Extra

Par."

Lincoln County

—

125

149

106

105

122

Lunatic Asylum

Extra Par.'

General Notes for Lincolnshire

(i) Many parishes include certain Fen Allotments, which were allotted to them on the
occasion of the extensive drainage of fen lands, which seemingly took place between 1 8 1 1 and
1821. The Act of Parliament was passed in 1801, and the work was finished before 1814.
These parishes are mostly to be found in the Parts of Holland, and in the Sokes of Bolingbroke (East
and West) and Horncastle.

(2) The Great Northern Railway was being constructed near Grantham in 1 85 1, which
may affect the population figures for certain parishes.

The following Municipal Boroughs and Urban Districts are co-extensive in 1901 with one
or more places mentioned in the table : —

Co-extensive with
Holbeach Parish (EUoe Wapentake)
Bourn Parish (Aveland Wapentake)

Quarrington, and Old Sleaford Parishes (Aswardhurn Wapentake), and
New Sleaford Parish (Flaxwell Wapentake)

Municipal Borough, or Urban District

Holbeach U.D

Bourn U.D

Sleaford U.D

1 St. Margaret-in-the-Close, St. Mary Magdalen-in-the-Bail, and St. Paul-in-the-Bail seem (1841) to be really in Lawress
Wapentake, the Bail and the Close being apparently outside the City's jurisdiction, though a small part of St. Margaret
is claimed by the City; and a small part of St. Peter-in-Eastgate may be in the Close.

2 St. Mary-h-Wigford includes Holmes Common.

8 St. Michael-on-the-Mount includes the area of the Bishop's Palace and the population 1841-1901. It was Extra
Parochial, and became a Civil Parish under the Act 20 Vic. c. 19. In 1831 the Palace was included with St. Margaret-
in-the-Close.

* See note ("), p, 377.

* St. Peter-in-Eastgate includes Cold Bath House, which was formerly Extra Parochial, and became a Civil Parish
under the Act 20 Vic. c.ig.

6 Lincoln Castle was at one time part of the Ducliy of Lancaster. The area and the population 1881-1901 are
included in St. Mary Magdalen Parish.

J Lincoln County Lunatic Asylum is locally situated in St. Martin Parish, where the area is included.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

Municipal Borough, or Urban District.

Cleethorpe with Thrunscoe U.D. .
Mablethorpe U.D.

Skegness U.D.

Louth M.B.

Brumby and Frodingham U.D

Scunthorpe U.D.

Roxby cum Risby U.D.

Winterton U.D. .

Crowle U.D.

Market Rasen U.D.

Barton upon Humber U.D.

Alford U.D.

Co-extensive with
Cleethorpe with Thrunscoe Township (Bradley Haverstoe Wapentake)
Mablethorpe, St. Mary and St. Peter Parishes (Calceworth Hundred —

Marsh Division)
Skegness Parish (Candleshoe Wapentake — Marsh Division)
Louth Township (Louth — Eske Hundred — Wold Division)
Brumby and Frodingham Townships (Manley Wapentake — East)
Scunthorpe Township (Manley Wapentake — East)
Roxby cum Risby Parish (Manley Wapentake — North)
Winterton Parish (Manley Wapentake — North)
Crowle with Ealand Township (Manley Wapentake — West)
Market Rasen Parish (Walshcroft Wapentake — South)
Barton upon Humber, St. Mary and St. Peter Parishes (Yarborou^h

Wapentake — North)
Alford Parish (Calceworth Hundred — Wold Division)

379

INDUSTRIES

THE most important early industries
of Lincolnshire were connected
with a great agricultural product
of the county — that of wool. Fore-
most amongst the craftsmen were
the Lincoln weavers, who had a charter from
Henry II, which was unfortunately burnt, but
which is stated to have provided that no one
should exercise the office of weaver in the city
of Lincoln or 12 miles ^ round unless he be in
the guild of weavers.^ But there were also
weavers at Stamford,' Grantham,* and other
places. It was provided by the regulations of
the Lincoln weavers' guild that no brother
exercise his trade of weaving by night, that is
to say from evening to dawn of day, under the
penalty of one pound of wax, and that no
master of the said art pay more to his servant
for his salary than has been of ancient custom ' by
the mayor and commonalty of the city of Lin-
coln, and the gracemen of the said guild ' under
the penalty of one pound of wax.^ It has been
stated on the authority of Lord Hale that the
manufacture of cloth was in a great measure lost
during the civil wars of King John and King
Henry III, wool being transported in its raw state
into foreign parts and there made into cloth : ^
and the statement is confirmed by the very large
exports of wool from Boston, and the collapse of
the prosperity of Lincoln when the Staple was
withdrawn,^ which would hardly have taken
place had the clothmaking there been in as
flourishing a condition as in the time of
Henry II. Still, clothmaking went on, and in the
middle of the thirteenth century Lincoln was
noted for its manufacture of scarlet cloth.* But,
as we have seen,' Lincoln was unable to com-

' Leucas. A later document gives the distance as
1 2 miles.

^ Certificates of Guilds, No. 1 60.

' See preceding article on ' Social and Economic
History.'

* In 1450 three weavers, a webster, two walkers
[fullers], one dyer, and two mercers are mentioned as
indicted at Grantham (Colonel Welby's papers).

' Certificates of Guilds, No. 160.

° Frost, Hull, quoting Lord Hale's Treatise con-
cerning the customs.

' See preceding article on ' Social and Economic
History.'

' Thorold Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages,

' See preceding article on ' Social and Economic
History.'

pete with the western counties in the manufac-
ture of the finer kinds of cloth.

In 1 5 16 an attempt was made to improve
matters, the mayor brought to Lincoln a clothier
who was to teach the improved methods of the
art, and the leading citizens contributed to the
supply of a stock of wool for his use, and next
year it was ordered by the corporation that all
spinners of wool and other clothmakers who
shall come to the city shall have their freedom as
long as they dwell there,^" this being meant as an
encouragement to skilful craftsmen to take up
their abode in Lincoln. In 1551 the question
of clothmaking was discussed at an assembly of
citizens at a common- council, it was believed
that the manufactory would be ' a grette como-
dytye, releylF, weale and profight ' to the city
and to all the poor people within the same, and-
an agreement was made with the clothiers that
they should have the late church of the Holy
Rood with the churchyard and other land for
the making a walk mill and a dye-house of
the same church, so long as twenty broad cloths
should be made yearly at the least, paying ^^lO
if these were not made, any great plague being
admitted as a reasonable excuse ; all persons,
who came to buy cloth, or bring wool, woad,
madder, oil, alum or other necessaries for cloth-
making were to be free of toll for seven years,
the clothiers were to have a seal for sealing their
cloths and such letters as they might desire to
noblemen or worshipful men for help, and any
lawful means found by anyone for improving the
trade was to be sanctioned. ^"^ It was directed
that as the clothiers could not have the
Shoemakers' Hall, as was granted to them, they
should have a house at Butter-Cross for 401.
yearly.^ It was also provided that every one of
the clothiers should pay to the gracemen and
fellowship of the mystery of weavers of the city,
for their upset to be sworn brethren unto the
said fellowship, y. j^d., and I2d. yearly for their
looms' farm, and should not work or cause to be
wrought any other cloths but their own or the
work of other clothiers upon pain of the penalties
contained in the charter of the weavers.^' The
expectations of the citizens were, however, never
realized, although they directed their member in
1553 to apply to Parliament on behalf of the

'" Hist. MSS. Commission i^ti Report, Appendix
viii, 26.

" Ibid. 44. Ross, Civitas Lincolnia, 65,
" Ibid. 45. " Ibid.

381

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

clothiers for licence to buy and sell their wool
through Lincolnshire, shipping at Boston
Haven.-'

In 1559 it was found that in diverse {sic) years
then past the clothiers in the broad looms, so far
from making twenty broad cloths, had made few
or none.'' But the citizens, if they could not
set up a profitable manufactory, would attempt
to keep the poor employed, so in 159 1-2 a
knitting school was established, and John
Cheseman, the knitter, undertook to set on
work in his science all such as were willing to
come to him or were sent to him by the alder-
men, and to hide nothing from them ' that
belongeth to the knowledge of the said science.'
Spinning, dressing of wool, and keeping a mill
were included, as well as knitting, and Cheseman
provided ten wheels for which he was paid
4J. 8d.^ In 1624 Gregory Lawcock undertook
to set all the poor of Lincoln upon work to spin,
knit stockings, weave garterings, make stuffs and
other manufactures of wool, and out of the gain
to clothe the same poor ; and ;^6o was to be lent
him and j^20 given to provide tools, bring
workmen, and establish the manufactories, besides
;^I0 yearly for teaching young spinners, while
every citizen and other inhabitant of ability
should wear at least one suit of apparel and one
pair of stockings of such cloth or stuff as should
be made in the city. But in 1629 *^'s agree-
ment with Lawcock was found to be so generally
disliked that he was dismissed.^ Meanwhile the
guild of the Lincoln weavers still maintained and
enforced its privileges and regulations.

In a suit in 1635 the society of Weavers still
asserted their privileges within 12 miles of the
city. A Scothorne weaver, a witness on their
behalf, said that he knew the defendant, and he
was brought up in the trade of a weaver under a
Scothorne weaver, 3 miles from Lincoln, within
the compass, jurisdiction, and power of the
corporation of the society of weavers, and there
was a custom used, ' and hath been time out of
mind within the said city and compass,' that
everyone setting up the said trade within the
said compass of 12 miles shall pay for his upset
6s. 8d., and 6d. yearly towards the paying of the
king's fee farm rent,' and he had heard of a
custom belonging to the said society that no
weaver within the said 12 miles should take,
fetch, or entertain any work or things to
work out of the city and carry it into the
country and there wprk it into cloth, and he
himself was punished for this offence by the
graceman, warden, assistants and society. It
appears from other evidence that the defendant

' Hist. MSS. Commission 14/^ Report, Appendix
viii, 47. ' Ibid. 51.

'Ibid. 17. •■ Ibid. 97, 98,99.

' The payment of £6 yearly for the weavers' guild,
paid to the city of Lincoln since 1408 towards the
rent due from the city to the king.

was a weaver, living at Greetwell, and that he
had received yarn into his house and made it
into cloth or ' Linsey woolsey,' and that Robert
Peake, the graceman, with two others of the
company of weavers, went to his house and did
then and there threaten him that they would
seal up his looms, unless he would give them a
mark for every piece that he wrought of Lincoln
work. It was stated that the weavers of the
city took greater wages for weaving cloth than
the country weavers did, and a country weaver
said a weaver of Lincoln took 4^. for work for
which he would take 3c/.° The weaving trade
still went on, the evidence now being for the
country districts. We find two young men put
as apprentices to a weaver at Irby in 1676, a
weaver at Lissington in 1668, one at Sutton in
1677, and one at Kirton in 1788.' In 1787
the well-known Stuff Ball was established for
the encouragement of native woollen manufac-
ture, and held for two years at Alford, and
afterwards at Lincoln. The ladies used to wear
stuff gowns, and the gentlemen stuff coats, waist-
coats, and breeches.^

Amongst other craft-guilds at Lincoln were
those of the fullers and the tailors. A provision
of the Fullers' Guild in 1297 was that none of
the craft should work in the trough, and none
should work at the wooden bar with a woman,
unless with the wife of a master or her hand-
maid.^ It seems that the fullers' work had then
already risen to beating the newly-made cloth,
lying in a trough, with bars or poles, and was
no longer ' cloth walking.' Other provisions
were, that none should work after dinner on
Saturdays, nor on any days which they ought to
keep as festivals, according to the law of the
church : and that if a stranger to the city came
in he might, upon giving id. to the wax, work
with the brethren and sisters, and his name
should be written on the roll, the penalty for
not keeping the ordinances being half a pound of
wax.^" The Tailors' Guild in 1328 ordained"
that if any master [tailor] took anyone to live
with him as apprentice in order to learn the
work of the tailor's craft, the apprentice should
pay 2s. to the guild, or his master for him, or
else the master should lose his guildship : and
that if any master of the craft kept any lad or
' sewer ' of another master for one day after he
had well known that the lad wrongfully left his
master, and that they had not parted in a friendly
and reasonable manner, he should pay a stone of
wax.

The ordinances of the company of Tailors
were confirmed in 1679.^^ They are too long

* Excheq. K.R. Depos. 11 Car. I, Trin. i, Line

' Quarter Sessions Minutes.

' Sir C. Anderson, Lincoln Pocket Guide, 176.

' Toulmin Smith, English Gilds, 180.

•" Ibid. " Ibid.

'* Hist. MSS. i\th Report, App. viii, 108.

382

INDUSTRIES

to quote, but it is noticeable that the religious
sanctions of the older guild are altogether omitted,
there is no procession of the members to the
cathedral church, no provision that each
brother and sister should give id. for charity
when the dean of the guild demanded, though
there is an ordinance concerning the burying of
poor brethren and allovirance while living, as was
of old. The fact seems to be that, while the
religious character of the society ceased, it con-
tinued in some degree at least to be a benefit
society.

The bulk and weight of the chief manufac-
tures, and still more of the agricultural products
of Lincolnshire, such as corn and wool, made
the question of carriage of special importance
even in the earliest times. How was wool to
be brought to Lincoln to be made into cloth ?
How was wool to be sent to Boston for export
to Flanders or elsewhere ? How was cloth to
be conveyed from Lincoln to purchasers in dif-
ferent counties ? How were foreign merchants
to get their cloth and other heavy goods to
Lincoln and other places for sale ? How was
corn to be conveyed to markets for sale, or to
ports for exportation ? These were ques-
tions which had much to do with the early
prosperity of our county. Of course there
were the roads, but it can hardly be believed
that they were good as a rule ; sometimes they
were impassable through floods, and some were
mere ' causeys ' along which only pack-horses
could pass ; so we must conclude that the larger
portion of the goods was carried by water, and a
study of the map of Lincolnshire will impress
this upon our minds. To the north was the
Humber. To the north-west were the Trent
and the Don. From near South Witham, past
Grantham to Lincoln and thence to Boston, was
the Witham. In South Lincolnshire the
Welland runs from Stamford to Spalding and
thence to Boston. And there were the Glen and
several natural streams. Nor was that all ; there was
the Fosse Dyke, an artificial canal, made for trade
purposes, from Lincoln to Torksey on the Trent,
and the Car Dyke, a catch-water drain, which
was also used for boats and small ships. And it
seems almost certain that drains made to carry
off the water in the low districts were often
used for the carriage of corn and merchandise.
We can now see how well the principal places
of trade in the county, and especially Lincoln
and Boston, were provided with water com-
munication. It was in 1121 that King
Henry I made a way for ships by making a
dyke from Torksey to Lincoln, turning in the
waters of the Trent.^ Whether this was a new
cut, or, as is generally believed, the opening
out of an old one, the advantage to the trade
of Lincoln is obvious. Foreign merchants could

' Roger de Hoveden, Rerum Anglic. Serif toret post
Bedam, i^jj.

come up the Humber and the Trent to Torksey,
and thence to Lincoln with their goods, and
merchandise could be conveyed backwards and
forwards by water between Lincoln and many
parts of Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. This
was in the days when there was great cloth-
making at Lincoln.

In 1365 the citizens of Lincoln made great
complaint to the king in Parliament concerning
the damage they suiFered because ships and boats
could not pass to and fro in the Fosse Dyke
with merchandise and victuals as they were
wont to do, and judges were commissioned to
view the channel, and inquire by the oaths of
honest and lawful men of the county who
ought to cleanse the same, and to distrain those
found liable and compel them to make good
defects.^ But little or nothing was done, for
ten years later the jurors of divers wapentakes
presented that Fosse Dyke, having been anciently
full of water, so that ships and boats used to pass
to and from Nottingham, York, Kingston-upon-
Hull, and other places by the River Trent, and
so by this channel to Lincoln and from Lincoln
to Boston, to the great benefit of the city of
Lincoln and the advantage of all tradesmen
passing that way, was choked up, and that the
prior of Torksey and the town of Torksey, the
prioress of Fosse, John bishop of Lincoln,
Gilbert earl of Angus and his tenants Sir
Ralph Daubney and other lords of towns lying
on each side of the channel, ought to repair it.'
A commission was appointed, but again without
definite result. In 1518 a commission was
issued by the king for the cleansing of Fosse
Dyke, and it was agreed at a common council
held at Lincoln that as the sum required would
be as large as 100 marks from the city alone it
should be defrayed by such amounts as every
man would give of his own good will : this plan
was not, however, very successful, as several
times citizens of credit were sent to ride to
different places to collect sums to keep the
dykers at work, attempts were made to obtain
money by way of loan, and Bishop Atwater,
who was the chief promoter of the undertaking,
directed all curates and others in the diocese to
be helpful in the same, and granted a pardon to
all who would assist.* An Act of Parliament
was obtained in 167 1 for improving the navi-
gation between Boston and the Trent, and an
agreement was made in 1672 with Samuel
Fortrey, esq., that he should have one-third of the
profits of the tolls in return for his help in
carrying out the improvements, and the main-
tenance of a bridge in Saxilby, and his bearing
one-third part of charges and losses,^ but nothing

' Dugdale, Imbanking, isfc. 167.
' Ibid. 1 6y, quoting ' Plac. coram rege,' 49 Edw. Ill,
rot. 17.

* Ross, Civiias Lincolnla, 57-8.

' Hist. MSS. i^tA Report, App. viii, 18,

383

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

effective was done until the Fosse Dyke was
leased to Mr. Richard Ellison in 1741 for 999
years. In the lease between the mayor and
commonalty of the city of Lincoln and Richard
Ellison of Thome, co. York, merchant, the Act
22 and 23 Charles II for the improving of the
navigation between Boston and the Trent is
quoted, and it is stated that the citizens were
empowered in consideration of tolls and duties
thereby allowed to be taken to make navigable
the ancient channels of the Witham and Fosse
Dyke, so as they should within two years under-
take the same, which as regards Fosse Dyke
they did, and whereas the locks on the Fosse
Dyke were in so ruinous a condition and the
channel so warped and silted up that the navi-
gation was in a great measure rendered useless,
and the said Richard Ellison had agreed to make
new locks and all other new works, and to
deepen the channel so that boats drawing 3 ft.
6 in. might pass from the Trent to Lincoln,
and to rent of them their two-third parts of
the said channel and have therefor the tolls for
999 years, for the yearly rent of ;^50, the
mayor, &c., had demised the same to him.
The lessee was to repair and maintain the
navigation, and all the locks and wharves, and
keep the channel scoured. He was to maintain
Saxilby Bridge, and if he should take down or
alter Torksey Bridge, so that there should be
any dispute with the lord of the manor, he was
to save the citizens harmless. In dry seasons
he might let in water from the Witham into
Brayford sufficient for the navigation. Another
lease assigned in 1 74 1 to the same lessee at a
rent of ^25 the remaining third part of the
channel of Fosse Dyke and its dues for 999 years,
which had before been let to James Humberstone
of New Inn, Middlesex.^ About Car Dyke
there is little to say. It is mentioned in pro-
ceedings of the Commissioners of Sewers in the
fourteenth century,* but is generally supposed
to have been made many years before that time.
When Louth Spire was built 1501-16, stone
purchased at Wilsford, south-west of Sleaford,
was conveyed to Louth partly by water and
partly by land, the carriage to Dogdyke being
IS. 6d. a load, that from Coningsby to Louth 2s.^
The price appears to be id. a mile per load
whether by water or road.

The utility of the various rivers for commerce
is undoubted. But a word seems necessary
about the Witham. It was the great water-way
between Lincoln and Boston in the palmiest
days of those towns. There were two places on
the Witham, Calscroft and Dogdyke, where the

' Lease of the Fossedike Navigation, etc. local pam-
phlets, Lincoln, 1826.

' Wheeler, Fens, ijc. 248 ; Bishop Trollope,
Sleaford, 69.

' Louth Churchwardens' Accounts, per Mr. R. W.
Goulding.

384

bailiffs of the city of Lincoln used to collect
tolls in aid of the farm of the city. A com-
plaint is made in 1275* that the abbot of
Kirkstead appropriated to himself five years
since a place called Calscroft, to the east of
Sheepwash [Sepwas], where ships used to load
and unload wool and other merchandise, and
the bailiffs of Lincoln collected customs. A
complaint was also made " that the bailiffs used
to take toll at Dogdyke [Dockedig] of divers
men taking their merchandise to Boston, but
that the steward of the Lord of Kyme had
driven them away and forcibly seized the tolls
they ought and used to take. In much later
times we find Daniel Disney, esqr., lord in 17 19
of the manor of Kirkstead, claiming a toll of
\d. a load of goods and merchandise landed
from the River Witham upon certain ' Waths,'
or brought to them to be put on board any
vessel on the river, when a witness from
Lincoln deposed that his custom had been
to send goods to Horncastle Fair by water
carriage as far as Kirkstead ' Wath,' where they
were landed and carried on by land.* Unfortu-
nately the River Witham was sluggish and easily
silted up, and we hear of numerous complaints'^
in the fourteenth century about its condition, so
that ships laden with wine, wool, and other mer-
chandise could no longer pass as they used to do ;
but nothing really effectual was done until the
eighteenth century. It is, as might be expected,
difficult to obtain evidence about the use of
streams and drains for commercial purposes, but
an occasional notice may be found. In 1342
the earl of Angus informed the king that the
Kyme Eau was so obstructed* that ships laden
with merchandise could not pass as they used to
do, and offered to scour out the channel provided
he was allowed to take certain dues from the
goods passing in ships. Hammond Beck used to
be navigable for boats laden with corn, and the
inhabitants of Holland Fen in quite modern days
used to bring their dairy and other produce down
to Boston to market by this stream or drain.*
At the end of the eighteenth century a good
deal of enterprise was shown in constructing
canals in Lincolnshire. In 1794 an Act was
obtained for making a canal from the Witham
near Chapel Hill, along the course of the Kyme
Eau and the River Slea, to Sleaford. In 1792
an Act was obtained for a canal from Horncastle
to the Witham near Tattershall Ferry.^" In
1 78 1 an Act was obtained for the improvement
of the navigation of the Bourne Eau," from
Bourne to the River Glen. In 1794 an Act

* Hundred Rolls (Rec. Com.), i, 397.
'Ibid. 315.

" Exch. K.R. Depos. 5 Geo. I, fol. z8.
' Wheeler, Fens, i^c. 140.
' Ibid. 431.

' P. Thompson, Boston, 264.
" Wheeler, Fens, l^c. 431. " Ibid. 435.

INDUSTRIES

was passed for the Caistor Canal to the Ancholme,^
which in earlier days had been so straightened
as to be really a canal also. In 1 763 an Act was
obtained for a canal from Louth to Tetney, and
it was completed in 1770 at a cost of £28,000.^
In 1792 an Act was procured for a canal from
Stainforth, where the River Don had been stopped,
to the Trent at Keadby, to restore the communi-
cation of the Isle of Axholme with Thorne
and Doncaster.' In 1793 an Act was passed
for a canal from Grantham by Woolsthorpe to
the Trent at Nottingham.* Of these, the Louth,
Horncastle, Bourne, and Sleaford Canals are
derelict.

About the Lincolnshire roads in early days
little is known for certain. Possibly the great
main road through Stamford and Lincoln
may have been in fair condition, but prob-
ably most roads were bad, many being mere
tracks across the country. To repair the roads
was doubtless the duty of landowners, lay and
religious alike, and for those who had to pass
from estate to estate to maintain themselves and
their retinue, or to look after their affairs, this
was their interest also. Yet it was by no
means easy to enforce this obligation, the difficulty
being naturally increased in the low districts,
where the expense was the greatest. In 13 16
the men of Claypole and the adjoining parts com-
plained that the bridge of Oldehebrigge, which
is on the confines of Lincolnshire and Notting-
hamshire, and which they passed on their way to
Newark, was dilapidated, and the way so de-
teriorated that men passing that way could not
examine the metes of the said way, whereby
many losses and dangers befell them : and com-
missioners were appointed to view the bridge
and way and inquire into the entire matter.^
In 1329 commissioners, appointed on the petition
of the bishop of Lincoln and others, had ordered
the bridge and road to be repaired and main-
tained at the cost of the township of Claypole ;
but the jurors, contrary to such advice, made a
new bridge and a new road on the land of the
bishop and others; commissioners were to examine
into the facts, and if a new bridge and road had
been made on the land of the bishop to remove
them and replace the old ones, and do all they
should think necessary therein.' In 1332 twelve
jurors had presented before the sheriff in his
' turn ' at the hospital on the Strete (Spittal) that

' Brewster, Notes on S. Kelsey.

' Goulding, Loutk Records, 62.

' Stonehouse, Is/e of Axholme, 45.

* Tumor, Grantham, xii.

' Cal. of Pat. Rolls, 1313-7, p. 430.

' Ibid. 1327-30, p. 480. It was about this time
that the two-spanned bridge over the Witham at
Claypole was built, which has quite recently been so
inexcusably destroyed by the district council. It
was an exceedingly valuable specimen of a mediaeval
bridge of which the county ought to have been
proud.

the abbot of Louth Park had not repaired the
causey at Flixborough, and had narrowed the
common way by raising a bank ; but the abbot
said he had no lands by reason of which he
ought to do the repairs, and that he raised the
bank on his own soil without narrowing the way,
and eventually a jury found in his favour.' The
abbot was also discharged of the liability to
repair the causey of Louth Park. In 1333 it
was found that the priory of St. Saviour de
Ponte Aslaci had been given the site and certain
lands for the maintenance of the brethren there,
and that only what was over was to be devoted
to the reparation of Holandbrigg, so the order
that the prior was to repair and maintain the
causey of Holandbrigg and thirty bridges over
the same is amended, and the judges are to find
out a way by which the bridge may be repaired.*
In 1337, a petition having been presented to
Parliament that the ways between Croyland and
Spalding were in a very dangerous state, and that
this could be remedied by the abbot of Croyland
making a causey on his soil between Croyland
and ' le Brotherhous ' on the understanding that
he and his successors should take tolls for making
and maintaining it from the persons using it, and
the king having commanded the abbot to certify
him whether he would bind himself to do this,
the abbot wrote back that between the great
bridge at Croyland and ' le Brotherhous,' where
the dangerous part of the ways is, there were
3 miles \leucae'\ of marshy land along the
bank of the Welland, on which it would be
difficult to make a causey, inasmuch as, the land
lying deep in a morass, the causey would have
to be by the said bank, and since the bank was
liable to be flooded in winter, the land whereon
it would be made was at such times greatly
loosened, as well by the passing of sailors and
boatmen as by the force of the wind, and fell
away to such an extent that any causey on it
would be destroyed unless built deep and high
and well protected : that for the convenience of
the people of those parts there would also have
to be several bridges across the Welland both at
Croyland and across the causey, which must be
built at great cost to be high enough for laden
ships and boats to pass under them, and strong
enough for carts to pass over them : that persons
passing over there by ship in rough weather then
paid for every cart laden 1 2^., for every horse laden
2(/., for every man i^., and for beasts and other
things as the boatmen agree, and that these tolls
are often doubled in time of flood and wind :
but that he would undertake the work if the
king would grant him corresponding tolls not
exceeding half those now paid, and at the end
of seven years some tolls of less amount for
ever for the maintenance of the causey. The
men of Kesteven and Holland petitioned Parlia-

' Cal. of Pat. Rolls, 1340-3, p. 137.
Mbid. 1334-8, pp. 3, II.

'385 49

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

ment that the king would call upon the abbot
to carry out his answer. The king thereupon
appointed commissioners to find out what tolls
had been paid, on whose land the ships and
boats making the passage landed, what tolls for
seven years would enable the abbot to carry out
the work, and what tolls would then suffice for
the maintenance of the causey, how many causeys
and bridges would be required and of what
dimensions, and whether the work would be to
the loss or prejudice of any. ^ In 1332 commis-
sioners were appointed to supervise the causeway
between the Withebrigg by Langwath and the
Claybrig towards Wragby, and the bridge of
Claybrig, which were reported to be in a dan-
gerous state by default of those who were bound
to repair them, and to make inquisition who are
to blame in the matter.

In later days Mr. Stonehouse^ tells us the
roads in the Isle of Axholme were in a very bad
state, almost impassable during the winter even
on horseback. Attempts were made to lay a
causeway with Yorkshire flags wide enough for
a horse to walk upon, and during the high prices
of 1 810-12 the causeways were completed from
one village to another, and the corn was delivered
on horseback. Mr. Stonehouse says a person
may still walk on these flags from Owston to
Haxey, thence to Epworth, through Belton to
Crowle and Luddington. Even on the Wolds,
where the conditions were better, the roads must
have been very bad, for in 1709 Vincent
Amcotts writes that his ' 4 mares and mother's 2
leaders were stuck between Brinkle and Harring-
ton with a small load of hay, which I bought for
I2J. 6d:^

Another point of interest relating to the
Lincolnshire industries is their distribution.
William of Malmesbury, writing in the time of
King Henry I, speaks of Lincoln as one of the
most populous places in England, ' an emporium
of men coming by land and by sea.' * And we
find shops or stalls of a more or less permanent
character at Stow, 1231-4.^ Still, in those times
shops must have been few even in the large
towns, and it was at markets and fairs that for
the most part clothing and the necessaries of life
were obtained. We have seen how the bishop
of Lincoln advised the countess to purchase her

' Cal. of Pat. Rolls, 1334-8, p. 449. In 1580 there
was a suit concerning the right of the queen as lady
of the manor of Deeping to levy tolls from persons
passing along the bank by the water of Wel-
land leading from Deeping to Crowland ; there
were three bars at three several places on the bank : at
Waldron Hall, 'at ye crosse in the Eaye,' and at
Crowland Hume. [Excheq. K. R. Depos. 22 Eliz.
Trin. i, Lincoln.]

' History of the Isle, 45.

' Hist, of Ormsby, 1 76.

' Rerum Angl. Scriptores post Bedam, 290.

5 Final Concords, 245, 259.

386

robes, wines, &c., at Boston Fair ; ° no doubt he
himself did so. The canons of Bolton Abbey
also constantly attended Boston Fair,' and there
they purchased their best cloth, which could be
conveyed by water as far as York. The system
that prevailed in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries would of course be considered highly
inconvenient now, but those were days of fewer
wants, and people used to buy goods that would
last.*

Most necessaries of life were produced on the
manor, and villagers purchased things they
wanted of one another. Thus at Ingoldmells in
the fourteenth century, while we read of bakers
and 'tipplers,' as on every manor, we find the
tenants purchasing of one another malt, beans,
flour, corn, timber, nails, and divers ' marchan-
dise.'' The extremely coarse clothing of the
villein or labourer was mostly made at home,
and there too, as now, the pig was fed.^" So
there was not much occasion to go to markets or
fairs, the groceries which are now in every house
did not exist, and if a man wanted to go he
had better opportunities than now, for there
were markets in several places where now there
are none. Gradually, however, such a fair as
that at Boston declined in importance. Instead
of the large sums received in 1283," from 1591
to 1690 the rents received for the shops in the
mart-yard were ^51 to ^^72 a year, the next
twenty years about ;^42, 1731—40 they dropped
to^^ii I Of., in 1 74 1 to ;^5 13^.^^ Evidently the
habit of ' going shopping ' was coming in. The
markets and fairs for horses, cattle, and sheep
continued, but clothing, groceries, &c., were
purchased at the shops as now. Hence the in-
crease in the population of the market towns,
followed by an increase also in the larger villages
where there was custom enough for more than
one small shop.

For the causes which led to the gradual decay
and final extinction of certain other local

^ See preceding article on ' Social and Economic
History.'

' Whitaker, Craven, \i'i, 472. In 1313 the canons
purchased at Boston Fair half a piece of cloth with
fur for the lady of Stiveton, "jxs. \.d.; one robe for
Ralph de Otterburn, 19;. i^d.; furs for Sir Adam de
Midelton for 2 years' wear, 1 9J. Ibid. 47 1 .

' In some instances our grandmothers' gowns, quite
100 years old, are in existence still, and very hand-
some they are ; and Mr. Stonehouse tells us that fifty
years or so before he wrote (1839) a servant girl got
up at three o'clock in the morning to spin, and was
clad chiefly in linsey woolsey garments, women in
many instances wearing the same gowns and cloaks as
their mothers. Hist, of the Isle of Axholme, 47.

' Ingoldmells Court Rolls, 26, 50, 84, 99, 1 14.

" The pedlars, too, with their packages must not
be forgotten.

" See preceding article on ' Social and Economic
History.'

P. Thompson, Boston, 344, 346.

INDUSTRIES

industries we must look to the working of the
two great factors of change which have been of
supreme importance in shaping the economic
destinies of the county — namely, the drainage of
the fens, and the introduction of steam as a
motive-power.

The enclosure of the marsh and fen for example,
and the consequent absorption of the reclaimed
tracts for purely agricultural purposes, consider-
ably curtailed and finally put an end to the vast
number of decoys which had given employment
to hundreds of the inhabitants. Only a few
winters before its accomplishment, ten decoys (of
which five were in the parish of Friskney)
supplied the London markets with 31,200 birds,
duck, teal, and widgeon, 5,000 being considered
a good season's return.^

On the East Fen, as many as 300 acres were
formerly devoted to the cultivation of the cran-
berry, or ' moss-berry ' as it was sometimes
called, introduced at the beginning of the eigh-
teenth century by a native of Westmorland, in
which county, as well as in Cumberland, the
fruit flourished to perfection. In the fens an
average yield was 2,000 pecks a season, although
as many as 4,000 pecks have been collected,
the pickers earning 5^. a peck. The markets
principally supplied were those of Cambridge-
shire, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, where ' cran-
berry tarts ' were much in vogue. Since the
drainage and enclosure few have been gathered.^

The large flocks of geese still kept in the
Fens near Spalding are but diminished reminders
of that bygone trade in goose feathers to which
the county owes at least one proverb, as recorded
by that industrious gatherer of proverbial
curiosities, John Ray : ' The Fenman's dowry is
threescore geese and a pelt,' whilst Wheeler, in
his History of the Fens, places the ' goose-cote,'
or feather-bed, in the ranks of family heirlooms.
Several persons whose yearly rental was but
;^5 kept 1,500 birds.' The geese were treated
with all the honour due to a profitable invest-
ment. While the breeding season lasted they
were kept in the cottages, sometimes even in the
sleeping-rooms. The nests were in wicker pens,
arranged in tiers, one over the other. Twice a
day the gooseherd or gozzard lifted the birds
off their nests, attended them to water, fed them,
and afterwards replaced them on their nests.
These men, it is said, knew every nest, and the
bird to which each belonged, a very necessary
qualification for their oifice, as the least error in
the matter would have resulted in throwing the
whole community into confusion.

The geese were plucked five times a year to

' Oldfield, Hist. ofWainfleet, 180.

' Ibid.

' At Brothertoft a man's qualification for parochial
office was the number of geese he owned {All the
Year Round). Chronicles of English Counties, "Hoy. 1883,
p. 511.

increase their feathers — namely, at Lady Day,
for quills and feathers ; at Midsummer, Lammas,
Michaelmas, and Martinmas, for feathers only.
Those taken from the live birds were esteemed
of better value, yielding at the rate of 3^. per
head a year, whereas the yield from the feathers
of a dead bird was only 6^., three giving a
pound. In some places the geese were winged
each quarter only, ten feathers being taken from
each goose, which sold at ^s. a thousand.
Plucked geese on Wildmore Fen paid in feathers
IS. a head. In 1813 goose-quills were selling at
20X. per thousand. Young records an instance
of one man on the Fens whom he met in the
course of his survey of the county whose stock
of geese was 160. From these he reared, in
good years 700, in a bad season 5^0, an average
brood being 8. These sold at 2s., the feathers
bringing is. id. The cost of keep for each
bird was 2s. 6d., half of which was spent in corn,
but his net profit every year amounted to £4.0.^

The trade in rabbits was no less lucrative.
' Warrens,' writes Young, ' are reckoned profit-
able, so that some fortunes have been made on
them.' One farmer whom he met at Partney
Fair killed 500 couple annually on his 1,000
acres. The warrens around Brigg exceeded, in
1 8 1 0, the numbers of any locality in the kingdom,
whilst the dressing of the skins aflForded employ-
ment to a majority of the townspeople. The
silver-grey skins, which were most in demand,
fetched from 8d. to i6d. each.' A variety of
this rabbit, it may be noted in passing, is still
occasionally to be met with on Santon and other
commons. The fur was used for linings of
robes, tippets, and muSs, the down in the manu-
facture of hats, though for the latter, it is
worthy of note, the fur of the common rabbit
was most esteemed. The trade was an ancient
one. In Elizabethan times poor workmen,
called 'tawyers,' were employed to collect
rabbit-skins from the pedlars who hawked them
about the country.^

Silk throwsting was carried on at Stamford in
1822 by Mr. Gouger, who employed between
300 and 400 hands, mostly women and children,
the latter earning by winding from is. to 2s. per
week, the women's wages averaging from 2s. 6d.
to 4.S. a week. The silk arrived in its raw state
from Italy, Turkey, Spain, Bengal, and China,
the latter being esteemed the best, whilst the
Bengal silk was considered the worst. Postle-
thwayt aflirms that the greater part came from
Piedmont, the price paid being 20J. per Ib.^
The bales weighed from 140 to 330 lb., one of
200 lb. weight could be returned from the mill
to London in about three weeks.' The process
of * throwing ' consisted of doubling and twisting

* Young, jigric. Surv. 382.

' Strype, ii, 274.

' Universal Diet. Trade, ii.

" Harrod, Hist, of Stamford, 429.

Ibid.

390.

387

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

two ends of the silk together, after which it was
converted into ' tram ' or ' organzine,' according
to the fineness of the silk or the purpose for
which it was required by the manufacturer.
The machinery at Mr. Gouger's mill was
worked by a steam-engine of low pressure, of
about eight-horse power.* The local name for
the factory was the ' Silk-school.' "

At Louth in 1849^ there was a carpet and
blanket manufactory, employing eighty persons.*

Young ^ writes of a Mr. Chaplin who
established at Raithby, near Louth, a ' Big Ben '
for wool-combing.

Round Normanby and Burton flax was spun
and woven into linen in the same writer's time.®
The earnings of the women were 3^. a day.

The crushing of linseed was formerly carried
on on a large scale at Gainsborough, notably at
Borwell's Mill ; 60,000 quarters (one-eighth of
the whole imported into the kingdom) was
yearly wrought up into cakes and oil, employing
four mills and twenty presses. The cakes were
used for feeding stock. Each quarter yielded
2|- cwt. of cake and 90 lb. of oil. In 1842
the cakes were selling at £1 1 per ton, the oil at
^32 per ton, the seed being bought at 30;. to
33^. per quarter.'

Bishop Hall's Satires, printed in 1597, contain
the following allusion to what must now be
evidently reckoned amongst the lost industries
of Lincolnshire. The writer is satirizing the
niggardly clergy of the day, who, whilst regaling
themselves with royal fare, insist upon the
strictest economy below stairs :

What though he quafFe pure amber in his bowle

Of March brew'd wheat ; yet slakes my thirsty soul

With palish oat frothing in Boston Clay.

William Billingsley, the celebrated flower-
painter, was at Torksey from 1803 to 1808,
but the small pottery there, in which he was
associated with his son-in-law Walker, was
closed in the latter year, owing to lack of
funds to carry on the manufacture.* Specimens

of the 'Torksey Ware' were to be found for
many years after in the collections of various
persons scattered up and down the country.^"

Feather factories are a distinctive Lincolnshire
industry at the present time. The feathers are
received at the factories in enormous sacks from
the farmers and poultry dealers. By means of
cyclone machinery the fine feathers are separated
from the coarse, the former being then purified
by condensed steam in special ovens. The waste
material, which is yielded in very considerable
quantities, is sold to the fruit-growers as manure
for their land. The workers spend about ten
minutes at a time, the heat being intense, in the
rooms over the ovens, emptying the feathers into
the purifiers at intervals of twenty minutes."

A growing industry of the county is that of
pea-picking, which gives employment to a large
number of girls and women, not only in factories
and workshops, chiefly situated in Boston, but
also in their own homes, the peas being in this
instance delivered in sacks at the cottage doors.
The development of the industry is due to the
growing demand for green peas for the table as
sold by grocers, and owes its success in Lincoln-
shire to the enterprise of a firm which has taken
for its model the lines upon which it is carried
out in Canada. In two years it has become the
foremost industry of the town, the busiest time
being the winter months. The work, which
attracts the rougher class of girls and women,
consists in separating the good from the bad, dis-
coloured, or shrivelled peas, all of which are field-
grown, and in order to suit the buyers must be
fairly uniform in size and colour. In some
factories the best are packed in small boxes and
packets for sale. The packers sit in rooms at
long tables, separated into compartments, one
picker at each. The peas are piled before her,
and with both hands she rapidly sorts the heap,
letting them run, when sorted, through a hole in
the table into a sack beneath, each of these sacks
containing 18 stone.'^

DEEP SEA FISHERIES AND FISH DOCKS

It is at Boston, although destined to decline
in later times to the second place in the great
fishing industry of the county, that the history
of that industry may be said to begin, as indeed
befits the city of St. Botolph, ' the Saint of
seafaring men.' ' Frequent mention is made in

' Drakurd, Hist, of Stamford, 422-3.

" Harrod, op. clt. 429.

' Hagar, Directory of Lincolnshire.

* Founded by Mr. Adam Eve {Noble's Gazetteer,
1833, p. 71).

' Young, Jgric. Surv. 407. ° Ibid.

' Hist, of Gainsborough, 333.

* W. Chaffers, Marks on Pottery, 931.
^ Stukeley, Iter Curios. 3 1 .

the Calendars of the Patent and Close Rolls
from the fourteenth century of the great fish
market at Boston.

In 1555 a Scottish ship riding in the roads
laden with herrings was compelled to come into
the borough to sell the same ; *' though in 1590,
through want of shipping, Boston was actually

"• A relative of Billingsley's, Mn. Wheeldon, had in
her possession, amongst other deeds, one dated
25 October, 1805, in which Billingsley was described
as of Torksey, ' China Manufacturer ' (Haslem : The
Old Derby China Factory, 51).

" Factories and Workshops, Ann. Rep. 1904, 265.

^ Ibid. 234-35.

" Thompson, Hist, of Boston, 306.

388

INDUSTRIES

obliged to become the regular customer of the
Scotch merchants.^ Nor was the great field of
profit which lay at the gates of the port allowed
to escape the attention of yet more distant
members of the fishermen's craft. Vessels from
the Low Countries had long been fishing Boston
Deeps when a licence was granted by Queen
Elizabeth ^ in response to the humble suit of
certain of these Netherlands strangers praying
that they might be allowed to settle permanently
in the port, ' where divers of them, being fisher-
men, have used the feate and trade of fishing of
herring, cod, mackarel, and other fish, after the
manner of their country.' In compliance with
their petition, forty of the Dutch fishermen, with
their families, were permitted to take up their
residence in the town. Thus the foundation
was laid of that thriving trade in the harvests of
the Wash and of the North Sea which the
English fishermen, with astonishing supineness,
suffered to pass more and more into the
shrewd keeping of their foreign brethren, a
trade which a century later had grown to
such proportions as to provoke not only the
wrath but the amazement of Yarranton,
Postlethwayt, the writer of Britannia Languens^
and others.

For in 1680, we learn from the latter
chronicler, the Dutch profit on the English
fishery was about ^^5, 000,000 in cod and
herring, whilst their fleet numbered 8,000 ships,
manned by 200,000 men.* The reputation of
the Boston herring was especially great, a
hundred dollars being considered a small price
for a barrel of these fish, cured after the Dutch
fashion, the secret of which was so long kept
from their English neighbours and rivals. This
secret was at length given to the world by some
patient observer :

After they have hauled in their nets, which they
drag in the sterns of their vessels backwards and
forwards in traversing the coast, they throw them
upon the ship's deck, which is cleared of everything
for that purpose : for they never carry any boats or
yawls along with them, as they would be an incum-
brance to them in dressing the herrings ; they carry
many hands on board, even to the number of thirty

' Thompson, Hist, of Boston, 306.

' Charter Book of the Corporation.

' For the encouragement of the fishing trade, the
great nurse for mariners,' Elizabeth ordered the
stricter observance of fast-days — not, as the State
Papers quaintly record, ' on the ground of conscience,
but on the authority of the Prince, for the good of
the country,' 'the times needing a supply of mariners,
many fishing ports and ships being now decayed, as are
the sundry trades connected with the fishing ' {Cal.

5. P. Dom. 1595-7, p. 54.0).

' John Smith, England's Improvement Revived, Book

6, pp. 268-9.

* 'To carry on this great trade,' says a writer of
the time, ' they have 700 Strande-Boatcs, 400 Euars,
and 4.00 Sullits, Drivers, and Tod-Boates.'

or forty in each vessel, whom they separate into
sundry divisions, and each division has a peculiar task ;
one part opens and guts the herrings, another cures
and salts them by lining or rubbing their insides with
salt (which is all done upon the deck), the next packs
them, and, between each row or division, they
sprinkle handfiils of salt ; then the coopers put the
finishing hand to all, by heading the casks, and
stowing them in the hold ; thus they go on, while
barrels and salt last, and, when that is exhausted, then
they retire ; but the jaggers, or storeships, commonly
provide them with everything necessary, so that they
seldom or never depart the coast before they are
brimful ; and really (to give them their due) they
are the best fishermen in the world ; for they are not
only ingenious in every article of their tackling or
materials, but also diligent, industrious, and endure
the great fatigues to admiration.'

As to the salt used in their curing, Yarranton
says ' they make salt upon salt, with Portugal
salt and sea-water mixt together ; and by this
means they have this commodity cheap, which
is used so considerably in the fishery.' *

Retracing our steps, however, to the beginning
of the seventeenth century, the port of Boston was
then well maintaining its ancient fishing repu-
tation. Offerings of the spoil of Boston Deeps
were at this date frequently sent to notable
personages. Thus, in 1613, we learn from the
Corporation Records, oysters and fish were sent
to 'my Lord of Rutland.' In 1 61 5 the earl
of Exeter was presented with a keg of sturgeon
and other fish. Sturgeon again figured in a
similar gift to the earl of Lindsey in 1622, to
Sir Henry Vane in 1652, and once more to the
earl of Lindsey in 1664 ; showing that the
town had evidently at this time somewhat rallied
from the profound and pathetic despair which in
1607 had driven them to plead that their city
might be placed upon the list of ' decayed
towns.' '

The story of the Dutch invasion in the
sixteenth century was repeated in the early part
of the nineteenth, though the intruders came in
this instance from nearer home. In 1 8 13 the
Boston fishermen were petitioning that the
Deeps might be forbidden to those of Lynn,
Cromer, and Sheringham during the herring
season. But the Corporation replied that they
had no power to do so, nor to interfere at all in
the matter.*

It is, however, to the Boston Deep Sea
Fishing and Ice Company Limited, that the
port owes much of its new era of twentieth-

° Postlethwayt, Universal Diet. Trade, i.

•Yarranton, pt. ii, 134. The trade had not
been wholly neglected amongst Englishmen, for a
licence was granted to one John Smith for eight
years to make and provide white salt in three ports,
of which Boston was one {Cal. S.P. Dom. 1599-
1601, p. 310).

' Corporation Records.

' Thompson, Hist, of Boston, 306.

389

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

century prosperity. Formed in 1885, the year
of the completion of the dock, by several local
gentlemen, orders were, on the subscription of
more than half the capital, placed with Messrs.
Earles of Hull for eight steam trawlers. At the
same time a number of fishing smacks were
purchased, and early in 1886, the fishmarket
being then opened, the company entered upon
its career. It was not for a few years that
success attended the venture in any decided
sense, but the tide once turned, the good fortune
of the company has continued unbroken. The
eight steamers have grown into a noble fleet of
thirty-five, varying in length from 90 ft. to 1 25 ft.,
whose fishing operations extend from as far north
as Iceland to as far south as the Bay of Biscay
and the Portuguese coast. Owing to the
success of the parent company, others followed
quickly in its wake, but all these have been
gradually acquired by or amalgamated with the
one now existing. The ever-growing scope
of the business has necessitated the erection of
a variety of workshops, including those devoted
to engineering, boiler-making, tin and copper
smiths, mast and block and twine spinning — the
establishment of these enabling the company to
take in hand all repairs connected with their
boats. In addition to these, there are to be
found upon the dock-quays under the company's
jurisdiction an ice factory and a store for the
reception of imports from Norway. The
company are further lessees of the slipway built
by the dock authorities in 1899 at a cost
of j^7,ooo, which, in addition to trawlers, is
capable of receiving vessels up to 200 ft. in
length and 1,000 tons dead weight. The value
of the fish landed here amounts to about
;^i00,000 yearly, being distributed throughout
the kingdom by the wholesale merchants, to
whom it is sold immediately on its arrival. The
coal consumed by the company amounts to
upwards of 50,000 tons per annum, the whole of
which is conveyed from the colliery in wagons
belonging to them.

From the point of view of employment alone,
such an undertaking cannot but prove of con-
siderable profit to the community in whose
midst it is being carried on. The number of
hands actually employed by the company is
upwards of 500, the weekly amount paid in
wages being about j^8oo or ;^900.

In 1 90 1 the directors, in common with
trawler-owners elsewhere along the east coast,
awoke to the necessity of obtaining a class of
seamen whose early training should fit them for
the conditions which have replaced the trawling
of the past. The apprenticeship system was
therefore adopted, and a home was established
for the accommodation of the boys when on
shore. The lads, of whom there are now more
than thirty on articles, are bound for four years,
which is the shortest term on the coast, and
during their apprenticeship every boy is allowed

a reasonable amount of spending money. His
chief remuneration is the ' stocker,' but when
he attains to the place of deck hand, as some of
the apprentices do very early, he is permitted to
share in the perquisites of the crew. These
are placed for him in the Seamen's Savings Bank,
and at the close of his apprenticeship represent
a very useful sum.^

The story of the Grimsby fisheries is the
history of the port, and that, in turn, is the
story of a struggle, sternly and strenuously
maintained for centuries, against the silent and
insidious inroads of an enemy that threatened,
with every fresh advantage, to make a final
end of Grimsby's present proud position as the
premier fishing-port of the kingdom. The
fortune of the fight was full of fluctuations.
Now, victory was on the side of the sea ;
now, on that of the town — in either event,
the battle was worth waging, for the prize
was the seemingly unfailing harvest of the
North Sea.

As early as the reign of Edward III the
accumulation of mud and silt at the mouth of
the harbour was doing much damage to the
trade. The diverting of the River Freshney
did somewhat to repair this damage ; but in the
reign of Charles I the smallest fishing-boats
could scarcely approach the town. Local apathy
seems to have abandoned hope for many years,
though there were spasmodic efforts to cope
with the mischief; but it was not until 1 80 1
that the so-called Old Dock was constructed by
the Haven Company at a cost of ^^60,000. In
its construction, 135 acres were reclaimed from
the sea. The Old Dock speedily passed from
the hands of its earliest owners into those of the
directors of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lin-
colnshire Railway. By this company, the New
Docks, twenty-five acres in extent, were added
to the Old, with a lock capable of admitting the
largest vessels of war. The first pile of the
coffer dam of the New Dock was driven in
1846, and on 18 April, 1849, the foundation
stone was laid by the Prince Consort. The
New, re-named the Royal Dock, was completed
in March, 1852, and the formal opening took
place on 27 May of the same year. The
accommodation which was soon found to be
increasingly necessary involved a further out-
lay on the part of the company in 1872,
when, on a large area of land acquired in
the West Marsh, the construction was begun
of the New Alexandra and Union Docks,
together with the deepening and widening
of the Old Dock. These docks were opened
on 22 July, 1879, by th^ Prince and Princess
of Wales.

Additional accommodation was brought into
use in 1888 and 1899. I" the former year a
new coal drop was erected, by means of which

' Fisi Trades Gaz. 22 June, 1901.

390

INDUSTRIES

coal can be shipped at the rate of 350 tons per
hour at a single spout. At a later date a
hydraulic coal hoist was erected, and sidings pro-
vided on the west side of the Royal Dock to
increase the coal-shipping facilities of the port.
Two coal hoists were constructed with hydraulic
appliances in No. 2 Fish Dock, to enable coal to
be loaded direct into steam fishing vessels or
lighters. In March, 1893, a new transit shed
900 ft. by 178 ft., covering an area of 160,200
square feet, was brought into use on the west
side of the Royal Dock. In August, 1 900, the
Fish Dock No. 2, which had taken three years
to construct, was completed. This brings the
water area of No. 2 Dock up to 16 acres, and
the total area of the fish docks to 29 acres. On
the south side of the No. 2 Fish Dock is the
floating or pontoon dry dock ordered by the
directors for the fishing trade. It was opened
for use on I October, 1900, and is of great value
to the trade.^

On the quays and in the sheds there are forty-
two fixed and portable hydraulic cranes, having a
lifting capacity varying from lOcwt. to 70 tons;
and also nine hand cranes, for the rapid loading
and discharge of goods and produce. The tank
for working the machinery by which these
operations are carried on is contained in a tower
28 ft. square at the base, 300 ft. high to the top
of the lantern, and is capable of holding 26,500
gallons of water. The total weight of the
machinery and water is 60,000 tons. The
tower can be ascended by means of a hydraulic
lift.

At the moment of writing Parliament has
given powers for the building of yet another deep
dock, which cannot fail to be of immense com-
mercial value to Grimsby. Immingham Marshes,
the site selected for this fresh undertaking, bear
the hallmark of the approval of two eminent
engineering authorities, Mr. Liddell and Sir John
Wolfe Barry, both of whom declared that there
was no other place on the Humber with its
advantages. For the dock purposes 616 acres
have been acquired, and 4 J miles of new line will
be constructed to connect the dock with the
Great Central Station at Ulceby. The dock
will have a depth of 35J feet below high-water
ordinary spring tides. The entrance lock is to
measure 850 ft. by 90 ft., with a depth of water
on the sill of 47^ ft. at high water, while the
channel outside it will be flanked on either side
by jetties extending outwards to low water.
The dock itself, together with the greater part of

the entrance lock, lies within the line of the
Humber bank. The fact of there being no
expensive reclamation works to be undertaken,
and of the deep-water channel lying so close to
the shore, renders the site an ideal one for a
deep-water lock.

In its construction 3,500,000 cubic yards of
material will have to be excavated, and about
1,250,000 cubic yards of mud and stone lifted
by dredgers. The contractors' estimate is for
350,000 cubic yards of concrete, 500,000 cubic
yards of timber, 35,000 cubic yards of brickwork,
80,000 cubic feet of granite, and 2,000 tons of
steel work for girders, before the completion of
the work.^

Not the least of the problems with which the
masters of the fishing industry find themselves
confronted is that of the transit and distribution
of the fish itself, which may be yearly estimated at
800,000 tons (j^5,ooo,ooo). It is a problem with
which over 500 merchants are concerned, and it
has been satisfactorily solved for them by the
Great Central Railway, whose sole property are
the market and fish wharves, over a mile in
length, at which their business is transacted.
Prior to the year 1854 little or no fish was sent
away from Grimsby ; the following table shows
the growth of the traflSc since that date : —

Year

Tons

1854.

+53

i860.

4.537

1865.

13,468

1870.

26,324

1875.

36,794-

1880.

46,931

1885.

70,658

1890 .

71.382

1895.

92,462

1900 .

133,791

I90I '

128,445

1902 .

165,510

1903.

162,026

1904.

164,461

1905.

153,653

It is to figures that the historian of the
Grimsby docks and fishery must return, over and
over again, if any faithful impression is to be
conveyed of the stupendous and ever-increasing
growth of the fishing industry. The port is one
of the five on the east coast which in 1 904 con-
tributed 1,214 (or 94 per cent.) to the total of
1,288 first-class steamers of 45 keel and upwards
engaged in fishing on that coast. In 1905 the

' The appended figures show the area of the docks
constructed to be 103 J acres : — Royal Dock, 25 acres ;
No. 1 Graving Dock, 400 ft. long ; No. 2 Graving
Dock, 400ft. long; No. 3 Graving Dock, 450ft.
long ; Union Dock, ij acres ; Alexandra Dock,
48 acres ; No. i Fish Dock, 1 3 acres ; No. 2 Fish
Deck, 1 6 acres ; Pontoon Dry Dock for fishing craft,
1 1 6 ft. 8 in. long.

' Daily Telegraph, 13 July, 1906.

' The decrease in 1 90 1 was due to the fishermen's
strike, to which Mr. F. G. Aflalo devotes several
pages of the sixth chapter of his important work
on The Sea-fishing Industry of England and Wales.
Four hundred vessels were laid up during this strike,
and much fish was conveyed to London on board the
' Cleethorpers.'

391

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

fishing vessels registered at Grimsby were as
follows : —

No. of
Vessels

Ton-
nage

Average
No. of

Crew per
Vessel

Total
No. of
Hands

Steam Line Vessels
Sailing Line Vessels
Steam Trawlers
Sailing Trawlers .

41
II

448

3,466
668

27,553
1,054.

9
9

533

4,032

135

Total . . .

527

32,741

—

4,799

Forty-two thousand and ten men and boys
(not including coopers, packers, curers, and net-
makers) are returned as plying their trade here ;
more than half of them come from six ports, of
which five are on the east coast. Grimsby
records a total of 4,823 resident in the port,
3,967 being engaged in trawling (except for
shrimps), and 856 in other modes of fishing. In
the 'floating' fish returns for England and
Wales, herrings predominate, the total in 1904
being 3,199,303 cwt. Grimsby's contribution
being 391,819 cwt.^

At special seasons, during holy week for in-
stance, it is not unusual for as many as 200 to
300 fish-wagons to be dispatched, carrying 700
to 800 tons. The traffic in small parcels of fish
has attained, especially in recent years, to remark-
able proportions, thousands of these being now
sent away daily.

Prior to the supersession of sail by steam, the
fishing-grounds of Iceland and the Faroe Islands ^
had been regularly visited by the Grimsby fisher-
men. It was in 1 891 that the first steam-
trawler fished the familiar ground of Ingol's Hoof,
making, it is recorded, a good catch of plaice and
haddock. In 1892 the number had risen to
fourteen; by 1899 there were fifty-five steam-
liners, and from sixty to seventy trawlers at work,
each vessel making from twenty to thirty voyages
in a year, the take being from twenty to a hun-
dred tons per voyage. In the years 1900 to
1902 three Grimsby fleets made 206 voyages,
their average catch being six tons of fish per
voyage — a fifth of the whole. Boston, which
has the distinction of being the only other
English port engaged in the Iceland fishery,
records, from 1897 to 1903, thirteen to fourteen
tons per voyage.

During 1904 English fishing vessels from

' The above figures are from the Annual Report of
proceedings under the Fisheries Act, 1904 ; and also
have been supplied by the courtesy of Captain Barwick,
port-master at Grimsby Docks.

' Dr. Ch. Parkins, in a letter to Lord Burghley,
states that, ' at the writer's going into Denmark, he
was told that there was an agreement allowing
Englishmen to fish in Iceland under certain condi-
tions.' Cal. S. P. Dom. 1 591-4, p. 247.

Grimsby fished not only the Bay of Biscay and
off the coast of Portugal, but proceeded to extend
their operations still further afield. Trawling,
especially for soles, was successfully carried on off
the coast of Morocco.' One Grimsby vessel, in
the early autumn of 1904, landed at Lisbon
1 8 tons of fish, on which duty was paid at the
rate of 1 0 reis per kilo, (say ^d. per 2\ lb.)

The future of ice as an indispensable factor in
the successful transport of fish by rail is said to
have first occurred to Mr. Samuel Hewett of
Grimsby, who, beginning life as a boy on a
trawler, lived to see fifty or sixty vessels owned
by him on the seas. No less than 25,000 tons
were being imported from Norway every year
when, in 1898, a factory for the manufacture of
artificial ice was projected, being the joint under-
taking of the Grimsby Ice Company and the
Grimsby Co-operative Ice Company.* This
factory has been working since 9 October, 1 90 1,
and is capable of producing 300 tons of block
ice per day. Built upon land alongside the fish
dock, the factory can supply the fishing fleet
direct by overhead appliances, the ice, after
having been crushed, being conveyed down a
sloping shaft to the waiting ships.

In addition to the manufacture of ice, several
smoke-houses have been established for the
curing of herrings and haddocks. The Grimsby
curers have long since wrested the palm from
their Dutch competitors of the seventeenth cen-
tury. The salting and drying of cod is now by
no means an unimportant feature of the trade in
fish. The ' Grimsby cod-chests,' of which as
many as 400 were formerly to be seen in use at
the docks, have gone out of fashion with much
that was once in vogue in the direction of the
fisheries, though it is still possible to count 80
to 100 floating in their old quarters any time
between October and January. These chests
are 7 ft. long and 2 ft. deep ; the bottom is made
of stout battens, placed a short distance apart, so
that the water penetrates freely to the interior,
as it does also between the planks of which the
sides and ends are built up. The top is wholly
planked over, except in the centre, where there
is an oblong opening, for putting in and taking
out the fish. This opening is closed by a cover
when the chest is in the water. Two ropes or
chains are fixed in the ends of each chest for
convenience in moving it about or hoisting it
out of the water. About forty good-sized cod,
or nearly 100 smaller ones, may be put into one
of these chests, and will live there without much
deterioration for over a fortnight.'

* Annual Report on the Sea Fisheries of England and
Wales, 1904, 21.

* In 1890 the amount of ice imported at Grimsb
was 62,279 tons.

' E. H. W. Holdsworth, Sea Fisheries of Grea.
Britain and Ireland, 83. The idea of the cod-chests
seems to have been a Lincolnshire tradition.

393

INDUSTRIES

' Here,' says Defoe, ^ ' is a particular trade
carried on with London, which is nowhere else
practised in the whole kingdom, that I have met
with or heard of, viz. : For carrying fish alive by
land-carriage in great butts of water. The butts
have a little square flap, instead of a bung, about
10 in., lain., or 14 in. square, which, being
opened, gives air to the fish ; and every night,
when they come to the inn, they draw off the
water, and let more fresh and sweet water run
into them again. In these carriages they chiefly
carry tench and pike, perch and eels, but especi-
ally the two former, of which here are some
of the largest in England.'

SHELL FISH

The mussel ' scalps ' of the Wash have long
been famous for the excellent quality of the
takings. In 1777 the marshal of the Admiralty
received between ,^3 and j^4 a year for collect-
ing the duties due to the corporation for mussel
vessels coming into the port. And in 1780
'mussel money' was ordered to be collected.^ A
record year was evidently 1810, when fifty
vessels were annual visitors to the Wash, when
they carried away in that one season 1,200 tons,
which furnished bait for the cod-fishing on the
Dogger and Well Banks ; £^0 was paid by one
fisherman alone for the carriage of mussels from
Boston in 1850, whilst three years later 100
tons taken by 50 sail of from 4 to 14 tons
burthen were being exported every week. If
sold in Boston the cargo fetched is. a bushel, if
the sale was delayed until they reached their
destination (Leeds, Manchester, or Birmingham)
the price was raised to 2s. bd. During nine
months of the year it is calculated by Wheeler in

his History of the Fens that 80 to 140 tons were
taken from the 'scalps' for food, 80 to 120
tons for bait — in busy seasons representing a
profit of ;/^700 to ;r8oo a week. These riches
were recklessly dealt with, for in 1863 it was
brought to the notice of a Royal Commission
sitting at Boston that, owing to the want of
proper supervision and the wholesale carrying
away of the mussels, chiefly for manuring pur-
poses, the beds were becoming rapidly exhausted.
It was not, however, until 1870 that the cor-
poration obtained an order, under the Sea
Fisheries Act, giving them full jurisdiction over
the raided beds and empowering them to appoint
a bailiff.*

The beds were promptly temporarily closed,
with the result that, on their reopening in 187 1,
4,500 tons were taken from the Old South
Middle Bed, representing i8f tons to an acre.
A year later the yield from the Gat Sand Bed
was 2,139 tons to its 158 acres ; 13^ tons, that
is to say, to an acre. In 1876 4,000 tons were
taken from the Tofts, 6 tons to an acre. Coming
down to the later times, according to the most
recent report of the Sea Fisheries, under the
Boston Order of 1897, 85 boats were licensed,
producing in tolls and fees ^^40 $s. ; 115 new
layings were staked off between the Witham and
Welland, and 40 of these were leased at 5;. per
annum. Under the Boston Order of 1902, 44
layings, leased at the same rental, returned 35
tons (^100).'

The fishing for shrimps, which still maintain
their reputation for quality, is carried on at
Boston for nine months in the year by smacks,
and also by men driving in a cart with one
horse, of which there are twenty-eight along the
coast.

MINES AND QUARRIES

Geologically speaking, Lincolnshire has been
declared ' the most neglected of counties.' From
its Lower Oolite formation, nevertheless, comes
the Ancaster stone, extensively quarried by
Messrs. Lindley & Son, to which the commis-
sioners appointed in 1839 to report on building
stones for the Houses of Parliament thus refer :

Many buildings constructed of a material similar to
the Oolite of Ancaster, such as Newark and Grantham
churches and other edifices in various parts of Lincoln-
shire, have scarcely yielded to the effects of atmo-
spheric influences.'

' Defoe, Tour through Great Britain, iii, 22.
' Marrat, Hist, of Boston, 66.

' Buildings of this stone are Harlaxton Hall, Stour-

' ton Hall, the mansion of Westholme, the ancient

I- church of St. Martin at Ancaster, the reredos of the

i' church of St. Denys at Sleaford, the Savings Bank at

Grantham, several buildings at Hull, also St. Pancras

terminus and hotel.

At Little Bytham there are works for the
manufacture of the Adamantine Clinker, a brick
made of a siliceous clay, which is remarkable for
its strength, hardness, and imperviousness to-
water.

The chalk of the Humber cliffs maintains its-
reputation for the manufacture of whiting, but
the gypsum formerly brought from the Isle of
Axholme has ceased to be quarried.

Ironstone, once extensively worked in the
south of the county, is now transferred, as far as

* The ofiice, and its necessity, was of ancient stand-
ing. In March, 1595, one Christopher Wilson,^
' now aged and in extreme poverty,' begged the office-
of ' water bailiff of the Ouse, from Lynn to Boston,
for 21 years, on rent of 40^-., such an officer being
necessary to preserve the spawn and brood of fish and
prevent its inordinate taking by the common fishers.'
Cal. S. P. Dom. 1595-7, p. 24.

^Rep. of Sea Fisheries, 1904, p. 83.

393

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

the point of operation is concerned, to the north- Elsecar Works, the Trent ironworks may be said

west area, such area having for its boundaries the to have begun. This firm had been previously

three rivers, Humber, Trent, and Ancholme. engaged in developing ironstone deposits elsewhere

Frodingham and Appleby, Kirton-Lindsey, Cay- in the county. At the Trent Works the first

thorpe, Claxby, and Scunthorpe, are the chief ton of pig iron was cast in 1864. In 1866 the

centres at which the Lincolnshire iron deposits, Frodingham Iron Company was started by

known as ' hydrated oxide,' betray their presence. Messrs. ClifF & Hurst, and by 1867 this com-

The workings are mainly open, and the per- pany had two furnaces in blast; 1867 also saw

centage of iron is about thirty-three.^ the inauguration of the North Lincolnshire Iron

Frodingham is the most important of the iron Company, which had two furnaces at work in

fields, the development of which has transformed 1871. In 1872 the Lincolnshire Iron Smelting

a mere hamlet into a thriving town of 5,000 Company began operations, followed in 1874 by

inhabitants. Mr. George Dove, jun., in a paper the Redbourn Hill Iron and Coal Company, and

on ' The Frodingham Iron Fields,' read by him in 1877 by the Appleby Iron Company,

before the Iron and Steel Institute,* states that : The total output from mines and quarries in

The bed is almost entirely free from faults, inclines Lincolnshire in 1904 is as follows : ^^^^

gently to the east, but where it is now being worked, Chalk 60 1 31

at and within li miles from the outcrop, the ,-,1 ,,,'„„o

^ ,, . ■^ , ■ 1 • M • ^iay 134,008

amount of 'bareing required is very small, m no Gravel and Sand .... 12,791

place exceeding 3 ft. Limestone 104,476

As to labour, that of * the most unskilful kind ' is Sandstone 150

alone necessary, ' blasting only being required in Ironstone 1,406,951

getting the stronger portions of the bed, the Total 1,718,599

whole operation being simply quarrying.' ' The =
demand for Frodingham iron for forge purposes

is good, chiefly for the manufacture of bars. The blast furnaces at present at work in the

sheets, tin-plates, and wires. For the latter it is county are as follows :

especially valuable, owing to the qualities im- Appleby Iron Co 4

parted by the presence of manganese. In every Frodingham Iron and Steel Co. . . 4

■ ^ u .u J cv ■ North Lines. Iron Co. Ltd. ... 3

instance, however, the preponderance of lime in t> ji tt-h t j o 1 ^

, ' . ' , ^ ,^ . -11 Redbourn Hill Iron and Coal Co. . 4.

the ore necessitates the admixture with other ore Trent Works, Scunthorpe .... 6

of a siliceous character, notably such as is raised —

near Lincoln, at Monk's Abbey and Greetwell. "^°^^^ fj_

In 1898, 7,848,404 tons of ore were raised at

Frodingham, and there were twenty blast furnaces The total make of pig iron in I/incolnshire
at work, producing about 300,000 tons of iron.* and Leicestershire is 376,674 tons ; the iron ore
To the total output of iron ore for the whole used, 1,261,937 tons; total of coal used,
kingdom (13,774,282 tons) Lincolnshire (with 972,597 tons. The number of persons em-
Leicestershire) contributes a third.' ployed in and about and dealing in the products
With the laying down and erection in 186 1 of mines and quarries, according to the census of
by Messrs. W. H, and G. Dawes, of the Milton 1901, is 1,951.

AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT MANUFACTURERS

Arthur Young, making his agricultural survey
of Lincolnshire in 1799, was struck by the
number of fen farmers who were also inventors.
Such for instance were Mr. Cartwright of
Brothertoft, whose plough with bean-drill at-
tached, twitch-drag, and sward-dresser, were
supplemented by a cartoon, or water-cart, of his
own designing ; Mr. William Naylor of Lang-
worth near Sudbrook, who had invented and
patented a chafF-cutter ; Mr, Michael Pilley,

' Meade, Iron and Coal Industries of the United
Kingdom.

' Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, 1 876.

' Ibid. p. 319.

* Murray, Handbook, 'p. 3.

' Report on Mines and Quarries, 1904, p. 225.

who had also invented a water-cart ; and
Mr. Amos Brothertoft, the inventor of an ex-
panding horse-hoe. On the east fen Young
further noted an ingenious local ice-sledge,
which consisted of a small frame sliding on four
horse-bones, the driver pushing himself forward
by the aid of a pitchfork.* A man called
Clegg of Haxey invented a machine for crush-
ing and dressing hemp ; whilst it is worthy
of note in passing that the first movable com-
bined thrashing and dressing machine by
steam-power was made at the Boston and Skir-
beck Ironworks, and the first portable engine at
Howden's Foundry at Boston.

° young, Apic. Surv. v, 70-6.

394

INDUSTRIES

Since, therefore, to quote from Young, ' the
farmers of this county were alive to improve-
ments and ready to adopt any nev/ instruments
which promised utility,' ^ in no other market in
the world, at the dawn of the new era of steam,
was the manufacturing engineer more absolutely
assured of a future. Events have fully justified
that confidence. The great firms of Messrs.
Richard Hornsby & Sons Limited, of Grantham,
Messrs. Marshall, Sons & Co. Limited, of
Gainsborough, Messrs. Clayton & Shuttleworth
Limited, and Messrs. Robey & Co. Limited, of
Lincoln, have long passed from the limits of a
purely local to that of a world-wide reputation.
It is by the courtesy of the above-mentioned
firms in every instance that the information re-
lating to their history has been gathered.

The business of the firm of Messrs. Richard
Hornsby & Sons Limited ^ was established in 1 8 1 5
by Mr. Richard Hornsby, the father of two of
the present directors, Mr. James and Mr. William
Hornsby, his workshop occupying a site close to
that of the present smithy. From the small be-
ginning of nearly a century ago, the expansion
of the works has been on such a rapidly progres-
sive scale that the area covered is now no less
than fifty acres (at Grantham and Stockport),
besides trial farm land of 150 acres outside
Grantham. Employment is given to over 2,000
men. The gradual increase of the firm's output
has resulted in the multiplication of foundries and
painting and packing shops, now embracing a
total area of over 100,000 square feet. From
this area have emanated such well-known pro-
ducts as the * Hornsby Oil Engine,' the
' Hornsby-Stockport Gas Engine and Suction Gas
Plants,' the ' Hornsby Water-tube Boiler,' and
the ' Hornsby Binder.' Of the latter indispens-
able adjunct of the harvest field, it need only be
said in passing that it still maintains the excellent
reputation claimed for it by Stephens ^ as being
' exceedingly simple, perfectly automatic in action,
and perfectly reliable in operation.' The various
departments of the huge industry comprise bolt-
making, the production of agricultural requisites
(chiefly mowers and binder parts and frames), of
string-boxes (for binders and oil cans) ; whilst in
the binder canvas shop employment is found for
numbers of boys whose work consists in the
riveting of the wooden slats to the canvas.

In 1848 Mr. William Marshall, the founder
of that which was afterwards to grow into the
Britannia Ironworks at Gainsborough, bought a
small engineering and millwrights' business in
the town, used until then as oil and flour mills.
Only in 1885 a writer in Engineering alludes to
the 1,800 to 1,900 mechanics then employed by
the firm. Now the number is 3,600, and the
area on which they work is over twenty-eight

' Young, Jgrie. Surv. j6.

' Impkment and Machinery Review, 2 May, 1 906.

' Book of the Farm, iii, 79, 80.

acres of ground. The products of the workshops
of this firm comprise horizontal, vertical, and
undertype engines, thrashing, grinding, and saw-
ing machinery, tea-preparing machinery, gold-
dredging plants, of which over 95,000 have been
made and supplied to the most distant parts of
the world. The new boiler-house at the works
is 400 ft. long by 180 wide, and may take rank
as one of the largest extant.

The foundation of the firm of Messrs. Clayton
& Shuttleworth was owing in 1849 to Nathaniel
Clayton and Joseph Shuttleworth, who were en-
gaged in the early days of their career as smiths
in a workshop which occupied a portion of the
site upon which the Stamp End manufactory at
Lincoln now stands. Their first engineering
enterprises included bridge-building and pipe-
founding, the manufacture of fire-grates, and
other work of an elementary character. Examples
of their early efforts are to be found on the Great
Northern Railway at Saxilby, where an iron
bridge, the work of the two paitners, still exists,
and a portion of the underground pipe work of
the town of Boston. Clayton & Shuttleworth
were quick to perceive the great future which lay
before the producer of portable engines and
steam-power thrashing machines, and over sixty
years ago the firm commenced the manufacture
of these and other agricultural appliances. The
manufacture of traction engines followed, and
then began the trials instituted by the Royal
Agricultural Society, at which the firm carried all
before them until 1872, when the last of these
competitions was held. Since the formation
of the firm into a limited liability company the
operations of its workshops have been greatly ex-
tended. The number of men employed is 2,500,
not including the workmen engaged at the
Vienna establishment, and at other branches on
the Continent. In these works, since their be-
ginnings in 1 849, something like 98,000 thrashing
machines and portable engines have been produced,
besides chaff'-cutters, maize-shellers, elevators,
stackers, corn-mills, and all the vast equipment
of agricultural appliances whose demand is pro-
portionate to the expansion of agricultural
operations in an extended area.

The firm of Messrs. Robey & Co. Limited
started work at Lincoln in 1852. The area
covered by the workshops is over ten acres, and
the men employed number over 1,600. Origin-
ally designed for the production of steam engines
and thrashing machines for agricultural purposes,
this branch of production, whilst still maintaining
its high level of excellence, and also having been
largely developed, has been supplemented by the
manufacture of high-class engines for various
mining and industrial purposes. The main fea-
ture of this department is the production of
engines with drop valves, of which many thou-
sands are in use in all parts of the world. In
addition to these the firm makes a speciality of
high-speed engines for electric purposes, portable

393

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

engines, traction engines and road locomotives,
steam tractors and steam wagons, besides a vast
amount of machinery for the equipment of mines.
Over 25,000 engines have been manufactured by
this company, and are at work in all parts of the
world.

Coincident with the progress of Grimsby as a
fishing centre, there have grown up in the town
various complementary industries. Such, for
instance, has been the establishment of the firm
of marine engineers and ship repairers, trading
under the style of the Grimsby Engineering
Company Limited, Founded at the outset to
meet the demands of the fishing trade, the works
in the Fish Dock Road have kept pace with the
extension of those demands. In the reclassifi-
cation of steam trawlers the firm has met with
exceptional success, and on several occasions they

have reconstructed ships' engines and boilers ; in
1903 their work along these lines included such
reconstruction of three trawlers for one firm alone.
These vessels, twelve years old, were so com-
pletely modernized in their passage through the
company's workshops that they may be said to
have been transformed into new boats. During
the winter months, when outside work becomes
more or less slack, the firm is engaged in the
manufacture of auxiliary machinery for steam
trawlers, such as powerful double-barrelled steam
winches, stearing gears, donkey engines and
pumps, line haulers and windlasses. In the four
different departments into which the works are
divided constant employment is found for about
100 hands.^

' The Great North Magazine, i December, 1904,
p. 1389.

396

AGRICULTURE

LINCOLNSHIRE, with an area of 1,696,832 acres, is the next county
in size to Yorkshire, and perhaps the most important and richest
J agricultural county in England. Bounded on the north by the
Humber, which divides it from the county of broad acres ; on the
west partly by the Trent (a small portion, the Isle of Axholme, lies on the
west of the river), beyond which are the counties of Nottingham and
Leicester; the southern boundaries are formed by the counties of Rutland,
Northampton, Cambridge, and Norfolk, while the North Sea beats upon its
eastern shores. The population, except for a slight mixture of Danish blood,
is purely English, and the occupation almost wholly agriculture and the
manufacture of agricultural machinery with a world-wide reputation. Lin-
colnshire was first colonized by the Iberians, and afterwards by the Welsh, who
were eventually driven out by a Belgian tribe. When the Romans landed
the chief tribe was that of the Coritani, a branch of the Iceni, and these were
put down by the Romans in the year 70. The good work the Romans
did lives after them, for they raised banks to keep out the incursions of the
sea, and cut dykes (such as Fossdyke, Carrdyke, &c.), and made roads of
which the Ermine Street, Fosse Way, and Salt Way are such lasting examples.
They also built many towns. The county is watered by the Witham, the
Ancholme, the Trent, the Welland, and other feeders, and half of it is wolds and
uplands, the other half being plain, almost level with spring-tide height. In the
west are some hills lying along the side of the Trent, but generally the land
is low. The shores also are low and sandy, and there is not a great deal of
shipping and trading, as might be expected. But instead of this the county
is noted for its grazing and rich pasture lands, and for the high state of
cultivation of the arable land.

Much of the land has been extensively drained, and some parts of it laid
under warp, both with the best possible results. There were at one time
vast tracts of moorland and rabbit warren, but these have all been broken up,
the Wolds brought under tillage, and the country devoted to the growing of
corn and turnips. Much of the soil is diluvial and alluvial.

There are numerous fairs in all parts of the county, the principal being
Lincoln Fair for horses, cattle, and sheep, the last whole week in April ;
Horncastle, for horses, beginning on the second Monday in August and
lasting a week; Partney on i and 25 August ; and Caistor on the Friday
and Saturday before Palm Sunday, and the first Friday and Saturday after
1 1 October.

The soil varies considerably in different parts of the county, and with it
the crops, though generally speaking Lincolnshire was largely a corn and
turnip growing county. Now there are enormous quantities of potatoes
grown on the Trent side and in South Lincolnshire, supplying the bulk of the
English-grown potatoes for the London market. In the Isle of Axholme the

397

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

land is mostly warp, silt, and clay, the sub-soil being sand, peat, and clay, and
the principal crops are potatoes, wheat, oats, beans, barley, celery, and roots, but
chiefly potatoes. In the Grimsby district below the Wolds and along the
Humber side, the land is nearly all clay, the sub-soil being clay, while there is
good loam on the Wolds with a sub-soil of chalk. Wheat (little more than
is required for straw), barley, oats, small seeds, and turnips are cultivated on
the Wolds, and beans on the strong land. There is a considerable stretch
of rich pasture along the Humber and the North Sea. Round Brigg there
is every variety of soil — carr, clay, sand, and warp, but chiefly light loam, the
sub-soil generally being clay, though there is a lot of ironstone round
Frodingham, and gravel, limestone, and chalk in other places. Here, again,
there is pasture near the Humber ; the usual four-course system of wheat or
oats, turnips and barley, to be followed by a crop of small ' seeds,' is adopted on
Wold-land ; and beans, peas, and potatoes are grown on suitable soil. In the
Caistor district the soil is mostly good loam on the Wolds, but there is a
sandy stretch from Barnetby to Market Rasen, peat occurs along the course of
the Ancholme, and clay in other places. The sub-soil is mostly chalk, with
limestone and sandstone in places on the hills, clay and sand being the sub-
soil in the low country. The usual crops are grown on the Wolds, and beans
below ; there is some pasture round Market Rasen. Round Louth there is
clay towards the North Sea, and a rich loamy soil on the Wolds ; there is
sand in places, and some very light sand at North Somercotes, where are
140 acres of rabbit warren. The soil is chalk on the hills, and clay else-
where. Wheat, oats, turnips, barley, and ' seeds ' are cultivated in the usual
course on the Wolds, and beans on the strong land. There is pasture on the
border of the North Sea. There is both clay and warp on the Trent side
near Gainsborough, the sub-soil being clay, while away from the river
the character of the soil is very mixed. The usual four-course system is
adopted, and both potatoes and celery are grown near the river. On the
north of Lincoln, there is some stiff clay, but the soil in that district is generally
loamy, with sand and gravel in places, and some limestone at Coleby; the
sub-soil, however, is generally clay. The usual Wold crops are grown chiefly,
but potatoes and carrots are cultivated on the western borders of the county.
The Horncastle district is very similar to that round Louth, loamy with a
chalk sub-soil on the Wolds, while there is sand with a sub-soil of white
clay, sand, and gravel in places. The usual four-course system is the one chiefly
adopted, but potatoes are grown in places. Spilsby has around it land varying
from sand to rich loam, the sub-soil being clay, limestone, and gravel, while
the chief crops consist of wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, beans, and mustard.
Round Boston the land is chiefly rich loam, and the sub-soil is mostly clay.
The country is very flat, and there are few trees and hedges. Potatoes and
wheat are the chief crops, but beans, peas, barley, turnips, and oats are also
grown. The land varies considerably in the neighbourhood of Sleaford,
including light loam, clay fen, and black moorland, but the sub-soil is chiefly
stone and clay. The usual four-course crops and roots are grown. There is
also a great variety of soil round Grantham, but the land is mostly strong
loam and clay, the sub-soil being limestone and clay. Cereals, potatoes, and
beans are grown in the district, and there is some pasture. Rich loam with
a clay sub-soil predominates in the country around Spalding, but there is also

398

AGRICULTURE

some rich loam with a gravel and clay sub-soil, and a rich light loam with a
silt sub-soil in the marsh. The chief crops are potatoes and wheat, but other
cereals, roots, and mustard are grown in places, and there are excellent pastures
in the marsh. In the Bourn district the soil is fen and loam, with a gravel
sub-soil, but there is some clay, the sub-soil also being clay, and the chief
crops are potatoes, wheat, and peas. There is also some pasture land. Rich,
strong land, varying in width, extends from Barton along the banks of the
Humber and the North Sea till the coast of Norfolk is reached. The
Barton Street may be said to be the western boundary, and running by way
of Brocklesby and Laceby at the foot of the Wolds, and including Louth
and Alford, the boundary line then turns inland to the north of Wainfleet,
touching Spilsby and Bolingbroke, and going as far as Wragby, it then comes
eastward again for a short distance before running due south to Market
Deeping. The Isle of Axholme has also some of the best land in the
county.

The Wolds extend from Barton to Spilsby, a line drawn by way of
Caistor, Market Rasen, and Horncastle representing the inland boundary.
Lincoln Heath, that fine barley-growing district, consists of a strip, some
four or five miles wide, extending from Lincoln to some distance below Gran-
tham, and a very similar strip of land extends northwards from Lincoln
to beyond Kirton. The rest of the county might come under the head-
ing of ' various.' No neater or more profitable mixed farming can be
seen anywhere than on the Lincoln Heath and the pick of Lord Yar-
borough's farms in North Lincolnshire ; yet much of this vast tract, some
230,000 acres in extent, has been placed in cultivation within the last
150 years. Clean stubbles and low-cut hedges mark the whole of it; the
houses are spacious and pretentious ; and the buildings and cottages of a
character that cannot be seen elsewhere. Yet this very heath-land was once
a dreary waste, and the well-known landmark, Dunston Pillar, was erected as
an inland lighthouse to guide belated travellers. The fen-land, too, once
a huge morass extending from Cambridge to Lincoln, is now converted by
drains into one of the greatest potato-producing districts in the country. An
account of the conversion of a tract of 40,000 acres, embracing the Wildmoor
and East and West Fens, may be given, as an illustration of the system
adopted. Originally a chain of lakes from 3 ft, to 6 ft. deep, bordered
by great crops of reeds, the bottom consisted of a blue clay under a loose
black mud, 2 ft. to 2 J ft. deep. The water was first drawn off, the mud
became fertile soil, the plough appeared, and so generous was the land that,
though the cost had been estimated at ^(^400,000, or loj. an acre, it
yielded two and even three crops of oats in succession, of not less than
10 quarters to the acre, valued at ,^2,000,000, thus leaving a profit
of X 1 5600,000. That district is so nearly on a level with the sea, that
when the tide is up there is not fall enough in the drains to carry the
water seaward, and so the mouths of the drains are furnished with gates,
which, opening from within, allow the drainage water to pass into the sea at
low water, but are automatically closed by the rising tide. A catch-water
drain was cut at the foot of the higher ground to intercept the water flowing
thence, and this was carried across the fen by a separate drain. First wind-
mills were used, and then steam for pumping the embanked districts, and a

399

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

scheme by which the Welland was made to cut a new and deeper channel
through the yielding bottom by means of artificial banks proved a most
valuable adjunct to the whole system of drainage. To begin with, two rows
of faggots were laid some twenty yards apart on the mud at low water, which
after a few tides were found to be full of a substance called warp, a mixture
of fine sand and mud, which rendered them fairly solid. Another tier of
faggots was then laid on the first, and soon became embodied with them
by the warp ; and so the embankment rose till above high-water level, and
the Welland was confined between its new banks and began to dig out a new
channel, some three miles into the sea. At the beginning of the nineteenth
century this reclaimed fen-land was letting at over £i an acre, its previous
value, a quarter of a century before, being from is. bd. to js. an acre,
and the cost of conversion varied from 5J. to 25J. an acre. The Ancholme,
which was cut at the end of the eighteenth century in a straight line for
20 miles through North Lincolnshire to the Humber, converted land
originally worth from u. to 3J-. bd. an acre into land worth from loj.
to 30J-. an acre immediately after the completion of the scheme of drainage.
This is carrland, consisting of unctuous peat, which derives its richness
from a mixture of sediment brought down by former floods while the peat
was deposited. Most of the Isle of Axholme was once under water, and would
be now if the embankment were neglected, as it is mostly below high-water
mark. It is now well drained by a system of canals and side vents, and
is one of the most fertile and productive tracts in the county. In bygone
days the farmers used to attend Doncaster market in boats. The system
of warping in the Isle of Axholme was as follows : A warping drain was
cut from the Humber, the level of which at high tide was above the level
of the fields to be warped. These were enclosed with a temporary bank,
some six feet high, and connected with the warping drain, so that at each
high tide the fields were flooded. When the tide retired it left a deposit of
silt, and thus in course of time, from two to three years, an entirely new
soil was created, no matter what the original soil was — bog, clay, sand, or
whatever it might be. The original cost of warping was ^15 an acre
charged by the owners of the warping drain, and the necessary expenses of
connecting and banking ; and the new soil would bear wheat and beans
alternately, with an occasional naked fallow, for twelve or thirteen years
without any manure, wheat yielding from 30 to 36 bushels an acre, and
beans 60 bushels. An acre was once measured to produce 99 bushels of
beans. Needless to say that potatoes are the chief crop now. Warping
has also been done round Gainsborough, 20 miles up the Trent and
60 miles from the open sea. Another system of improving the soil was
adopted in South Lincolnshire with Digby, Dorrington, and other fens. The
peat of that neighbourhood was very poor and hollow, producing per acre
not more than five quarters of light oats, and twenty bushels of very moderate
wheat. Beneath this peat, however, at a depth of 4 feet, was a blue soapy
clay, so trenches were dug down to this at intervals of 1 1 yards across the
field, and a large quantity of clay thrown out from their bottom upon the
surface, after which the trenches were filled in. The cost of this was caj.
an acre, but the land now produced 30 bushels of good wheat to the acre
and worth 8j. more a bushel than hitherto. For some little time after the

400

AGRICULTURE

middle of the eighteenth century there was practically nothing but open ^
country from Spilsby to Caistor, and the great-grandfather of the present
earl of Yarborough records the fact that in riding from Spilsby to his home at
Brocklesby, several miles beyond Caistor, he encountered only two fences. All
this tract is now a sea of waving corn, with patches of green turnips and seed
fields, and keeping twenty sheep where one was kept before. In Gayton and
' Tathwell were rabbit warrens as late as 1 800, and round Brocklesby, Cabourne,
ai-«d Swallow there were miles of gorse. But there was a great change fifty
years later, when 30,000 acres of Lord Yarborough's estate were converted
into good turnip land, dotted with handsome farm buildings, on which
;^i 50,000 had been spent, and surrounded by lofty stacks, the fields being
divided by neat clipped thorn fences. What a difference from the waste
of gorse and bracken, tenanted chiefly by rabbits and foxes, the whole land
then letting for but 3J-. an acre ! The first step at reclamation was to grub
up the gorse, and to pare and burn the rough peaty grass, at a cost of a
guinea an acre. Then came a dressing of chalk, 80 cubic yards to the
acre, and costing 66s., which was followed by sixty bushels of bones, at
IS. id. a bushel, another item of nearly ^^4. The Wolds have been chalked
twice over, without which the turnips are destroyed by the excrescence
called ' fingers and toes,' but even the first outlay of the tenant amounted
to more than jTS an acre, a large sum for the individual farmer, and a very
large sum when the size of the farms is taken into account. The farms
were not let on lease, nevertheless the tenant was ready to sink as much
as j^8,ooo on a farm at Brocklesby through well-merited confidence in the
owner. For generations, though only on a yearly tenure, the farms on
Lord Yarborough's estate passed from father to son, and a case is recorded
that when a farmer died and left a son but three years of age, two neigh-
bouring tenants undertook, and were allowed by the landlord, to manage a
farm for the infant, in trust until his majority. At one time the parish of
Limber, consisting of 4,000 acres, was let to four tenants at 2j. 6d. an acre,
and all four became bankrupts. Since it became enclosed and well farmed
the tenants have done exceptionally well, and considerable fortunes even
have been made. Mr. R. Dawson, who occupied the entire parish of
Withcall, 2,000 acres of plough-land, was one of the first who ventured a
heavy outlay on his land, his yearly bill for bones alone being from _^ 1,500
to ^1,800. Mr. Dawson's management was the perfection of farming, and
he left a large fortune at his death. The magnitude of his holding may be
realized when it is stated that you could often see one field of turnips
350 acres in extent. There was once a field there 600 acres in extent.
The practice on the farms three-quarters of a century ago was much the
same as now. The sheep were wintered on turnips, the cattle, bought
at two years old for the most part, were wintered in the yards and fed
liberally on oil-cake, their mission being to convert the straw into manure.
As much as ;^6oo would be spent on oil-cake in a year on some of the big
farms. If the beasts repaid half they had eaten, the farmers were satisfied in
those days. Sometimes three-year-old beasts were bought, and beginning with

' Practically the whole of the Ormsby estate was under cultivation in 1636, and a map of Harrington and!
Brinkhill shows that they too were farmed as early as 1 600. There were two large open arable fields in each
of these parishes, one of which was sown with corn each year. The rest was cow pasture, horse closes, &c.

3 401 51

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

81b. of cake a day, the allowance was gradually increased to i61b., so
that when sold off in the spring they were three-quarters fat. And what
manure they made ! Farming on the Lincoln Heath and the opposite
range of hills to the Wolds was very similar. A farm of 500 acres
having 125 acres of turnips would winter from ten to twelve sheep
per acre, that is from 1,250 to 1,500 sheep, and in addition forty or
fifty beasts in the straw-yard. About the middle of the nineteenth century
the Lincolnshire labourers, who were said to be better paid, better housed,
and better fed than those of any other county, were receiving from i is. to
1 5J. a week, besides piece-work, such as filling manure, harvesting, etc. Now-
adays the labourer earns 15J. a week the year round, added to which he
will earn 3J. a week at piece-work — an average of i 8j. a week the year
round.

The confined men — such as foremen, shepherds, garthmen, who are
engaged for the year, live in the cottages attached to the farms, and are
expected to do the Sunday work and to work late if necessary — receive on an
average 13J. or 14J. a week, with a house rent-free, 30 stones of bacon, and
some 20 stones of potatoes. Junior waggoners receive from >^I2 to jC^S^
year and board, and senior waggoners up to ^^24 with board. On most big
farms they are boarded with the foreman at a cost of ioj. a week per head.
Married waggoners come under the same heading as confined men.

The following are the Government returns for the years 1904 and
1903 :—

Total acreage under crops and grass

Wheat

Barley or Bere

Oats

Rye .

Beans

Peas ,

Corn Crops

Total

Green Crops

Potatoes

Turnips and Swedes

Mangold

Cabbage, K.-Rabi, and Rape

Vetches or Tares

Other Crops

Tota!

1904

1903

Acres

1,520,392

1,518,571

132,690

158,571

211,285

196,969

139,240

133,577

3,004

3,160

33,434

28,912

33,800

32,754

553,453

553,943

76,249

71,575

111,404

112,019

22,054

22,119

13,917

12,903

5,503

6,123

12,229

16,088

241,356

240,827

Clover, Sainfoin, and Grasses under rotation •! xt r tt

' ' \ Not for Hay

Total

Permanent Pasture or Grass not broken up "j p, „

in rotation, not including mountain >■ xt <- ^^
and heath-land . . . .1 Not for Hay

Total

95,234
89,643

184,877

104,720
400,083

504,803

104,210

90,997

195,207

108,248
392,441

500,689

402

AGRICULTURE

Flax .
Small Fruit
Bare Fallow

Horses used for agricultural purposes, including mares kept for breeding

TT 1 , TT f One year and above

Unbroken Horses ^ tt j

( Under one year ....

Total of Horses

Cows and Heifers in milk or in calf

Other Cattle ]

Two years and above
One year and under two
Under one year

Ewes kept for breeding
Other Sheep

f One year and above
( Under one year

Sows kept for breeding
Other Pigs .

Total of Cattle

Total of Sheep

Total of Pigs

1904

Acres

1903
Acres

7
1,780

31
1,850

34,163

25,920

No.

57>396

11,636

6,788

56,385

11,858

6,366

75,820

74,609

72,741
67,678

56,370

68,436
68,388
53,960

53,147

49,149

249,936

373,639

207,591
430,841

20,864

"3,900
134,764

239,933

371,138
233,415

435,012

1,012,071 1,039,565

20,544

96,404

116,948

Total Area of Land and Water; Estimated Area
USED for Grazing, as returned on 4 June, 1904 ;
Plantations, as returned on 4 June, 1895

Land ...........

Water

Total of Land and Water exclusive of foreshore and tidal water

Woods and plantations (1895) .......

Mountain and heath-land used for grazing (approximate)

OF Mountain and Heath-land
and the Acreage of Woods and

1,691,793 acres
4,539 „

1,696,332

43,127 „
1,948 „

Produce of Crops
Wheat :

1. Estimated Total Produce in 1904 ,

2. Acreage in 1904

3. Estimated yield per acre, 1904

4- „ „ „ 1903

5. Average of the ten years, 1894-1903

Barley :

1. Estimated Total Produce in 1904 .

2. Acreage in 1904

3. Estimated yield per acre, 1904

4- „ „ „ 1903

5. Average of the ten years, 1894— 1903

Oats :

1. Estimated Total Produce in 1904 .

2. Acreage in 1904

3. Estimated yield per acre, 1904

4- „ „ „ 1903

5. Average of the ten years, 1894— 1903

3,718,859

bushels

132,690

acres

28-03

bushels

34-21

34-50

„

6,231,804 bushels

211,258

acres

29-50

bushels

33-02

„

34-31

6,421,189

bushels

139,240

acres

46-12

bushels

50-80

„

49-22

403

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Beans :

1. Estimated Total Produce in 1904 .

2. Acreage in 1904

3. Estimated yield per acre, 1904

4- „ » „ 1903

5. Average of the ten years, 1 894-1 903

Peas :

1. Estimated Total Produce in 1904 .

2. Acreage in 1904.

3. Estimated yield per acre, 1904

4- „ „ „ 1903 •

5. Average of the ten years, 1 894-1903

Potatoes :

1. Estimated Total Produce in 1904 .

2. Acreage in 1904

3. Estimated yield per acre, 1904

4- » „ » 1903

5. Average of the ten years, 1 894-1903

Turnips and Swedes :

1. Estimated Total Produce in 1904 .

2. Acreage in 1904 ....

3. Estimated yield per acre, 1904

4- » » » 1903

5. Average of the ten years, 1894-1903

Mangold :

1. Estimated Total Produce in 1904 .

2. Acreage in 1904 ....

3. Estimated yield per acre, 1904

4- » » » 1903

5. Average of the ten years, 1894— 1903

Hay, from Clover, Sainfoin, and Grasses under rotation

1. Estimated Total Produce in 1904 .

2. Acreage in 1904 ....

3. Estimated yield per acre, 1904

4- » » » 1903

5. Average of the ten years, 1 894-1 903

Hay from permanent Grass :

1. Estimated Total Produce in 1904 .

2. Acreage in 1904

3. Estimated yield per acre, 1904

4- » » » 1903

5. Average of the ten years, 1894— 1 903

686,034 bushels
33.434 acres
20*52 bushels

38-07 »
33"25 »

870,648 bushels

33,800 acres

25*76 bushels

28-72 „

2979 »

416,417 tons
76,249 acres
5*46 tons
5"04 „
578 „

1,027,124 tons
111,404 acres
9*22 tons
10-93 »
"•35 »

422,399 tons
22,034 acres
1 9* 1 5 tons

21-37 »
22-09 „

134,213 tons

95,234 acres

28-91 cwt.

32-44 „
27-50 „

123,219 tons

104,720 acres

23-53 cw^t.

27-62 „

23-44 ,,

The four-course system is the one usually adopted on the Wolds and
Lincoln Heath, the land being fallowed after wheat or oats, then drilled for
turnips which are eaten off by sheep, to be followed by barley and small
' seeds,' for mowing or eating. The ' seeds ' are generally sown soon after the
barley is up. On strong land the five or six-course system is in vogue, the
order generally being : — Fallows, turnips, barley, seeds, wheat or oats, and then
barley again for the former ; while peas or beans come after the wheat crop,
to be followed by another crop of wheat or oats, in the latter. But in
recent years all the best land in the county has been devoted to the cultivation
of potatoes, in which some large fortunes have been made, enabling many of
the farmers to purchase their farms. The character of the farms varies

404

AGRICULTURE

according to the district, and as to whether the soil is better adapted to the
cultivation of barley and turnips or to potatoes and wheat. The biggest farms
are on the Wolds and Lincoln Heath, where they run from 300 to 800 acres,
there being a few of 1,000 acres in extent. But there are several farmers
who rent thousands of acres of land, the farms, in many cases, adjoining
■each other. One gentleman, I believe, farms as much as 10,000 acres in
Lincolnshire. The farmhouses and buildings are the best in England, and are
particularly good on, the Wolds and Lincoln Heath. The houses, generally
well situated, with good gardens and pretty surroundings, are most commodious
and well appointed, some of them containing three reception and a dozen bed-
rooms ; while there is often stabling for half a score of hunters and carriage
horses. The farm buildings are all exceedingly well built and up-to-date, and
great neatness and tidiness is observed in the roomy, well-filled stack-yards.
With the exception, perhaps, of Yorkshire, no county has better and more
modern implements than Lincolnshire. The old portable engine has quite dis-
appeared, and some of the big farmers have their own traction engines, thrashing,
sawing, grinding, and pulping, delivering their corn and bringing back cake,
artificial manure, and coal; thus saving a vast amount of time and labour, and
keeping the men and horses at work on the land. Everybody uses the self-binder
where possible, and on some farms you see four at work in one field, so that
there is only one Irishman employed in Lincolnshire during harvest where six
were formerly . Where there is not a natural sufficiency of water, windmill pumps
supply the deficiency. Lincoln, Grantham, and Gainsborough having a world-
wide reputation for agricultural machinery and implements, it is little wonder
that the Lincolnshire farmers are so well equipped for their business. The farms
are let from year to year, subject to a six-months' notice on either side. The
incoming tenant pays for one-third of the cake and the whole of the tillage
used during the preceding year, and one-sixth of the cake used during the year
before that ; he also pays for all the ploughing and work done during the last
six months of the outgoing tenant's occupation. There is a scale of returns
for farmers chalking or liming their land and giving up their occupation
within ten years of so doing.

On the Wolds and Lincoln Heath the rents have come down consider-
ably during the past twenty-five years. Lord Yarborough having reduced his
as much as 35 per cent. Of course, as was previously stated, before the
country came into its present high state of cultivation the land was worth but
from IS. 6J. to 3J. an acre. However, rents rose with the price of corn and
the increased value of the farms, and, as was but natural, fell in a like propor-
tion. Good wold and heath-land is now worth from loj. to 25^. an acre,
though it makes less money if a long way from a station and in a hilly
country. In the potato-growing districts of South Lincolnshire and the Isle
of Axholme, where the railways give a free delivery up to a distance of
three miles, rents range up to £2 ^^ ^cre; while strong land in North
Lincolnshire lets at from i6s. to 22s. an acre, according to the quality
and the extent of grass. Many of the Wold farms have grass-land in
the marshes attached to them.

Broadly speaking the general condition of agriculture is better than it
was some fifteen or twenty years ago, although wheat, barley, and beef
were making more money then ; but sheep are paying some los. a head

405

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

more than they did, rents are lower, and farmers are more careful and have
adapted themselves to the decreased incomes. The old type of tenant farmer,
when wheat was at 6oj. and wool at 6oj-., who drove to market in a carriage,
dined every evening and hunted in scarlet (there were over seventy such in
Lord Yarborough's country forty or fifty years ago), is quite extinct ; though
a few of the old yeomen are still to be found up and down the country. It
was a painful process for them and the succeeding generation to accommodate
themselves to the reduced circumstances, and there were many failures. They
were a grand class, these old fox-hunting yeomen, and it is a great pity and a
national loss that they should have died out. Dr. Buckland, dean of West-
minster, and father of the well-known naturalist, used to visit at Brocklesby
in the time of the first earl, and he once remarked to Lord Yarborough,
' Your tenants are of a very high character ; where do you get them from ? '
' Get them ! ' replied his host, proudly, ' get them ! I don't get them, I breed
them.' And so it was, many of the families having been on the estate when
the Pelhams came to Brocklesby, while at the time of the first earl there were
many who dated their holdings from even before that time. The character
of the tenants has altered considerably in the last ten or a dozen years, the man
of education and refinement, a lover of the chase and the gun, having given
place to one of simpler tastes, fewer wants, and perhaps more practical know-
ledge. While many fortunes have been made in potatoes in the last few
years, there is still a living to be got by the average farmer who lives quietly
and economically, attends to his business, and keeps his labour bill down as
much as possible. While there are fewer farmers who take active part in
fox-hunting than there used to be, the bulk of an average Lincolnshire field
still consists of the chase's best friends ; and even the non-hunting fraternity
is exceedingly well disposed, not one of the different hunts in Lincolnshire
having the slightest difficulty in finding puppy-walks ; and they prove great
fox preservers, particularly in Lord Yarborough's country — in spite of the
depredations in the poultry yard.

The character of the landlord is reflected in the character of his tenants
and their farms, so there is no need to speak of them. The comfortable
homes, well-built, commodious, and up-to-date farm buildings all in a good
state of repair, and the prosperous condition of the country side, amply
show that in spite of the present depressed condition of agriculture
Lincolnshire farmers do not feel the shoe pinch so much as those in
less favoured counties, and that they have generous and sympathetic landlords
over them.

Some of the customs of the country with regard to luck-money and
returns are peculiar, but distinctly out of date and serving no useful purpose
whatever. To an average business mind the system of luck-money is
ridiculous and childish. When a man has sold his corn or his cattle he is
surely entitled to the full price he bargained for ; market tolls and auctioneers'
commissions are different. There are various customs and returns at different
markets, but some of the most general are : is. return on every ten quarters
of corn ; 2s. on every score of sheep sold privately at a fair ; i//. a head on
all sheep sold by auction at a market ; is. z head on all beasts sold privately
at a fair; and from 6d. to is. on all beasts sold by auction at a market.
The return on wool is is. per sheet, 17 or 18 tod.

406

AGRICULTURE

Horse-breeding in Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire has always been famous for its horses, both for home-bred ones
and those purchased young and converted into hunters and steeplechase horses.
This is what the ' Druid ' says in The Post and the Paddock : ' The great
nurseries of English hunters are the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire, more
especially on the wolds, and the whole of Lincolnshire and Shropshire. The
Lincolnshire hunters are still first-rate, but they are bred in fewer numbers
than they were in Dick Burton's hunting prime, owing principally to the
improved system of cultivation which has caused much second-rate grass-land
to be ploughed up. Hence the number of brood mares is rather limited, and
the farmers have to resort to Howden Fair, which is the largest market in
the world for unmade hunters and carriage horses. Scarcely any of them are
tied in rows, but they are generally ridden or led about the town, whose long
High Street is for four or five days one surging sea of animal life. Hosts of
Lincolnshire farmers may be found there each September picking up four-year-
old hunters at prices ranging from j^8o to £ioo, but now more generally
from jTioo to £120. The hunting dealers also attend, not to buy, but to
glean information about promising horses. They learn where they go, and
occasionally, if they take a strong fancy, purchase contingent interest in some
of them. The new owners aim at keeping them at least a year, but seldom
more than two, and they frequently find them a temporary stable-mate at the
great Lincoln Fair each April. The latter are expected to produce a profit
of twenty-eight to twenty-five per cent, for their three months' strong keep
up to Horncastle, or else they hardly realize their owner's "sole idea" of
" praying for August."

' The Yarborough, Southwold, and Burton Hunts are the great public
schools where the heads, hands, and heels of a legion of hard-riding Dicks are
ever at work for five months of the year in transforming the raw one-hundred-
guinea Howdenite into the finished two-hundred-guinea candidate for Horn-
castle. It is, however, to the dealers in this as in every other country that
they have to look for purchasers, as hunting men will scarcely ever buy from
farmers, however well they may ride, and have to pay a handsome sum extra
for their whim. Horncastle Fair has long been the great Lincolnshire
carnival of horse-flesh, and far the largest in England for made hunters.
Sporting foreigners are penetre with its fame and rush to see it and the sale of
blood yearlings at Doncaster with as much energy as their agriculturists
demand to be led to ' de beetroot ' the instant they set foot from one of Ben
Revett's chaises, on their Tiptree shrine. We have it in fact, on Scribbe's
authority, that an elderly German baron not very long since assured his
English visitor when they had drunk to the health and memory of their last
wild boar, that if he could only visit Horncastle Fair he would die happy !
Dealers and foreigners begin to be rife in its neighbourhood about 5 August,
and there are still some hngerers on the 21st. Baron Rothschild's agent
rarely comes, but purchases young horses at all prices from ^^40 to £1°'^ o^t
of the best stables of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.'

The most noted breeders in the past were Welfit of Louth, Fowler of
Kirton Grange, Greetham of Stainfield Hall, the Slaters of Cammeringham

407

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

and North Carlton, Bartholomew of Goltho, Nainby of Barnoldby, Brooks
of Croxby, and Chambers of Reasby Hall.

Very few horses are now brought into Lincolnshire to be converted inta
hunters, and fewer still are bred, the chief reason being that the farmers have
been tempted to part with the best of their females, and so there are very few
brood mares left in the country worth breeding from. The Pelhams were
always noted for their breed of horses, and the present Lord Yarborough still
has a stud farm at Brocklesby. In days gone by the blood of Bay Barb and
Brocklesby Betty was something to be proud of in any part of England.
About the beginning of the last century Lord Yarborough bought a Sir Peter
mare, a sister to Hermione, from Lord Grosvenor. He used to send his mares
to Lord Fitzwilliam's and Lord Egremont's best horses, and a mare by Lord
Egremont's Driver was one of the best they have had in the Brocklesby stables.
Quicksilver, a small blood-like horse, was the first noted sire that Lord
Yarborough had ; his stock were all chestnuts with duck noses — wide
nostrils — and the proverbial ' skin like a mouse,' and they were as good to
tell as if they were labelled. At one time the country was full of his stock,
and afterwards with Sir Malagigi's generally queer-tempered ones. This latter
horse came from Holderness, and was very loosely built, and his owner used
to say that a season in North Lincolnshire was worth four hundred guineas in
two-guinea fees. It was on a mare belonging to Mr. Frank lies, by Pilgrim
from a Devi-sing mare, whose sire Eclipse had been imported into Lincolnshire
by Lord Yarborough, that Mr. Tom Brooks won the historic steeplechase
against Mr. Field Nicholson in 1821. Hippomenes, Negotiator, Robin
Hood, Darnley, Bellerophon, and Mandeville were also famous sires in the
early part of the nineteenth century, as also were Orion, Catterick, Fernhill,.
and Humphrey. Morgan Rattler was another great sire, and all his stock
could win races. It used to be said that the Leicester hack was a pretty good
hunter for other countries ; and the same was said of the farmer's hack of the
Lincolnshire Wolds. His master — farming anything from three hundred to
fifteen hundred acres — had no time to lose crawling about on a half-bred cart
mare, the farm had to be visited before hunting, and the market towns lie
wide for five-miles an hour. It was the fashion on the Wolds a few years
ago, and is still in many cases, to ride round farming at a good pace, and to<
fly the fences if the gates are at the wrong end of the fields.

Mr. W. Taylor-Sharp of Baumber Park, who bred the famous Galopin>
Mr. Richard Botterill of Tathwell Hall, and Mr. J. C. Hill of Willoughton
Cliff, who bred Euclid and Gallinule, are extensive breeders of thorough-
breds ; and Mr. W. E. Elsey of Baumber is also a breeder and a trainer of
racehorses on a very large scale. Peter Simple and Gay Lad were two of
the most celebrated Lincolnshire steeplechase horses of the past. The
famous steeplechase sire Ascetic was bred by Mr. Charles Clark of Ashby
de la Launde.

Lord Yarborough's stud of hunters is always a good one, and the hunt
servants of the Belvoir, the Blankney, the Southwold, and the Burton are all
well horsed.

Hackney breeding has never ' caught on ' in Lincolnshire, though both
Mr. S. B. Carnley of Alford and Mr. W. C. Wood of Wootton Dale have
large breeding studs. But the county has always been well to the front as a

408

AGRICULTURE

nursery for Shire horses, a class of stock that is as remunerative as any that
the farmer can breed ; for good horses take no more to keep and will do far
more work on the land than bad ones, and, in spite of the coming of the
motor car, there is still a brisk demand for high-class geldings in the big
towns. Indeed Lincolnshire may be said to be the original home of the Shire
horse. South and east Lincolnshire are the best breeding grounds for Shires„
where even the smallest farmer keeps a good brood mare or two, breeds from
sound sires, and has a wonderful measure of success in the show ring against even
the biggest establishments. Mr. R. N. Sutton-Nelthorpe of Scawby Hall„
who has probably done more to encourage Shire-horse breeding in Lincoln-
shire than anyone, and thus materially benefited agriculture in the county to-
no small extent, has a fine stud of Shires and is a most successful exhibitor at
all the principal shows. It was he who owned the famous mare Starlight..
Mr. A. H. Clark, Moulton Eaugate ; Mr. W. Rowland, Fishtoft ; Mr. R. J.,
Epton, Wainfleet; Mr. G. Marris, Kirmington ; and Mr. F. Ward„
Quarrington, are also well-known breeders and exhibitors in the county.

The Cattle of the County

Lincolnshire possesses a breed of cattle of its own, and ninety per cent..
of the cattle bred in the county are Lincolnshire Red Shorthorns. Ten or a.
dozen years ago the Lincoln Reds, as they are popularly called, were unknown
beyond the limits of their county boundaries, although they had been care-
fully bred for a century or more. Then the Herd Book was started in 1895,.
which attracted attention to a breed of cattle whose admirers claimed it to be
more hardy, more thrifty, and more generally useful to the tenant farmer than
the Coates' Herd Book Shorthorn from which it was originally descended..
Records of the leading herds, though not entered in Coates' Herd Book, have
been kept in some cases for nearly one hundred years, and the breed has.
gradually conformed to one type and colour. The original cattle of Lincoln-
shire in their improved state were distinguished by their enormous size, but
slow powers of fattening ; and their improvement dates from about 1 8 10, when-
three bulls were purchased at Mr, Charles CoUings's great sale, and sent inta
Lincolnshire. But the origin of the Lincolnshire Red Shorthorn is prob-
ably the herd formed by Mr. Thomas Turnell, at Reasby, near Wragby.
Mr. Arthur Young, in his report to the Board of Agriculture, said that
Mr. Turnell's cattle had no superior in the county. They were a deep
red in colour, and while somewhat smaller in size than the average,,
showed great rapidity of fattening and a development of lean flesh in
the primest joints.

In 1 90 1 the Royal Agricultural Society granted the breed separate classes
at their annual show, and agriculturists and stock-breeders from all parts of
the kingdom were enabled to inspect a number of representative exhibits for
the first time. The impression they made was a most favourable one, the
general opinion being that they were bred to a well-defined type, that they
showed great wealth and evenness of flesh, while their milking qualities were
undeniable. Since then they have advanced in popularity with rapid strides,,
registered herds having been established in practically every county in England,
and extensive shipments made to every dairy country in Europe. South Africa^

a 409 52

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

too, has become a most valuable customer, and it was the opinion of one colonial
of fifty-five years' experience, who toured through England and Scotland with a
view of purchasing cattle for the government, that no breed was so well suited
for the requirements of the country as the Lincolnshire Red Shorthorn, and he
bought no other. There is now a membership of the Lincolnshire Red
Shorthorn Association numbering 277, and no fewer than 260 herds are
registered in the Herd Book. Built on Shorthorn lines — with great length and
scale, and with typical heads — the chief characteristics of the Lincoln Reds are
their early maturity, hardiness and thriftiness, great wealth of lean flesh, and
splendid milking qualities. Wintered in crew yards, for the most part with
little shelter from the elements, and fed on barley straw and a few turnips,
they have been utilized as manure-makers for generations. Calving in the early
spring, towards the end of April they are turned out to get their own living
on the pastures, exposed to the biting winds from the North Sea (for
there is practically no shelter in the marshes), and in most cases compelled
to drink from stagnant ponds. This severe treatment has had a most sure
effect in weeding out the weakest, the outcome of which is a true instance
of the survival of the fittest ; nor do they lose condition or suffer perceptibly,
as nearly any other breed would under similar conditions. Grass -fed
Lincoln Reds will weigh from 8 to 10 cwt., while stall-fed beasts reach as
much as 24 cwt. The triumph of the Lincoln Red as a milker may best be
shown by reference to the wonderful successes at milking trials of the exhibits
of Mr. John Evens, of Burton, near Lincoln. Dairying is not a prominent
feature in Lincolnshire agriculture, and the practice of allowing cows to suckle
their own calves is not conducive to the development of milking capacity ; but
Mr. Evens has amply demonstrated that with judicious management the Lincoln
Reds are the best of milkers. On the two occasions on which pure-bred
milking trials have been held by the Royal Society, in 1898 and 1899,
Mr. Evens won first and second prizes in competition with other breeds ; and
on ihe two occasions on which there has been a group class (three cows or
heifers in milk, of any pure breed, eligible for entry in their respective Herd
Books, and bred by and the property of the exhibitor), at the London Dairy
Show, in 1900 and 1901, Mr. Evens secured the premier award. In
1904, and for the third year in succession, he won the first prize and the
challenge cup at the milking trials at the Dublin Show, and the first prize
and the challenge cup, also for the third year in succession, at the Royal
Ulster Show. He was also first in the open class and first in the tenant
farmers' class at the Oxfordshire Show milking trials ; and first, for the third
year in succession, at the joint milking and dairy inspection at the Royal
Counties Show, besides winning both first and second prizes at the Shorthorn
butter test against nineteen picked cows at the London Dairy Show. In
1905 Mr. Evens won the first prize and the challenge cup at Dublin; first
and second at the Oxfordshire milking trials ; first and second at the Lincoln
Red milking tests at the Royal Show ; and first at Tring in a class of thirty,
open to all breeds. At the London Dairy Show Mr. Evens was second with
cows, both in the class for inspection and in the milking test ; and first and
second for heifers both for inspection and in the milking trials. Mr. Evens
has been equally successful at these and many other shows in previous years,
notably in the Shorthorn Dairy class (C.H.B. or L.R.S.H.B.) at the Lin-

410

AGRICULTURE

colnshire Show, where he last year won the three money prizes and the
reserve ticket.

So far there have been no sensational prices paid for Lincolnshire Red
Shorthorns, as they are still for the most part in the hands of tenant farmers ;
but the steady average, with a slight upward tendency each year, shows the
growing popularity of the breed, and that there is money to be made out of
this typical tenant-farmers' cattle. At the annual bull sales of the Lincoln-
shire Red Shorthorn Association, held at the county town each April, there is
always a fine display, and the following figures will give an idea of the num-
bers and prices. In 1 90 1 , 165 bulls were sold at an average price of ^Ta 5 3J. 6^.,
the best return being secured by Messrs. R. and R. Chatterton, Stenigot,
whose animals averaged £e^6 14J. In 1902 the average was slightly lower,
^^25 2J. ()d., but five more bulls were disposed of, and this time ^^45 8j. 3-^.,
obtained by Mr. T. Bett, Benniworth, was the best average. Close on 200
changed hands the following year, the executors of the late Mr. John Abraham
obtaining an average of ^^49 12s. 3d'., and in 1904 the entries rose to 293,
but there were many of indifferent character that failed to find customers.
That year Mr. G. E. Sanders, Scampton House, Lincoln, obtained an average
of ;^6i 8 J. 6d. and sold one to go into the Burton herd for 130 guineas, while
Mr. J. Mason, Calceby, gave 100 guineas for another. In 1905 the number
of entries dropped somewhat, but there were still a few unsold, and their
owners would have been wise to have converted them into steers. Mr.
Sanders's average of £i,2 \os. was again the best, and one of his bulls went to
Mr. Leslie Stephenson, South Thoresby, for 100 guineas. But three fresh records
were set up in April, 1906, for at the Association's Bull Sales at Lincoln one
of Mr. Sanders's bulls, Scampton Goldreef, was sold to go to Chili at 305 guineas,
and the average for the seven bulls from the Scampton herd was >^8 9 5 j., while
in all 166 bulls changed hands at an average of £2j los. i id.

The principal breeders of Lincolnshire Red Shorthorns are Mr. John
Evens, Burton, whose animals are always in brisk demand for the great dairy
countries of Europe and the principal milking herds of the United Kingdom ;
Mr. R. Chatterton, Stenigot, at whose sale in 1901, 124 lots (including
thirty-six calves averaging under six months old) averaged ^2^ los. 2d.y
the grand young bull Red Chief going to Mr. T. Bett, Benniworth, for
1 1 o guineas ; Mr. W. J. Atkinson, Weston St. Mary, who held a sale in
1904, when sixty-five lots, including sixteen calves and nine yearling bulls,
averaged £2J 4f. ; and Messrs. S. E. Dean and Sons, Dowsby Hall, who pur-
chased the bull calf Imperial Favourite at the late Mr. W. Marr's sale at
Uppermill for 600 guineas, and who had a most successful sale in 1905. Other
leading breeders are Mr. T. Bett, Benniworth ; Mr. G. J. Brown, Tothby
House, Alford ; Mr. E. H. Cartwright, Keddington Grange; Messrs. T. and
W. Dickinson, Worlaby ; Messrs. J. W- Farrow and Sons, Strubby Manor,,
Alford ; Mr. G. Frier, Deeping St. Nicholas ; Messrs. T. and J. B. Freshney,
South Somercotes ; Lord Heneage, Hainton Hall ; Mr. Everett King, North-
borough, Market Deeping; Mr. J.Mason, Calceby Manor; Mr. J. W. Measures,
Dunsby ; Mr. Reuben Roberts, Horncastle ; Mr. John Searby, Croft ; Mr. B,
Simons, Willoughby Grange ; and Mr. W. B. Swallow, Wootton, Ulceby.

There are very few C.H.B. Shorthorn herds in the county, while it is
only here and there the Shorthorn is crossed with the Aberdeen-Angus. The

411

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

two chief breeders of C.H.B. Shorthorns — and very prominent members of the
Shorthorn world they are — are Mr. Jonas Webb, Melton Ross, and Mr. Henry
Dudding, Riby Grove. The former gentleman has a very fine herd of pure
Bates cattle, always in great demand for export to the Argentine and else-
where, and to replenish the most prominent herds at home ; and at the sale
held in 1898 he disposed of fifty-two lots at an average of ^^37 ijs., while
in 1905 the average for forty lots was ^52 \s. \d. Mr. Dudding, who
has been a wonderfully successful exhibitor both of Shorthorns and Lincoln
sheep, had a sale the same year, getting 205 guineas for Lord Rosmead, and
200 guineas for Rosellan, both for Argentina, and an average of ^38 14J. 7^.
for forty-four animals. The following year forty-nine animals from the Riby
herd averaged j^55 ioj., the highest average of the year next to that of
^69 3 J. 3</. which the fifty-four animals sold by the Prince of Wales realized;
the bull Monogram made 360 guineas, another bull. Royal Fern, 360 guineas,
and three of the heifers were knocked down at 360 guineas, 205 guineas, and
200 guineas respectively. Mr. Dudding's average for 1901 was ^^30 14J. id.
for forty-nine animals, two heifers going at 145 guineas and 100 guineas.
Owing to the closing of the Argentine ports there was no sale at Riby in 1902,
but in 1903 Mr. Dudding disposed of seventy-seven head at an average of
>r43 1 9 J., the bull Sir Charles going for 285 guineas, while the best of the
heifers went at 145 guineas, 125 guineas, and iio guineas. There was no
sale again in 1904; but in 1905 he sold fifty-six animals at an average of

To Lincolnshire belongs the honour of the most famous Shorthorn sale
that ever took place, viz., the dispersal of the herd belonging to the late
Mr. William Torr, at Aylesby Manor, on 2 September, 1875. On this his-
toric occasion over 3,000 people were present, and the eighty-four head of
Shorthorns averaged the extraordinary price of ^5 i o 1 9J. The highest prices
were as follows: — Bright Queen, 750 guineas, Lady Pigot ; Bright Spangle,
1,055 guineas, Mr. Booth, Warlaby ; Highland Flower, 1,500 guineas, Rev. J.
Staniforth ; Flower of Germany, 760 guineas, Mr. Miller, Singleton, Lan-
cashire; Bright Baroness, 1,000 guineas, Mr. Andrew Mitchell, Scotland;
Flower Alpine, 710 guineas, Mr. McCuUam, Australia; Lowland Flower,
800 guineas, Mr. J. St. Gran-de-Acre, Gloucester; Heather Flower, 1,000
guineas, Rev. J. Staniforth; Bright Empress, 2,160 guineas, Mr. Booth,
Warlaby (the highest price ever given for a cow in England) ; Bright Mar-
chioness, 1,185 guineas, Mr. Chandos PoU-Gell; Bright Saxon, 1,505 guineas,
Mr. Booth, Warlaby; Riby Empress, 760 guineas, Messrs. Cruikshank,
Aberdeenshire; Foreign Queen, 805 guineas, Mr. Talbot-Crosby, County
Kerry; Bright Dowager, 805 guineas, Mr, J. St. Gran-de-Acre; Riby Pearl,
775 guineas, Mr. Hugh Elmo, Norfolk; Bright Jewel, 'j'jz^ guineas, Mr.
Booth; Riby Marchioness, 1,260 guineas, Mr. Talbot-Crosby ; Fandango, 700
guineas. Sir W. Stirling-Maxwell ; Riby Knight, 700 guineas, Mr. Marshall,
New Zealand ; and Balmoral, 700 guineas, Mr. Micklethorne — the last three
being bulls.

Mr. Torr, who farmed close on 3,000 acres in North Lincolnshire, was
one of the leading agriculturists of his day, and a wonderfully active man, be-
ginning his labours by giving orders from his bedroom window at 5 a.m., and
never spending an idle minute during the day. When not at home, farming,

412

AGRICULTURE

inventing a new gate, sketching a plan for new farm buildings, or designing
a cottage, he would be giving evidence before the Privy Council or a Special
Commission, or discussing finance or the prize-sheet at the Smithfield Club,
Hanover Square. At making an after-dinner speech he was particularly
happy. Everything at Aylesby had to be pure-bred — the Shorthorns, the
Leicester sheep (at the dispersal sale after his death the ewes averaged close
on 5 guineas and the rams ^^17 js. 6d.), the game fowls, which were black-
breasted reds, and even the cats, which were all black. At Riby and Irby
Dales he kept Captain Barclay's breed of Dorkings, Rouen ducks at
Rothwell and Riby, while black Buenos Ayres ducks were found at Irby
Dales. His Leicester sheep were in great demand, and besides an extensive
home trade a great number were exported to Australia, California, Jamaica,
and St. Helena.

Lincolnshire Long-wool Sheep

Lincolnshire possesses a distinct breed of sheep just as it possesses a
distinct breed of cattle, and there is probably ' more money in it ' to-day
than in any other European breed. The Lincoln sheep has been in existence
and recognized as the established breed of the county for nigh on two hundred
years, and it has been found to be the best adapted for the country and
climate. It is hardy and thrifty, being folded on turnips during the winter
months ; comes to early maturity and shows a great aptitude to fatten ; and
it clips an enormous weight of wool. A few years ago it was found to be
the best to cross with the Merino, and in consequence there sprung up such
a trade with South America, and such extraordinary prices were given, as
cannot be found in the history of any other breed of sheep. But they
came down with a run on the closing of the Argentine ports owing to
an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in England, and they have never
reached such a height since, though they are decidedly remunerative, as
subsequent figures will show. The wool of the Lincoln sheep is very long
and lustrous, with a broad staple, and the carcase a very heavy one. It is
recorded in the Farmers^ Magazine that in 1826 a three-shear Lincoln wether
weighed 380 lb., a two-shear 364 lb., and a shearling 284 lb. dead weight, while
in 1888 three ewes weighed 1,120 lb. at the Smithfield Show. Since those
days a lot of superfluous fat has been done away with ; and, as a comparison,
it might be mentioned that the lambs under a year old, shown by Mr. Henry
Dudding, Riby Grove, at the Smithfield Show in 1904, weighed 2261b., live
weight, and the shearling wethers 3541b., the highest respective weights in
the show. In 1866, at the annual April Fair at Lincoln, 220 wether hogs
(as they are called in the intermediate stage between the time they run with
their dams and the time for clipping), sold in one lot by the breeder, made
£s, each. High prices have always been realized at the annual sales and
lettings in the past, and when a trade opened with South America, Canada,
the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, figures were reached of quite
a sensational nature. Twice in three years, at Mr. Henry Dudding's auction
sales at Riby, a shearling ram was knocked down at 1,000 guineas, the
destination of the animal in each case being the Argentine. The Flock Book
was started in 1892, there then being fifty-three registered flocks and fifty-

413

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

eight members ; the number of registered flocks in 1905 was 213, and there
were 226 members. It was in July, 1898, that a Lincoln ram first ran into
four figures at a public auction sale ; and though Messrs. S. E. Dean and Sons,
Dowsby Hall, did their best to keep the sheep in England, and bid up to
950 guineas, he was eventually knocked down, amid a scene of the greatest
excitement, to Mr. F- Miller, Birkenhead, who was acting on behalf of
Senor Manuel Cobo, Buenos Ayres. The average for the fifty-two rams
sold at the Riby sale was ^^J, the three ' Royal ' winners averaging
£'^.72 loj., and the best ten ^^287 14J. It might be mentioned that
670 Lincolns were shown at the Palermo Show, Buenos Ayres, that year,
and that the Champion Prize went to Senor Cobo's 1,000 guinea purchase.
Senor Cobo also bought the Royal winner of 1900, again giving 1,000 guineas
for the honour of becoming its owner, and this time the keenest competition
came from another South American buyer, although several prominent home
breeders remained in as bidders for some time. The fifty rams averaged
£jj i8j. this year. One of the Riby rams was purchased at the annual sale
in 1899 to go to Buenos Ayres at 220 guineas, and another in 1903 for
250 guineas. At the Smithfield Show, Christmas, 1902, Mr. Dudding won
the Prince of Wales's loo-guinea Challenge Cup for the best pen of sheep of
any breed. The other leading breeders of Lincoln sheep in the county are : —
Messrs. R. and W. Wright, Nocton, who sold a ram at the association sales
in 1 89 8, for 300 guineas, to go to New Zealand, and their first prize shearling
ram at the Royal Show in 1905, fell to Mr. F. Miller, Birkenhead, for
1,000 guineas, and their first prize pen of five shearling rams at the same show,
and to the same purchaser, for 1,500 guineas ; Mr. T. Casswell, Pointon, whose
best sheep made 215 guineas and 200 guineas respectively at the Lincoln
Longwool Sheep-breeders' Association's sale at Lincoln in 1898 and 1899;
Messrs. S. E. Dean and Sons, Dowsby Hall, who have been large exporters
to South America and elsewhere, and whose sheep have always commanded
high prices ; Mr. J. E. Casswell, Laughton, who owns one of the oldest
flocks in the county, and who sold twenty rams at the association's sale at
Lincoln in 1897 at an average of £6^ 4J,, the top price being 200 guineas,
while another ram went into the Dowsby flock the following year at
235 guineas ; Mr. John Pears, Mere Hall, who also possesses an old-
established flock ; Mr. C. E. Howard, Nocton Rise, who recently took over
his father's flock, and for the first time of asking made 300 guineas of a ram
at the Lincoln sale in 1904; Mr. W. B. Swallow, Wootton ; Mr. G. Marris,
Kirmington ; Mr. W. Taylor-Sharpe, Baumber Park ; Mr, F. Ward, Quar-
rington ; Mr. J. B. Nelson, Bigby ; Mr. J. Cartwright, Dunston Pillar ;
Mr. C. Clarke, Scopwick ; Mr. H. Goodyear, Bourn ; Messrs. J. T. and
A. W. Needham, Huttoft, who in 1905 sold a ram at Partney Fair for
600 guineas to go to Argentina ; Sir John Thorold, Syston Park ; Mr. J.
Anderson, Barton ; and Mr. H. E. Davy, Croxby. A very famous flock,
now dispersed, was that belonging to Messrs. J. R. and R. R. Kirkham,
Biscathorpe.

On a few farms the Lincoln ewe is crossed with a Hampshire Down
ram, chiefly with a view to supplying the markets with early lamb, and
Mr. Jonas Webb has a flock of Southdowns besides his Lincolns ; but by far
the greater number of the flocks in the county are pure-bred Lincolns.

414

AGRICULTURE

Pigs, Poultry, Etc.

The large white breed is the class of pigs chiefly found in Lincolnshire,
though here and there one comes across a herd of Berkshires ; the former
will grow to weigh as much as 50 stone, and being the staple food of the
labouring classes, it will be realized that weight, even if accompanied by-
more fat than a townsman would appreciate, is very greatly to be desired.
Nearly every labourer has a pig or two, insuring them in the village Pig
Club, which provides compensation against loss, and veterinary attention in
the case of sickness. There are no bacon factories in Lincolnshire, and the
production of pork can scarcely be called an industry. The Messrs. Duckering,
of Kirton Lindsey, are the greatest breeders of the large white pig in Lin-
colnshire, and they have been most successful exhibitors in the show ring,
taking over 3,000 prizes in money, cups, and medals, since, and including the
Royal Show at Worcester in 1883, and having been particularly successful in
the principal show-yards on the Continent. There is also an old Lincolnshire
curly-hair breed, the best examples of which may be seen at the farms of
Messrs. B. and J. W. Rowland, Wainfleet, and Mr. H. Caudwell, Midville,
Boston.

All kinds of poultry are reared on the farms in Lincolnshire, as there is
always a supply of second quality corn, which is admirably adapted for
feeding ; and in recent years more attention has been paid to what, if
properly managed, is a most profitable and paying concern in connexion with
a farm. On many of the farms portable chicken-houses are drawn into the
fields as soon as the corn is carried, so that the birds are able to find their
own living for some little time ; and much more care is taken in breeding
and home management than used to be the case. The old Lincolnshire Buffs,
a very useful general-purpose fowl, are still to be found on many farms, while
on others there are Indian and brown-red game fowl, black and white Minorcas,
Leghorns, Houdans, Orpingtons (black, buff, and white), Dorkings, Cochins,
Plymouth Rocks, and Wyandottes of various colours. Geese, and Aylesbury,
Rouen, and Indian Runner ducks are to be found everywhere, and most
farmers go in for turkeys and guinea-fowls as well. A great source of wealth
in bygone years was the breeding of geese in enormous quantities in South
Lincolnshire for their feathers and quills, but the drainage of the land has
had its effect on this industry, and though raised in great numbers still,
nothing like as many geese and ducks are bred in Lincolnshire as hitherto.
Mr. W. Bygott, of Ulceby, has a world-wide reputation as a breeder,
exhibitor, and exporter of ducks and geese. A good deal of honey is made
in the county, particularly round Keelby, the clover crops, which follow on
the barley crops, being particularly happy hunting-grounds for bees.

Dairy work is not practised to any great extent, the bulk of the land being
unsuitable, and there being no great centres of population in the county.
The principal towns have to be supplied, a fact that is taken full advantage
of by farmers on their outskirts ; but dairy farms, where the production of
milk and butter is the chief business, are very few and far between. A better
system of collection of eggs, butter, poultry, etc., for the country districts
would prove a profitable undertaking and most beneficial to agriculturists.

415

FORESTRY

IN remote times the fen districts of Lincolnshire, which lie chiefly in the Holland, or south-
eastern, division of the county, were the site of great woods. Vast stores of bog timber have
been found a few feet below the surface of the peaty soil, and are occasionally still dis-
covered where new drainage works are undertaken. This buried forest has been known
to the fen-men from time immemorial ; but the stories, both ancient and modern, as to old
bog-wood being found which showed traces of having been hewn by man, even in the rudest
fashion, are fabulous. Mr. Skertchly, the geological expert, who began a thorough investigation
of the peat-buried woods in 1874, failed to find a single instance that showed the hand of man.
By an ingenious calculation he came to the conclusion that about B.C. 5000 is the latest possible
date for the formation of the newest part of the peat. Among this buried timber he found many
oaks that were 80 ft. long, whilst some were 90 ft., and attained to 70 ft. before throwing out a
branch. Some of the firs were 3 ft. in diameter and 70 ft. in height.^

The gradual change from the splendid woods of prehistoric days to the treeless swamps of the
dreary undrained fens was a wonderful transformation. The scenery in the first half of the
seventeenth century is well set out in the rhymes of John Taylor (1580-1654), 'the Water
Poet':—

Near the Garrick ' milestone
Nothing there grew beneath the sky
But willows scarcely six feet high.
Or osiers barely three feet dry,
And those of only one year's crop
The flood did fairly overtop.

No less wonderful has been the subsequent change, wrought by successive drainage schemes,
from water-logged morasses to fertile cornfields.

The record of Domesday Survey is of peculiar value in Lincolnshire as showing the amount
of woodland in the county towards the close of the eleventh century. The Great Survey must have •
been carried out by different sets of commissioners, and it is therefore only reasonable to expect
considerable variety in the manner of making these fiscal returns. In the majority of counties, as
was the case with Norfolk and Suffolk, the amount of woodland on the different manors is roughly
estimated by the numbers of swine that could obtain pannage under its shelter. In Lincolnshire,
on the contrary, as is also the case with Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, the actual size of the
woods is set fortli. These two midland counties, however, have the measure of most of their woods
stated in round numbers by the length and breadth in miles [leuca) or furlongs ; whereas by far the
greater part of the wood measurements of Lincolnshire are set forth according to their precise
acreage, varying from two or three acres to several hundred. The reason for this exceptional treat-
ment of Lincolnshire woods and underwoods probably arose from the greater value of every form of
timber in a county which was on the whole but sparsely wooded. In many counties a few acres
of wood, or a patch of brushwood were not worth entering.

It may fairly be assumed that the trees of that period in this county were almost entirely oak.
In a single case, namely at Spalding, is the nature of the wood mentioned ; on that manor there
was a wood of alders worth 8^. a year.

From the different methods adopted in computation, it is diflScult to draw any accurate com-
parison between the woodland of one county and another ; but on broad lines it seems safe to
assume that there was less timber in the eleventh century in Lincolnshire than in almost any other
English shire. It is also exceedingly probable that Lincolnshire stands alone as a county
that has at the present day a considerably larger wooded area than was the case in the days of
the Conqueror.

Notwithstanding, however, the comparative paucity of timber under the Domesday Survey,
it will be found that there were numerous woods of fair dimensions the immediate neighbourhood of
Grantham, Sleaford, and Horncastle, and that a large number of parishes in other parts of the shire,
saving in the actual fens, had their tracts of wood or underwood of varying size.

• Miller and Skertchly, The Fenland Past and Present (1878), 557, 566-71.
' Garrick or Garwick, now in Heckingtou.

2 417 53

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

The total acreage of underwood recorded in the Survey for the whole county is, in round
imbers, 9,000 acres ; and the total of wood for pannage is 11,900 acres. To these must be
ded conjectural estimates for the comparatively few cases in which woods are measured by the
ile or furlong. These probably increase the underwood to about 14,000 acres, and the wood to
1,000 acres, giving a rough total of 34,000 acres of woodland as opposed to the 44,000 of
e present day. Among the largest of these woods estimated by lineal measure was one at
oddington, belonging to the abbey of St. Peter's, Westminster, measuring i^ miles long by i mile
oad, and a stretch of underwood at Broughton by Lincoln, which was 2 miles long by i mile broad,
here were also three woods in the Isle of Axholme, at Epworth, Owston, and Upperthorpe, each
which are entered as a square mile. The largest wooded area entered by acres was that of
srby in the south of the county, where the Bishop of Lincoln had a wood of 1,100 acres.
ext to this came Bitchfield, between Grantham and Corby, where one proprietor had a wood of
10 acres and another of 200 acres.

The southern part of the Kesteven Division was a forest (using the word in its old signification
a great preserve of wild game) in pre-Conquest days. This forest of Kesteven included a great
etch of the Deeping Fens, as well as a fringe of woods and much brushwood ; it formed part of
e possessions of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, who was lord of Brune and the adjoining marshes. In
e time of Henry I the bounds of this forest were much enlarged. The extent, according to
ugdale —

was from the bridge of East Deeping, now Market Deeping, to the church of Swinston, on the one
side ; and from the bridge of Bicker, and Wragmere Stake, on the other side ; which metes divided
the north parts, and the river of Weland the south ; excepting the fen of Goggisland, in regard it was
a sanctuary of holy Church, as belonging to the abbey of Crouland ; which fen the monks of that
house, having license from the said king, did cloze for their own use ; making the ditches about it
bigger than ordinary, for the avoyding of discord. '

The northern part of this forest was discharged from its obligations in 1 204 ; for in May of
at year King John disafforested the marshes pertaining to the four adjacent towns of Donington,
uadring, Gosberton, and Surfleet.^

The rest of this wide extent of country remained under forest law until April 1230, when
enry III granted the complete disafforesting of all lands, marshes and turbaries within the
esteven division, declaring it altogether free from regarders, foresters, verderers or other forest
inisters.'

Many of the foundation and other twelfth and thirteenth century charters of the religious
luses of the county bear evidence of woodlands scattered in small plots throughout the shire,
hus the foundation charter of Kirkstead abbey mentions totum boscum in one place, and ahum boscum
another ; the early charters of Revesby abbey, and of the priories of Greenfield, Elsham and
octon contain specific mention of woods ; those of Swineshead abbey name woods on three of the
jacent manors ; whilst Louth Park abbey held much brushwood {terra bruscosa), and Sempringham
iory 20 acres of wood at Aslackby.*

Various Ministers' Accounts among the national muniments also yield woodland information, of
hich the following must serve as examples. The accounts of Willoughton and other manors,
rmerly held by the Knights Templars, for the year 1309, mention, under Gainsborough, the
stom of paying a forester for warding the wood of Thonock for ten weeks, from 30 March to
) July.^

The accounts of the manor of Bolingbroke seem to show that there was considerable clearance
coppice wood on that estate from time to time. In the year 1399 the large sum of 20i. iid.
is paid costage del fagottes?

At Grayingham there must have been a large wood fit for swine pannage. The accounts for
L04 name William Hopkinson as the 'Takman ' there, and enter a payment at Michaelmas of \d.
r ' Wodehalpens.' ' The tackman or takman was one who entered the number of pigs turned
to the manor wood at the appointed season by the tenants.*

A report on the agriculture of the county was drawn up for the Board of Agriculture in 1794.
is there stated that it was customary to have the woodland cleared in rotation, and the underwood
t without the vacant places being supplied with young plants. The woods of Sir Peter Burrell
5 commended as judiciously managed. Various improvements in timber-growing 'and in under-
3od are noted, and there are some interesting observations as to the advantages or otherwise of

' Dugdale, Eist. oflmbanking (1662), 194-5. ' CaL Rot. Chart. (P.R.O.), p. 128.

' Close, 14 Hen. Ill, m. 9.

* Dugdale, Mon. (orig. ed.), i, 776, 805, 806, 822, 88l ; ii, 21 1, 421, 791.

» Gen. Mins. Accts. S^.

» Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. m%'' .

' Gen. Mins. Accts. S^. ' Cox, Royal Forests, 42, 200.

418

FORESTRY

growing timber trees and coppice together. It was considered that fifteen oak trees, of suflScient size
to produce 80 to 100 ft. of timber, would occupy an acre of land.^

A much longer report was made to the same Board by the celebrated Arthur Young in I799 5
he was then acting as secretary to the Board.^ In the section on Woods and Plantations (2 1 2-222)
he speaks of the success attending the planting in the fens of ' the berry-bearing poplar,' which thrives
very greatly, and much exceeds the growth of the Lombardy poplar, attaining to 18 or 20 feet m
six years. At Osbournby, to the south of Sleaford, he noticed small plantations of the Dishley
willow doing very well, and realizing twelve guineas an acre. Sir Cecil Wrayhad planted 260 acres,
chiefly with Scotch firs, between 1760 and 1794, with profitable results. The Duke of Ancaster's
woods (about four or five hundred acres) were cut at eighteen years' growth, realizing from ^i^ to
;^i6 an acre. The Earl of Exeter's woods about Bourne paid him by underwood and timber about
20s. per acre per annum.

Particular information is supplied with respect to Sir Joseph Banks' woods (Revesby), which
had been very carefully managed since 1727, in a rotation of twenty-three years. The produce per
acre of timber, bark, poles, and brush was estimated at an average of ^^45 7^., cut once in twenty-
three years, or £1 1 91. 5^^. per acre per annum. It was considered that the same land would not
produce in an arable farm more than lOj. or 12s. an acre.

Lincolnshire now possesses the following seven deer parks : ' — Brocklesby Park (the Earl of
Yarborough) has an acreage of 1,000 acres, and is about three miles in length by one in breadth.
It is well-timbered, and is bordered by various plantations. The fallow deer number about 350.

Belton Park (Earl Brownlow), near Grantham, which encloses about 800 acres, was formed
under royal licence of 1690 out of lands in Belton, Londonthorpe, and Telthorpe, and enclosed with
a wall five miles in circumference.* It contains some good timber and plantations, as well as two
fine avenues. There is a herd of about 300 fallow deer.

Grimsthorpe Park (the Earl of Ancaster) is of ancient origin. Saxton, in 1576, marks here two
parks, called respectively ' The Red-dere pk ' and ' The Fallow-dere pk.' The great park, which
lies chiefly to the south-west of the castle, embraces nearly 2,000 acres, and is 16 miles in
circumference. The actual deer park, with some 400 fallow deer, is about 800 acres. There are
also about fifty red deer, said to be the descendants of the original race that for centuries graced this
ancient park. Much of the centre of the park is bare of trees, but elsewhere there is an abundance
of good oaks and hornbeams, as well as many fine old mistletoe-bearing hawthorns.

Haverholme Priory Park (the Earl of Winch ilsea), on the borders of the fen country near
Sleaford, was enclosed between 1786 and 1790. It includes about 401 acres, and has a herd of
250 fallow deer. It is well wooded ; the principal trees are oak, elm, horse-chestnut, ash and
hawthorn. The park contains a willow tree {salix alba) supposed to be the largest in England ; it
has a girth of 26 ft. at 5 ft. from the ground. Haverholme was one of the best wooded parts of the
county at the time of the Domesday Survey.

Normanby Park (Sir B. D. G. Sheffield, bart.), in the parish of Burton-upon-Stather, was
enclosed in 1804. It has an acreage of 320 acres, and a herd of about 120 fallow deer. Most of
the park is well timbered, but about 60 acres are covered with bracken, and serve as a rabbit
warren.

Scrivelsby Park (F. S. Dymoke, esq.) covers about 300 acres, and feeds some sixty fallow deer.
It is well wooded.

Irnham Park (Mrs. Wobrige-Gordon) contains 223 acres, and a herd of about seventy fallow
deer. It is well planted, and possesses some exceptionally fine elm trees. This park is marked on
Saxton's map.

There is also a large finely-wooded park at Syston (Sir J. H. Thorold, bart.), and one of
smaller extent at Easton (Sir M. A. R. Cholmeley, bart.), equally well timbered ; both of these were
deer parks when Mr. Shirley wrote in 1867. There were 440 acres of woodland at Easton at the
time of the Domesday Survey.

Six other parks, all fairly timbered, should be named — Aswarby, and Stoke, in the Kesteven
Division, and Revesby, Ormsby, Hainton, and Riby in Lindsey.

The chief scientific planting in Lincolnshire during the eighteenth century was that accom-
plished by Sir Joseph Banks at Revesby. But this has been far surpassed in the nineteenth century,
both in quantity and in tabulated results by successive earls of Yarborough. On the Brocklesby
and Manby estates, in 119 years, namely, from 1787 to 1905 inclusive, upwards of 23^ millions of
trees have been planted. During the whole of this period an accurate record of every detail of

' T. Stone, General View of Agriculture, Lincoln (1794), 23, 34, 91-4.
' A. Young, General View of Agriculture, Lincoln (1799), an octavo vol. of 450 pages.
' The brief information given of each of these parks is chiefly taken from Shirley's Deer and Deer Parks
(1867), 85-7 and Whitaker's Deer Parks of England (1892), 94-6, supplemented by local information.
* Saunders, History of County Lincoln, ii, 309.

419

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

arboriculture has been kept. In a large number of years, such as 1793, 1795, I797> 1808, 18 16,
1 8 19 and 182 1—3, the numbers planted exceeded half a million. During the present century the
yearly average has been 246,080.

At the exhibition of the Royal Agricultural Society at Park Royal in June, 1905, the astonish-
ing total of 157 specimens of different timbers grown on the Earl of Yarborough's Lincolnshire
property was shown. This included every variety of indigenous tree, together with a great number
of foreign trees, such as the Japanese Juniper and Cypress, the Swiss Stone Pine, the Californian
Redwood, the Carolina Poplar and the Venetian Sumach.^

Most of the woodlands on Lord Yarborough's property were evidently planted with the idea of
producing landscape effects on what must have been bare wolds. The timber has been at its best
for some years past ; it is therefore now being taken down and replanted so much every year, in
order to get it into a rotation of about 90 or 100 years growth. There is no coppice or under-
wood work on these estates, and but little in any part of Lincolnshire.

There has been a creosote plant in use at Brocklesby for the last few years, which enables a
great deal of timber, which would make very little money if sold, to be used for fencing on the
estate. An interesting table of the result of tests, showing the absorption of creosote oil by various
kinds of timber, — such as posts of Scotch spruce and silver fir, larch, and hornbeam, as well as rails of
spruce and larch and hunting gates of oak and larch hurdles — was presented last year with examples
to the Royal Agricultural Society. The timber is naturally dried, and the oil subjected to a
pressure of seventy to eighty lb. per inch for three or four hours.^

The official agricultural returns show how steady has been the growth of arboriculture in this
county during the last quarter of a century. In 1 891 the woods of Lincolnshire, excepting recent
plantations, covered 39,490 acres ; the plantations of the last ten years occupied 1,342 acres, giving
the total for 1891 of 40,832. In 1895 the woods, excepting young plantations, covered 41,425
acres ; the plantations since 1881 had an area of 1,702 acres, bringing up the full total to 43,127.
A return of the woodlands was again made in 1905 on a better plan. Lincolnshire is entered as
having 4,779 acres of coppice ; 2,154 of plantations, and 37,242 of other woods, yielding a total
of 44,174 acres, or an increase of 1, 000 acres in the last decade.

' A new departure was made by the Royal Agricultural Society in 1904, when the annual exhibition
included the subject of British Forestry. — {Catalogue 6^t& Jnnual Exhibition, 267-73 ; Catalogue 66th Annual
Exhibition, 267-73).

' We desire to express our particular obligations to Mr. C. B. Hankey, Lord Yarborough's agent, and to
Mr. Havelock, the forester, for much information, of which the above is a brief abstract.

420

SCHOOLS

LINCOLNSHIRE is more thickly studded with ancient schools than perhaps any other
county, at all events with schools which can show indisputable documentary evidence
of their antiquity. Lincoln Grammar School, the ancient grammar school of the
^ city and of the cathedral church, can trace its history to the foundation of the church
in 1090, not without shrewd suspicion of an even earlier existence ; while there is
documentary evidence of the existence of no less than eleven other grammar schools in the county,
which in one shape or another still exist, before and in the first half of the fourteenth century,
while at the end of the thirteenth and the first half of the fourteenth century the county bid fair
to boast the presence of a university at Stamford, a place admirably fitted, by its central position on
the borders of three Midland counties, for the purpose.

LINCOLN GRAMMAR SCHOOL

There is no doubt that Lincoln Grammar School was part of the original foundation of the
cathedral church of the Blessed Mary of Lincoln, erected after the transfer, recorded in
the confirmation charter of Lincoln Cathedral by William Rufus in September, 1090,^ of the great
Mercian see, anciently placed inconveniently and out of the way at Dorchester in Oxfordshire.

There is no actual contemporary statement of the constitution of Lincoln Cathedral at
this date, nor until 12 14. But the sister church of Salisbury, established the year after Lincoln,
in 1091, has preserved (though only in a thirteenth-century copy) the original Institution of
St. Osmund, the first bishop,^ which sets out its constitution in a form which there is every reason
to believe is contemporary, and represents that of Lincoln also, witnessed as it is by Remigius,
bishop of Lincoln, and by ' Robert the chancellor,' who witnessed the Lincoln charter of the
previous year.

In the Institution of St. Osmund we find the four principal persons, Dean, Precentor (cantor),
Chancellor [cancellarius), and Treasurer {thesaurarius), who were to be always resident, and to
receive double commons. Of these the chancellor was to rule the school and correct the
books (in scolis regendis et in libris corrigendis). The chancellor, in other words, was the schoolmaster,
for scolas regere meant to teach school, as in the phrase of Regent masters at Oxford, which meant
the M.A.s, who actually lectured in the schools. Then comes another statement which is rather
obscure :

The subdean under the dean had the archdeaconry (i.e. the cure of souls) of the city and suburbs, and
the succentor under the precentor that which related to singing. If the dean is absent, the subdean
fills his place, and in like manner the succentor that of the precentor. The schoolmaster (archiscola)
ought to hear and determine lectures (lectiones) and keep the seal of the church, prepare letters and
deeds, and enter the readers on the table of the da/, and the precentor in like manner the singers.

* Archiscola ' has generally been regarded as a synonym for ' cancellarius,' but the context
would rather suggest that he was the chancellor's vice, or deputy, and bore the same relation to the
chancellor as the subdean and succentor did to the dean and precentor.

In fact, it would almost appear that the chancellor, who in the pre-conquest days at
York was called schoolmaster, because he at first taught school himself, had already in the develop-
ments of some four centuries devolved the duty of actually teaching the grammar school on the
archiscola. It must be admitted, however, that the mistake, if mistake it was, of identifying the
archiscola and the chancellor, was made very early.

When early in the thirteenth century Bricius ( ? Bryce), bishop of Moray, established a dean
and chapter at the new cathedral church at Spiney, otherwise Elgin Cathedral, the papal confirmation
of which was dated 1214, he laid down that they were to have all the privileges and immunities,

1 Chris. Wordsworth, Line. Cath. Stat. pt. ii (1897), i, from Registrum Antiquissimum, Line. Chap.
Mun. A. i, 5, III.

3 The best edition is in Wordsworth, p. 7. The use of the word ' Sarum,' and the mention of the
archiscola as the chancellor's deputy, give rise to considerable doubt whether we have in fact the institution
of St. Osmund in its original state.

421

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

d be subject to the customs, of the great church of Lincoln. The dean and chancellor of
oray were therefore sent to Lincoln to ascertain what these customs were, and a written copy

them, as dictated by the Lincoln chapter, was entered in the Moray register.^ But in a
ncoln MS. called Anthony Bek's Book, drawn up between 1315 and 1325, professedly copied
im an older entry in a Martyrology now lost, the passages about the chancellor and archhcola
3ve quoted from Salisbury occur ; only the word cancellarim is used where archhcola is at Salisbury.
I the change must have been made deliberately, it would therefore appear that at Lincoln, in the
rliest ages, the chancellor still taught school himself. A later and longer statement of Lincoln
stoms, which also appears in the Lincoln MS., was sent to Moray about the year 1236. In it
; find that the chancellor has definitely confined himself to the duty he always retained, here and

every cathedral, of himself teaching the theological school, while he exercised the powers of
tronage and supervision only over the grammar school. ' The office of the chancellor is to teach
; theological school {scolai theologie regere) and to preach personally, or by some one else of the
urch chosen by him, unless with assent of the dean and chapter he deputes the office to an out-
er.' A list follows of the principal feast days on which he is bound to preach in person.

Also he has to correct the lesson-books (Jibros kgendaruni) and rebind them after the first binding, also
to order and write on the table the readers and ministers of the altar, to hear the readers and
determine the lessons, to keep the chapter seal,' to compose the letters and deeds of the chapter, and
to read what has to be read in chapter, to keep the theological books of the church, and to keep
other books in like manner in the chest. To his dignity it belongs that no one is able to teach {legere)
in the city of Lincoln, except by his licence, and that he appoints (conferai) to all the schools in
Lincolnshire at his own will, except to those in prebends,

, on the possessions of other members of the chapter. An example of this exemption of schools

prebends occurs as early as 1309 at Strubby. Mr. Richard of Stretton, one of the canons who
s then provost or bailiff of the common chapter estates, to whom the presentation to the
immar school at Strubby belonged, expressly allowed the chapter to exercise the patronage, and
;y appointed one William, called Prior, of Orreby, to the teaching of the school there for a year
m Michaelmas, 1309.

In the same way as the chancellor managed the reading the precentor ruled the choir in
ging, and wrote the names of the singers on the table, ' and to him also belongs the instruction
i discipline of the boys, and their admission and governance in the choir,' and he looked after
; song books in the same way as the chancellor did the grammar and theological books and the
leral library.

The earliest actual mention of the schoolmaster as distinct from the chancellor at Lincoln is

3 November, 1246,' when a case in which Whitby Abbey was concerned was tried by the
incellor and schoolmaster (cancellar'tus et magister scolarum) of Lincoln as papal delegates. An
lally early but undated entry in the Lincoln Registrum Antiquissimum states that the schoolmaster
itributed i6j. yearly to the stipend of the clerk of the common fund. The earliest extant
:ount roll of that clerk, 1305-6,* shows the contribution duly paid per magistrum scolarum
let In.

In a copy of Lincoln customs in the Lincoln Black Book, written about 1300, the school-
ster heads the minor officers of the church, immediately below the canons, in an entry as to the
nission fees payable by a new canon ; who was bound to give td. for wine to every other canon,
the schoolmaster [magistro scolarum), the sacrist, the deputy of the treasurer, the succentor and the
ivost, the bailiiF or manager of the chapter's estates, and the person who celebrated for dead
bops at the altar of St. Peter.

On 7 February, 131 1, Bishop Dalderby' directed the chancellor to put down rival grammar
ools. He stated that hitherto it had been ordained that no grammar schools were to be held in

archdeaconry of Lincoln without special licence of the chancellor, but now some presumptuous
sons hold adulterine (i.e. unlicensed) grammar schools outside prebends {extra loca prebendalia) the
incellor is to threaten them with canonical censure unless they desist.

On 19 January, 1 32 1-2, 'in consequence of the devotion of men to the church and to the
Its of God growing cold, assisted by the adversity and pressure of the times daily increasing, the
:rings at the head and shrine of St. Hugh, and the tomb of St. Robert ' (i.e. Bishop Grosteste,
o however never received papal recognition as a saint) 'in Lincoln church, have been so
linished as to amount to a third of what they used to be,' and a new distribution was ordered of

8^. to any canon residentiary present at St. Hugh's translation, 13^. ^d. among the vicars
iral, 18^. among the choristers, 5^. to the sacrist, 'because he labours more than others'; is.
the clerk of the common fund, bd. to the chapter clerk, 5;. to the grammar schoolmaster

' Wilkins, Concilia, i, 534-7. ' Here follow provisions in detail as to the custody of the seal,

s Whitby Chartulary, No. 69, i, 249. * Bj. 2, 4.

* Reg. Dalderby, 214 </.

422

SCHOOLS

{magistro scolarum gramaticalium), is. to the song schoolmaster {magistro scolarum cantus), and bd. to
the succentor ; a rather striking testimony to the superior position of the grammar schoolmaster,
ranking next to the canons and far above the precentor's deputy, the song schoolmaster.

The first schoolmaster whose name is known is William of Wheatley, or de Frumenti lege, as
he called himself in Latin, some of whose works are preserved in an MS. volume at New College,
Oxford. 1 The chief part of the book consists of a commentary on Boethius's Consolation of
Philosophy, one of the favourite works of the Middle Ages, dedicated to, among others, Henry of
Manisfield (Mansfield), dean of Lincoln. At the end are two hymns of Wheatley's own
composition, addressed to St. Hugh of Lincoln, bishop. The efficient cause of the poem, he tells
us, ' is a certain young clerk, master of Lincoln Grammar School in the year 1 316, in which year
he composed these hymns for a play on Christmas Day, in which year there was great scarcity and
mortality among men and animals, intending to comfort himself and others in their misery.' The
'young clerk' was, as the context shows, himself. The hymns are not very poetical specimens of
the marvellous facility in rhyming Latin which the Middle Ages produced.

The next master we hear of is on 31 July, 1339, when the sub-dean and chapter conferred
the grammar school of Lincoln, which was vacant, and the collation of which belonged
to them by reason of the chancellorship being vacant and in their hands, on Mr. — (a blank not
filled in was left for the christian name) of Wythgift' (i.e. Whitgift) 'by present title, to hold the
same from Michaelmas next for three years.' The term of three years was presumably the
customary term for a grammar school mastership at Lincoln, as it was the statutory term at York.^
On Saturday before Michaelmas, 1351,^ the chapter granted the grammar school to John
Muscham, 'on this wise, that if a master of arts should come and ask for the school he should be
admitted, since by custom the teaching of the school belongs to an M.A.' The reason of this
appointment being made by the chapter and entered in their books is that it was a breach of the
law, and therefore beyond the power of the chancellor. The absence of a master of arts is no doubt
to be attributed to the Black Death, since at York we find that in 1368 * the chapter confirmed the
appointment of Mr. John of York, M.A., for life, or until he was beneficed, reciting that since the
past mortality, i.e. the recurrence of the Black Death in 1362, on account of the scarcity of masters
of arts, no such master having hitherto cared to undertake the office, they were obliged to give him
security of tenure to secure his services.

For the same reasons that we cannot trace any continuous history of the grammar school in the
chapter act books, we cannot trace any continuous history of the song school. We have seen
that the earliest statutes provided for it, as for the grammar school, but it and its master were in the
hands of the precentor and entered in his books, if anywhere. We only see it in the chapter books
when there is something abnormal. On Saturday after the Conversion of St. Paul, 1305,° all the
clerks of the parish churches of the city who were teaching boys in their churches song or music
were summoned before the chapter, and charged with keeping adulterine schools to the prejudice of the
mother church. They stoutly denied that they kept any such schools or taught boys singing, but,
as they could not deny that at some time they had done so, they were made to swear on the gospels
that they would for the future keep no adulterine schools in the churches, nor teach any boys music
except with the licence of the schoolmaster, i.e., of course, the song schoolmaster. A generation later the
precentor had apparently devolved his duty of appointing the song schoolmaster on his deputy the
succentor. On 13 June, 1332,* the chapter, which was represented by only two residentiaries,
after deliberation on the collation to be made of a fit person to the song school, vacant by the resig-
nation of Mr. Robert of Spalding, after calling before them John of Claypol, formerly a vicar in the
church, appointed him, ' the school being in their hands by reason of the vacancy in the succentor-
ship.' It is not till sixty years later that the song school appears again in the act books, 20 Feb-
ruary, 1394—5,' when John Austyn, chaplain, was summoned at the instance of Sir John Tetford,
master of the song or music school of the city of Lincoln, for that he held and kept with him for a
certain time a certain number of boys in the Exchequer of Lincoln, to learn singing, without and
against the will of John Tetford, and without his licence, to the prejudice of such school. Austyn
confessed, but said he had less than nine boys, with regard to whom he was willing to come to terms
with the aforesaid master. He was sworn for the future not to have or keep any boys to learn sing-
ing without the licence of the song schoolmaster. It is obvious that Austyn had set up a private
singing school, and so deprived the public song schoolmaster of possible pupils and fees. This is made
perfectly clear by a later entry of 14 June, 1408, when John Grymesby, a vicar choral,^ was summoned

' Coxa's Catalogue of Oxford College MSS. New College, No. 264.
' A. F. Leach, Early Yorkshire Schools, i, 13 {Torks. Arch. Soc. Rec. Ser. xxvii), lib.
' A. 2, 26, fol. I lb. * A. F. Leach, Early Torks. Schools, i, 23. ^ a. 2, 20, fol. 2.

' A. 2, 23. ' A. 2, 27 fol. 586.

' So it appears from a complaint by him to the chapter in 141 7 (A. 2, 30, fol. 65) that he could not get
his vifages from his canon Mr. Walter BuUok.

423

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

for not obeying a judicial decree {non paruit rei judicate) by which he had been condemned by way of
fine to pay Friar {Fratri) Walter Brayfest, master or deputy of the music school in the close, 2j. ^d.
for teaching three boys in the close against the orders, customs, and statutes of the church. He
swore to pay is. 8d. within eight days, the rest being remitted in reverence to Mr. John Kele,
canon, then present ; he being, no doubt, the prebendary of Grimsby's stall. But Grimsby had to
pay 2s. fine to the fabric for his contempt of the former order, the full penalty he had incurred being
13^.4^.

This entry brings out in the clearest way that schoolmastering was in the fourteenth century as
much as in the sixteenth or nineteenth century 'a gainful profession,' and that then as now the
masters looked to tuition fees for their support. But perhaps the most remarkable thing about the
last entry quoted is finding a friar appointed to the music school of the secular canons. The friars
seem at this time to have aimed at monopolizing the teaching profession. The monks at Canterbury
in the fourteenth century almost invariably had a Friar Doctor to lecture in theology. But it is
strange to find the chapter of Lincoln adopting the same practice. Yet on 14 January, 1390 —
the chancellor being non-resident, the pope having bestowed the chancellorship on an Italian cardinal
— the chancellor's theological school and preaching duties were committed by the chapter to a Car-
melite friar, Stephen of Patrington, D.D.

The chapter, who asserted the legal rights of the song schoolmaster against rivals, were them-
selves guilty of promoting the most severe form of competition, at first against the grammar school,
and ultimately against the song school as well. The occasion of this was the eternally vexed
question of the education of the choristers, whose ecclesiastical duties and study of singing and music
were incompatible with regular attendance at school, and with proficiency in the ordinary subjects of
school instruction. Very early the education of choristers had been found a difficulty at Lincoln.
In 1264 a separate boarding-house had been provided for them under an ordinance of Bishop
Richard Gravesend.' Before this the choir boys had lived on the charity of the canons, and were
apparently unlimited in number. He ordained that they should be twelve in number, of whom two
should be incense bearers [turrihularii) and should live together in one house under a master, and
certain property was assigned specially for their support.

The house so assigned is now the organist's, next door to the chancellor's, the chorister's master
having after some centuries succeeded in turning the boys out of their nest and annexing it to him-
self. On 22 February, 1 309, we find the chapter writing to Gilbert of Segrave, archdeacon of
Oxford, about lengthening the choristers' chamber, 'which is so small and confined that they cannot
be decently placed in it,' being built on one side up against the wall of Segrave's prebendal house.
The order of Bishop Gravesend took the admission of the choristers out of the hands of the pre-
centor and gave it to the dean and chapter as a body. They appointed a master to look after them,
and a canon as supervisor to look after him. Both these persons are called custos or magister chorh-
tarum in the chapter act books. In subsequent times no less than six if not seven different
officers receive this title ; the canon supervisor, the choristers' pedagogue, the choristers'
grammar master, the choristers' song master, and two organists, one in the choir and the
other 'in the chapel when the Lady Mass is sung'; these two last sometimes being identical
with the choristers' song master, sometimes not; while sometimes the choristers' grammar and
song schoolmaster were one person. Besides these was a steward {seneschallus) of the choristers'
house. Hence considerable confusion has arisen, which can scarcely be avoided even if the most
careful regard is paid to the qualifications attached to the title and the context.

Thus on 25 January, 1307-8,^ William of Segrave was admitted custos puerorum. One would
suppose that he was the canon overseer. But it is added that he was sworn to rake care [custodiet)
of them to the best of his ability, and to teach [informet) them well after the fashion of time past.
This shows that he was not the canon overseer, but the master who lived with the choristers.
On the other hand, when on 8 July, 1329, John of Scalleby (Schalby he is elsewhere called)
' freed himself wholly from the care of the choristers, saying he could not and would not any longer
have anything to do with it,' one would suppose that he was the choristers' master who lived with
them. But John of Schalby is a well-known canon of Lincoln who had for many years been
bishop's registrar, 1282-1299, ' became a canon in 1299, wrote a book on the bishops of Lincoln
which is a leading authority for Lincoln cathedral history, and died in 1333. It was probably old
age which made him desire to relinquish the not very onerous office of canon supervisor. But ' at
the supplication of the dean and chapter he re-accepted it.'

On 7 April, 1352,* Ralph of Ergham was appointed custos chorutarum, but he was not the
master, as it is stated in the preface to the appointment that the chapter considered the appointment
of a ' canonicum supervisorem et custodem communitatis choristarum.' So, too, when Richard

' Wordsworth, Line. Cath. Stat. 162, from Lincoln MS. A. 24. Statuta Choristarum, a chartulary of the
choristers' property.

' A. 2, 20, fol. \ob. ' Wordsworth, Line. Cath. Stat. \, p. Ixiii. * A. 2, 26 fol. 10b.

424

SCHOOLS

Ingoldesby was made magtster choristarum in 1437 he was not their master, but the canon super-
visor, being a canon residentiary.

The mention of the master appointed in 1307 teaching the choristers according to past custom
shows that already they were in the habit of receiving instruction from others than the master of
the public grammar school or the public song school. It is, of course, an entire mistake to suppose
that the grammar school was intended wholly or even mainly and primarily for the choristers, as is
expressly or tacitly assumed by most writers on schools, and on Lincoln School in particular.

At Lincoln disputes early arose with the grammar schoolmaster about the choristers, probably
in consequence of some question as to the fees to be paid, or perhaps as to difficulty of attendance.
Some education was required of the choristers before admission as such, since on 7 April, 1352,
when the precentor, Anthony of Goldesburgh, presented two choristers for admission, the chapter
answered that they would admit them only on being satisfied as to their fitness, and appointed
Thomas Malherbe, vice-chancellor, or as he is called here, sub-chancellor, and John Cole, succentor,
to examine them, and the examiners having examined them in singing before the chapter, reported
that they were fit. It is not, however, till nearly the end of the fourteenth century that any entry
occurs to show that the teaching which the choristers received from their master was anything more
than in the nature of private tuition to supplement what they received in the public school. Then
from the solemnity of the entry, and the act being done in the very unusual presence of the bishop,
it may be inferred that it was a new departure, which, from some antecedent and subsequent acts
relating to the public grammar school, may perhaps be inferred to have been in part due to the
neglect of the public schoolmaster.

On 16 September, 1386,^ the subdean and chapter 'made a grace' to Mr. Robert Bramley,
master of the grammar school, and granted that for two years next following he might teach
and govern by a substitute in his absence. The cause of absence is not stated, but probably
it was a pilgrimage to Rome'' or elsewhere. On 2 October, 1389,' i.e. in the chapter-house
in the presence of Bishop John [of Bukyngham], a debate arose between the chapter and
the precentor on the presentation of a pedagogue (petagogi) to teach the boys, choristers of the
church, in grammar and song, and also of the choristers themselves. At length the bishop,
with the consent of both parties, made a statute and ordinance, and declared that the precentor for
the time being had and ought to have the presentation both of the pedagogue and of the choristers,
saving the right of the chapter to examine and admit them. On 11 July, 1388, Bramley's leave
was extended for two years, and on 20 August, 1390,* he being then described as master of the
grammar school of the city of Lincoln [scolarum gramaticalium civitath Lincoln)^ his leave was ex-
tended for a year. The same day the chapter appointed Henry of Refham, undermaster and
secondary of the high school (' submagister et secundarius magnarum ' scolarum gramaticalium
Lincolnie ') during Mr. Robert's absence. Refham was, according to Mr. Maddison, a vicar
choral.

It must be something more than a coincidence that on the same 20 August the precentor
presented Mr. William Bannebury, also a vicar choral, ' to the office of pedagogue of the choristers,
to teach them in grammar.' There is no doubt some distinction implied in the use of the word
' pedagogue ' instead of ' master.' The position of the choristers' master was not yet regularized,
and he was still nominally only the person who looked after the choristers. On 23 September
following, however, the dean and chapter preferred [prefecerunt) Henry of Refham, chaplain, to be
master of the choristers (magistrum choristarum) of the church of Lincoln to teach them in grammar.
He had apparently till then held the undermastership of the high school, with a chantry, as on
I October a successor to him was admitted to the chantry of Anthony of Goldesburgh. Presumably,
Mr. Robert Bramley had then returned to his place as schoolmaster of the high school. During his
continuance in office no difficulty was raised. On 23 December, 1406, new masters, both of the
general grammar school of the city {scolas gramatkales generates civitatts Lincolnie) and of the grammar
school of the college of choristers [scolas gramaticales collegii choristarum), were appointed. The
former was Mr. John Bracebridge (Bracebrigg), M.A., who had in 1390 been appointed by the
chapter to the mastership of Boston Grammar School, so that he was a man of some scholastic experience
and standing, nominated by the chancellor Mr. John Huntman in right of his chancellorship. The

' A. 2, 28, fol. T.b.

^ Thus vifhen William of Wykeham contracted in 1373 virith Mr. Richard of Herton to be master of
his scholars at Winchester for ten years, ' the time for a single visit to Rome ' was excepted, during which
he was to find a sufficient substitute. It is noticeable that John of Bukyngham, then canon of York, was a
witness to this contract. So, too, on 15 December, 1389, as will be seen, the Lincoln chapter gave leave
of absence to the schoolmaster of the town of Stamford for a year for a journey across the sea, viz. to Rome
in the coming year of jubilee, if he left a fit instructor in his place.

' A. 2, 28, fol. zib. ■" A. 2, 28, fol. 32.

' ' High ' appears to be the correct translation, as magnus cancellarius means high chancellor ; whilst magnus
and altus chorus are used indifferently for the high choir at Lincoln.

2 425 54

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

latter was Thomas Prestcot, priest, who was presented by the precentor to be instructorem et
informatorem chorhtarum. This formal appointment of a choristers' schoolmaster as a rival to the
master of the ancient school evidently produced remonstrances, for after the Christmas holidays, on
8 January, 1406-7, the chapter ordered that the choristers and their commoners {commemalei)^o\3\A
go down to the general grammar school as had been customary in past times. A week later,
1 5 January, they agreed that the master of the choristers and their teacher {petagogus) might admit
commoners, and might teach relations and boys of the canons in the school [scolis) of the college
freely [lihere), but that boys from outside leaving the general school, whether they belonged to the
city or to the country round, he was on no account to admit or teach, but to remit and send them
to the general school, and the choristers and commoners were to go down to the general school
whenever the precentor and their teacher thought it expedient.

This ruling was, apparently, so far as admitting anyone but the choristers to the choristers'
grammar school, an innovation, and as such was resented by the city, by the grammar school-
master, and by the chancellor. On 12 February, 1406—7, a Chapter Act, headed 'ordinance of
the grammar school,' states that * after a treaty [tractatu) between the chancellor and the mayor
and citizens on one side, and the precentor and the dean and chapter on the other, as to
the government of the choristers' grammar school in the close, and on the admission and reception
as well of outside scholars and others, as of the choristers and commoners with them, in derogation
of the rights and regimen of the general grammar school of the city, on the complaint of Mr. John
Bracebridge (Bracebryg), the master, this and previous disputes were capitularly ended. The
pedagogues or teachers {petagogi seu informatores), or masters of the choristers, were to be at liberty
' to teach grammar to the commoners with them, also to the relations [consanguineos) of the canons
and vicars of the church, or those living at their expense and charity, or dwelling in their family,
on every day and time at which lessons are given, freely and quietly without opposition, on con-
dition that once in each of the Michaelmas, Christmas, and Easter terms, they are bound to go
down at the ordinary and accustomed hour to the general school under its own master, and at these
times to be under the teaching and chastisement of its master, unless of his own free will some
other arrangement is made.' But otherwise the masters of the choristers and others above named
were to be exempt from all punishment, demand [exaccione\ or payment of collection or salary
{collected seu salarii), and all other charges usual in such schools, and were privileged from the
obligation of attending the same general school of the church of Lincoln except on the three
occasions specified. But no others were to be admitted to the choristers' school. Everyone else,
whether living in chantries, or outside or inside the close, who wanted to learn, was bound to go
down to the general school, unless by voluntary arrangement of the chancellor and head master
[principalis magistri) of the school.

This is an extremely interesting document from many points of view. The way in which
the ancient school is spoken of alternately and indiscriminately as ' the school of the church ' and
' the school of the city,' the evidence afforded of the separation already existing between the dwellers
on the mountain and the plain, uphill and downhill, which still plays, or did till quite lately, no small
part in Lincoln politics, educational and other, and the rather remarkable fact that the chancellor's
school, the ancient cathedral school, was down in the city and not up in the close, strongly suggesting
that the school was older than the cathedral, and was there before Remigius built the cathedral on
the hill close to the Norman castle ; and the indisputable evidence that it was not a free grammar
school, but one in which the master was supported mainly by fees ; above all, the exceptional and
wholly irregular way in which the chapter, running counter to all ecclesiastical law and custom,
thus allowed a rival and competing school to their own ancient cathedral school — for of course the
ceremonial attendance of the choristers and canons' boys at the old school was the merest formality —
render this a most illuminating episode in the history of our ancient schools. It was clearly regarded
as a document of great importance in the educational history of Lincoln, since when Thomas
Grantham in 1480 began the Liber Albus of the city, containing its records and customs, he in-
serted it as a great find, with the heading ' composition between the chapter of the church and the
mayor and citizens of the city of Lincoln for the grammar school {scola gramaticali\ found by
Thomas Grantham.' Except that the appointment of the master remained with the chancellor of
the church, it seems to have had the effect of making the grammar school ' down town ' be regarded
as entirely the school of the city and its child,

Mr. John Bracebridge appears once more in the Chapter Act books in the assertion of his
rights as master of the grammar school. He was, it appears, also a vicar choral, being in fact, as
would appear from his resigning it on 17 August,^ 1420, the vicar of the stall of Langford Manor.

' This is the ' collections ' still prevalent at Oxford colleges — a college meeting at the end of term, at
which the undergraduates appear to receive judgement on the past term, in many colleges now preceded by an
examination. It seems to have been originally arranged for, and to have received its name from, the collection
of tuition fees. ' A. 2, 30, fol. 106.

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On lo August, 1409,^ he and the sacrist, the treasurer's deputy, Henry Burwasshe, obtained an
order from the chapter that they, though vicars choral, were in virtue of the offices they held
superior to all other vicars choral, and in processions and all other places where the choir was present
were to rank next the canons, the sacrist, Henry Burwasshe, next to them on the north or dean's
side, and Bracebridge ' the school-master of the city ' [magister scolarum civitatis) on the south side ;
and were not obliged to join the other vicars in the middle of the choir at the book in singing un-
less there were too few without them, nor to be put on the list for chanting invitatories, responses,
or verses.

In 1410^ Bishop Repingdon asserts that the master of the grammar school of Lincoln city is
allowed to wear a vicar choral's habit, although not a vicar, that he may be able more freely to
attend to the instruction of the boys in his school, and complains that the present master has been
made a vicar choral and neglects his duties as schoolmaster owing to the performance of his duties
as vicar. He directs that henceforth no master is to be appointed vicar, and that if so appointed
the appointment is to be null.

A curious point arose on the appointment on ii June, 1410, of an usher (w^/^nV) of the school,
apparently as no epithet is attached to the word scolarum, the great grammar school. John Willough-
by had resigned and the chapter appointed in his place William Chesterfield, a citizen of Lincoln.
It was objected that, according to an agreement with the city, if anyone holding property in the city
came to live in the close, and so would be exonerated from civic office as mayor or bailiff, he ought
not to be appointed. The difficulty was got over by adding to Chesterfield's oath of fidelity to the
church a clause that if he was elected to the mayoralty or other upper grade of office in the city he
would resign the ushership and serve the office.

We know no more about the school or its masters until the sixteenth century, when the
earliest city council books now extant begin at 1 5 1 1 . Then, as will be seen, there are copious
notices relating to the school. Till then, in the absence of documents, its history is a blank for the
whole intervening century. The chapter devoted their whole attention to the choristers' grammar
school, and not content with making it a rival to the ancient grammar school, of which the chancellor
v/as protector, also made it a rival to the ancient song-school of which the precentor was protector.

The usher is mentioned again at the obit of William Gray, bishop of Lincoln, celebrated in
crastino animarum, the day after All Souls Day, i.e. 3 November, 1435, when, in common with the
chapter clerk and the clerk of the common fund, he received 6d. for his presence.

It will have been noticed that in the compact of 1407 it was settled that except the choristers
and their commoners and the relations of the canons and vicars, everybody else even though ' living
in chantries ' or the close had to attend the high school. The reference to those living in chantries
opens up a rather remarkable educational institution annexed to the cathedral, the history of which
must be related before returning to the choristers' grammar school.

About half a century before, on 3 September, 1345,' Sir Bartholomew of Burghershe,* probably
carrying out a bequest of his brother. Bishop Henry of Burghershe, who had died some three years
previously, though, as usual in such cases, he does it in his own name, founded a chantry in Lincoln
cathedral of five priests to celebrate in St. Catherine's chapel on the north side of the choir, where
the bishop reposed, and reposes, in a magnificent tomb, with his father. Sir Robert of Burghershe, buried
humbly at his feet. The endowment consisted of a payment of ^^47 a year by the bailiffs of the
city of Lincoln, by way of rent charge, presumably in return for some cash payment made to them.
The five priests were to live together under a warden, in the house still known as Burghersh Chantry
on the north-east side of the close built for the purpose on the site of a prebendal house bought from
the chapter. A few years after the foundation, the chapter finding that the payments directed by
the founder left a surplus of ;^io a year, after all expenses of the chaplains had been paid, made an
'ordinance of children ' [puerorum) 16 February, 1348-9, which added to the foundation the board-
ing-house in question. Six boys were to be maintained on the said jTio and taught grammar (in
gramaticalibus instruendi). On admission a boy was to have completed his seventh year i.e. was
eight years old ' or thereabouts,' and to be ' in need of being there placed, knowing at least his
Donatus and fairly to sing (qui adminus sciat suum Donatum et probabiliter sciat cantare).' Those
were to be chosen of whom there was real hope of progress (de quibus sit verisimilis spes profectus).
They were to remain for eight years and not beyond, being removed when they had completed their
fifteenth year, i.e. when they became sixteen years old, or earlier if they contracted any incurable
disease, or mental infirmity which gave no hopes of their being promoted to the priesthood.
They were to be boarded and lodged in the chantry house, being given maintenance suitable to

' A. 2, 30, fol. 153.

' Reg. Repingdon, fol. 46 d. ' ut liberius informacioni puerorum in scolis suis insistere valeat.'
^ Liber de Ordinacionibus Cantariarum, A. i, p. 334.

* The family belonged to Burwash in Sussex. The proper pronunciation of this chantry as ' Burrows'
chantry ' was preserved as late as 1607. Wordsworth, Line. Cath. Stat. 642.

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A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

;ir age, while 301. a year was assigned to provide them winter tunics and hoods at Christmas, and
rts if the sum named ran to it, the poorest having the preference for the shirts. In hall they were
sit at the second or at the third table, as the scarcity or plenty of visitors allowed. They had a
larate chamber to sleep in. Every whole school-day they were to attend the grammar school,
ng and coming back together. On feast days they were to attend the parish church at mattins,
•ss, and vespers, if not able to be present at more, singing the psalms and reading (sc. the lessons)
dlowed. At vespers in the chapel in the chantry house they were to say De Profundis, the Lord's
lyer, and the Salutation of the Virgin, with a special prayer for the souls of the bishop and founder,
ch of them in turn for a week was to read to the chaplains at meals. The canon who was
Dointed overseer of the chantry was to look after them and see that they were properly treated and

have the appointment of them, and was never to appoint any of his own relations or friends,
leir keep was apparently estimated to cost ^^i 6s. a year each, or 6d. a week, an estimated surplus
14X. being directed to be applied for their general benefit.

This foundation was not indeed the first of its kind, for the grammar school boys at Marten
illege, 1264, and Queen's College, 1334, Oxford, were both earlier, as was also the boarding
use at St. John's Hospital, Exeter, founded in 1332^ for boys attending the high school there,
t it was among the earliest. Its special interest lies in the fact that William of Wykeham's chief
rical preferment before he became bishop of Winchester was that of archdeacon of Lincoln, and
s Burghershe chantry may safely be reckoned * as one of the institutions which served him as
)dels in developing his magnificent foundation of Winchester College, out of which grew the
lole system of the ' Great Public Schools.' The requirement that Winchester scholars before
nission should know their Donatus, i.e. the elementary grammar of Aelius Donatus, which went as far
the accidence, is repeated in the statutes of Winchester, as is the Bible clerk, the boy who was
course for a week to read to the fellows at dinner.

To anticipate a little the order of date, we may here say that the Burghershe chantry seems

have been an unqualified success. For, some forty years later, Bishop John of Bukyngham
tnded on his own account a chantry of two chantry priests and two ' clerks,' as he, like Wykeham,
Is his school-boys, building for them chambers over and round the entrance-gateway of the Bur-
srshe chantry. In his foundation deed, 7 March, 1387—8,' he says that as he 'saw clearly that
: Burghersch {sic) chantry was and is well founded for the increase of divine worship, and settled

wise, useful and honourable statutes, so that the fruit of good works had grown by means of its
nisters and fellows, who were everywhere commended for their remarkable virtues and conduct,'
directed his own chantry priests and clerks to live with those of Burghershe, to wear the same dressi

1 follow their example. His two boys or clerks {c/erici), who were, like the Burghershe boys, to be
;r seven and under sixteen, were to be taught grammar and song {gramaticalibus et cantu instru-
'ur), and to be subject to the same regulations as the Burghershe boys, except that they were to
ly for Bukyngham instead of Burghershe.

These two institutions for exhibitioners at the grammar school were duly kept up. In the
/or Ecclestasticus* of 1535, the chantry priests of Burghershe chantry claimed that in arriving at
: net sum on which they were to pay tenths, they should be allowed ' in yearly alms for six poor
■fs living there according to the foundation, ^^12 "js. /^d.,' though it is said that the expense,
imunibus annis, was only ;^io 45. The one chantry priest of Bukyngham's chantry claimed a
lilar allowance of 37^. 5^. for one poor boy there. It would appear doubtful whether the boys
:n attended the grammar school, as an abatement of ^i a year is also claimed ' for one poor person
tructing the said boys,' but this may only mean a sum paid for private tuition ; for, in the
ich fuller statement of the endowment given in the chantry certificate ^ of 1548, the Burghershe
intry is said to be, inter alia, ' for six poor boys professing the art of grammar, to be kept at school
m seven years to sixteen,' ^^lo being paid 'for their commons and liveries,' while the Bukyngham
intry * was for two poor boys to be kept at the grammar school. This certificate explains
It the two chantry priests and two grammar boys had been reduced to one because the
tory of Lilford (Korthants), which formed the main part of the endowment, originally let
£ii>, was now let at ^^8 only, and so some forty years before one of the chaplains and

2 of the boys were extinguished. We can fix the exact date when this reduction took place
m the Chapter Act books ; for, on 31 May, 1489, on account of the chantry priests paying
o-tenths to the king and other exceptional burdens, the chapter granted that one of the boys might

dropped so long as John Dene's son was not the boy excluded. The commissioners for con-
uing the payments for schools and poor under the Chantries Act, reciting that ;^io 'hathe been

' Reg. Grandisson, ii, 666.

' See chapter on 'Wykeham's Models,' in A. F. Leach, Hist, of Winch. CoU. (1899) ; ' Schools,' V.C.E.
nls, ii.
' Liber de Ordinacionibus Cantariarum, fol. 391. * Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 26.

' A. F. Leach, Engl. Schools at the Refirmation, 128, from Chan. Cert. 33, No. "ja.

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SCHOOLS

contynually paide to the fynding of six children at the grammar scole out of the revenues ' of
Burghershe chantry, ' and that Christopher Hunt ' and five others named, ' beyng scolers, do nowe
enjoye the same, and that 33^. 41s?. hatha been yerely given to the fyndyng of a poore childe to the
grammer scole out of the revenues' of Buckingham chantry, 'and that Christofer Large, beyng a
scolar, nowe doth enjoye the same,' directed that these payments should be continued.

Hence we find in the accounts of the Receiver General of the Court of Augmentation these
payments duly made in 1548-9.^ They continued to be paid out of the crown lands and are
still paid to the dean and chapter. Instead, however, of the income being paid to the grammar
school, it is paid to a chorister, though it is quite certain that these boys were not and were never
intended to be choristers.

There were other exhibition endowments for boys at the grammar school, the origin of which
I have not found. Another ' continuance warrant,' addressed by the same commissioners to the
chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, found that 'certaine poore scollers att the grammer scole
in the cathedrall churche of Lincolne have had heretofore yearly out of diverse obits found ther
4.0s. I od. towards the maintenance of theire living, and that the same poore scollers have heretofore
had out of the obytt of John Hymwell,' which is a mistake for Gynwell, bishop 1358-68,
' £4 y. 4^.' This document clearly shows us that the grammar scholars were not choristers, nor the
choristers the same as the grammar scholars. For it goes on with a finding ' that the choristers
have had heretofore yearly out of the said obytts 36^. 8^.' The choristers also had 12s. 'towards
their living out of the possessions of late Bishop Smith's(i495— 1541) chantry,' and the ' scolemaster
of the said choristers ' 26;. Bd. from the same, all which payments were ordered to be continued out
of the revenues of the duchy of Lancaster. Accordingly there was separately paid to the chapter
half-yearly ijs. lod. for poor scholars and i6i. ^.d. for choristers. These payments are still made
by the duchy. But not only the choristers' payments but the payments for grammar scholars are
(wrongly) applied to the choristers.

Another class of persons at Lincoln of whom there is frequent mention in connexion with the
grammar school, and whose endowments were practically educational, were the poor clerks [pauperes
clerici) or clerks of the second form [clerici secunde forme) as they are sometimes called, the first form
being occupied by the choristers, and the third or highest form [superiori gradu) by the canons and
priest-vicars. The main duty of these poor clerks seems to have been to take care of the various
altars in the church, each being assigned to one, and assist the chantry priests ministering at these
altars, and to ring the bell for 'first peal' at 5 a.m. They were originally 13, but one of them,
the keeper of St. Mary Magdalen's altar, became the chaplain of the church of that name which was
built in lieu of it, a parish church outside the close, by Oliver Sutton.^ The keeper of St. Peter's
altar, at which were celebrated the obits of the bishops, the representatives of St. Peter, became a
very august individual, his chief duty being nominally to act as the legal assessor of the chapter, and
in fact to sit alone as their stipendiary magistrate, with the title of auditor causarum. He was
generally promoted to a canonry.'

The other ' poor clerks of the choir who serve the altars,' eleven in number, were by statute
made in August, 1293,* 'for their good name and evidence of good conduct' directed to live to-
gether in a mansion given to them by Mr. Geoffrey Pollard, and ' not scattered about singly as has
hitherto been the indecent custom.' Whether the end was altogether attained seems rather doubtful
as their conduct is frequently the subject of severe animadversion by the chapter. On one occasion
they kept a young woman in their house all night, and even as late as 1526, when Bishop Langland
revised their statutes,^ his revisions were largely taken up with prohibitions against dicing and card-
playing, quarrels and giving women passes or introducing them into their house, and frequenting
taverns of ill-fame outside. It appears from the chapter act books that the age of these clerks
was from 18 to 24, at which age they were required to be ordained to holy orders. Their
ecclesiastical duties apparently occupied a very small part of the day, and the rest of their time was
expected to be devoted to learning and study, in preparation for orders. A constant struggle went
on between the deans and the chapters as to whether the right of appointment to the office of a poor
clerk belonged to the dean alone or to the dean and chapter. After it had been supposed to be
settled in 1321 it broke out again a century later in a tremendous fight between Dean Macworth
and the chapter, in the course of which the dean's men assaulted the chancellor, Peter Partridge, on
his way back from church, dragged him by the hair, though he was in his vestments, through the
close, beat him and left him half dead. On 19 October, 1415,* this dean by letter presented
Richard Ireton to the office of a poor clerk and the keepership of St. Michael's altar. The chapter

' P.R.O. Ministers' Accts. 2-3 Edw. VI, No. 90.

' Wordsworth, Line. Cath. Stat. Ixix, from Reg. Jntiquissimum. ' Black Book, 325-30, 34.7.

'A contemporary list of the altars is given in the Reg. Antiquissimum, io\. ziib ; Wordsworth, Line.
Cath. Stat. Ixx.

' Wordsworth, Line. Cath. Stat, ii, 559. ' A. 2, 30, fol. 40^.

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A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

asked Ireton whether he had been personally examined in Latin {litteratura) and singing according
to the custom of the church. He answered No, but he had been sufficiently examined by the dean
and was not prepared to be examined a second time. So the president and chapter considering the
boyish appearance [staturam puerilem) of the said Richard, his mean learning {modicum erudkionem)
because by his own admission he was only learning Donatus ^ at school (' qui Donatum ut dixit in
scolis audiebat'), postponed his admission, not thinking him fit.

On 23 February, 1436-7, the whole of the poor clerks were warned by the subdean and

chapter in the person of their provost, Nicholas Bakewcll (Baukwell), to go to the public school and

learn effectively, on pain of the loss of their commons and the whole benefit which they received

from the common fund of the church. Moreover, no one was to presume to teach them [informare)

in private places, such as their own rooms {propriis cameris). Apparently they proved disobedient,

as on 12 April following one of the vicars-choral was appointed 'Overseer of the Poor Clerks' to

look after their teaching and government {regimen et gubernacionem), particularly in singing and

reading in the church, and further that they learn and attend school regularly ('addiscant et scolas

adeant et frequentent ') and to report to the chapter, ' so that those who make no progress may be

removed.' On 28 September, 1448, the dean being under excommunication by the chapter, one

John Lofts was admitted as poor clerk and keeper of St. Michael's altar, on condition of better

learning grammar and singing and 'more diligently attending the grammar as well as the song

school ('quod diligentius vacet scolistam in gramatica quam in cantu') on pain of expulsion. Again

on 31 December, 1463, Dean Fleming presented William Stryngar to the office of poor clerk and

keeper of St. Andrew's altar, after he had been duly examined in singing and reading, and he was

warned that every weekday at the proper hour after his office in the church was duly fulfilled he

was effectively to attend the grammar school and the song school on pain of deprivation. On

17 June, 1477,^ Richard Husbandman, a poor clerk, who had been put in prison by the city bailiffs

for misconduct with Miles Anderton's wife, was suspended from office. At the same time all the

poor clerks, ' because they had long failed to attend the grammar school in the choristers' house, and

had threatened the schoolmaster and often abused him,' were publicly suspended unless they attended

properly. The position of master seems to have grown somewhat perilous, for on 22 September,

1488, 'one James, the choristers' cook,' was sent to the Wynd Prison for a week-end for drawing

a dagger on the grammar schoolmaster. On 7 November the same year the poor clerks were

admonished to abstain from playing at dice or cards, at all events for money, and to attend school

better. As a month or two later John Davy, the song schoolmaster of the choristers' house, and

Christopher Digles, the grammar schoolmaster, were found at the visitation to have been negligent

in teaching the boys going to their schools, the fault was, perhaps, not solely in the poor clerks. On

26 January, 1492-3, an examination of the poor clerks was held, at which ten appeared, and their ,

ages on the following Lady Day, ranging from 23 to 19, are given. They were all warned

to frequent the grammar school or the song school daily, and to do their duty at the services

and to stop walking about the church and talking during service on pain of deprivation. On

29 June following three of them were called before the chapter for not doing their duty at service

time, but playing tennis and not attending school, and were threatened as usual and ordered to tell

their colleagues that they would incur the same penalty. The fact was that it was rather absurd

to make these young men of university age attend the grammar school, especially as in later years

it would appear that they attended not the public school but the school of the choristers.

Eleven years later, 27 January, 1503-4, when a new poor clerk was admitted he was specially

made to swear to attend the grammar school. On 1 8 June following the whole of them were

summoned for not attending the grammar school, and four days later the dean ' removed from the

habit ' all but the four juniors, but at the request of the treasurer and Canon Grantham he

readmitted those deprived on condition, ' etc' The chapter clerk must have smiled as he

penned this 'etc.,' knowing well that the fulmen was always brutum and merely a form

of words. On 18 August, 1520, 'for the second time,' three of them were warned to

attend school better. The entry is noticeable as being the first time in the chapter act books

that the school is in the singular {melius vacent scale gramaticali). A generation later again,

13 November, 1547, the poor clerks were directed 'for the future diligently and studiously

to attend the grammar school {scolam gramaticalem) according to the . . . injunctions of the

Royal Commissioners given at the king's visitation,' which had been issued in September, 1547.

No copy of them is preserved at Lincoln. They were sent in almost identical terms to other

cathedrals ; ' but as there were not poor clerks in most cathedrals the precise article referred to is

not ascertainable.

' Donatus, as we saw, was ' the accidence,' a knowledge of which was required of the Burghershe and
Buckingham boys on admission at the age of seven.
'A. z, 38, fol. 67.
' Wordsworth, Line. Cath. Stat. 579 ; and Kitchin, Winch. Cath. Doc. (Hants Rec. See. 1889), 179-88

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SCHOOLS

Further injunctions were, however, issued 24 April, 1548,^ article 22 of which provides that
' the Chapter shall fynde such choristers as have serveyd in the sayde church fyve yeres or more
and have their voices chaungeyd, at some Grammer Scoole, and gyve them yerely £2 ^^- ^^- °^ "-^^
revenues of the common lands for the space of fyve yeres. And yf yt shall pleas the Deane, to
conferre and admyt any such choristers into a roome of any of the pore clerkshippys then they shall
for as moche as any of ther porcions shall be less than 5 marks, they to make it up to the somme of

5 marks {£^ 6s. Sd.) of their commen lands. And if any other of the sayd choristers or pore clerks
be proveyd by the Scolemaister there to be unmeyt to learne or negligente, and suche as wyl not
diligently to applye themselves to learnyng, then the sayd Deane and Chapiter to be dischargyd of
the fundyng of them untyl they shall have other that be metir.'

The chantries were all suppressed in 1548, and the purpose of the poor clerks therefore ceased,
and it is rather strange that the Royal Commissioners did not abolish them too. But they re-
mained, though they had now nothing to do, except to swell the number of those attending services.
On 20 August, 1555, Thomas Flower, succentor, gave to Gervase Fishborne, poor clerk, 6s. 8d.
and my ' Ortus vocabulorum with all my gramer bokes.' In 1556, however, the bishop,
John White, promoted from the wardenship of Winchester, where he had been from 1535^° '541
a very successful head master, and a person keenly interested in education, seems to have
endeavoured to make the institution of poor clerks of some use by converting their house into
a boarding house for thirty boys, an institution which if maintained might have made Lincoln, like
Westminster with its forty scholars, one of the great public schools.^

On 20 June, 1556,' the bishop in person attended the chapter, and held an admission of
the first ' clerks or scholars of the New College or School of Thirty Poor Clerks (' clericorum
sive scolarium Novi Collegii sive Schole xxxta pauperum clericorum '). Eleven were admitted,
the youngest, Christopher Digles, being 15 years old, three were 16, three were 17, and
the rest 18, 19, and 20 respectively. One came from Yorkshire, one from Leicestershire,
one from Nottinghamshire ; the rest were from Lincoln city or county. So that it seems to
have been intended to be a veritable ' non-local ' public school. At the same time the chapter
admitted two other poor clerks on the old foundation, while provision was made reserving
to four others of the 30 poor clerks of the newly created college, when they left, certain
emoluments called ' " Two Stewardryes," being twenty weeks' pay, due to them by the ancient
custom of the " old house of Poor Clerks," ' which they did not receive at their admission, the
custom having been to deduct twenty weeks' commons on admission and give it to them on
leaving. This custom itself was declared to be abolished. After the bishop had left the chapter,
two more ' clerks in the New College,' one from Louth and the other from Nottinghamshire, both
aged seventeen, were admitted. On 19 May, 1557,* Thomas Gilby, clerk, of Saltfleet, gave by
will ' To the newe college towardes the maintening of the poor clarkes thereof 5;.' On

6 November, 1557, two more 'scholars of the New College,' Thomas Williamson of Dunham-
on-Trent (Notts), aged 15, and Richard Burges of Shrewsbury, aged 20, were admitted, and
' swore obedience to the Bishop and Dean and Chapter " according to the statutes of the newly-
created college." ' William Graves of Bakewell, Derbyshire, aged 20, was admitted on
16 April, specially on condition of behaving himself properly to the dean and chapter, 'and that
he will frequent the Grammar School {Scolam Gramaticalem) and attend to his books with all his
diligence.' Admissions are recorded up to I November, 1558 ; while on 8 October Jerome Loveday,
whose rights were reserved in 1556, was admitted a junior vicar-choral. It is not quite clear
whether the new college was kept up after this. No mention is made of ' the College ' afterwards.
On 19 September, 1559, we relapse to the usual warning to the poor clerks to attend school
{incumbere scolae) and ring the day bell at 5 a.m. as usual. But as late as Trinity Sunday,
1569, one Robert Eystor was admitted to 'the number of clerks or scholars' of the said church.
On II April, 1579, the emoluments of a poor clerk were granted by the chapter to one
John Hudleston, a poor clerk, while residing at Oxford or Cambridge, as if he was present at
Lincoln, in ' consideration of his skill in grammar as well as music and through pity for his poverty.'
Apparently this was resented by the rest, as on 23 September, 1581, the poor clerks were warned
to pay John Hudleston, 'one of the poor clerks living in Oxford Academy,' his salary according to
the former grant. Oddly enough, another copy of these same chapter acts substitutes Cambridge
for Oxford.

There was an even higher and older class who were frequently being told by the chapter to
attend the grammar school. This was the vicars-choral, the deputies or vicars of the canons

'Wordsworth, Line. Cath. Stat. 583, from A. 3, 6, fol. 388. Unfortunately, Canon Wordsworth has
omitted from his printed copy a whole line in the middle of the second clause of the article.

' Unfortunately the instrument under which this was done is not to be found either in the episcopal or
chapter records. The latter, however, show the foundation at work.

'A. 3, 5, fol. 412. * A. R. Maddison, Line. Wills, 55 ; James Williamson, Line. 1888.

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A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

in their choir duties of singing and performing the services. They occupied the upper row
{superiort gradu) in their masters' absence, but normally the second row [secunda forma), second that
is from below, above the choristers and other youths, not as Mr. Maddison seems to suppose,^
second from above, though as there were only three forms it was also that. The vicars-choral were
divided into senior and junior vicars. At first, probably, the distinction was merely one of standing,
but when Bishop Oliver Sutton, at the end of the thirteenth century, provided a house for them
to live together — the ' Bownegarth ' at the east end of his own garden — the senior vicars, some
twelve to fifteen in number, who lived there were priests-vicars, the others were deacons and sub-
deacons, the latter being, of course, in the Roman Church, also in 'holy' orders. It was not
until 1328 ^ that the junior vicars were granted by the chapter a piece of land on which to build a
common house at the east of the senior vicars' house, enlarged about 1390 by Bishop Bukyngham.

These junior vicars were often recruited from the poor clerks, though it was not uncommon for
a chorister to be made a vicar straight away. As early as 1236 ' the Statuta Vicariorum provided
that every new vicar should be examined whether he knows how to read and to sing ; and if he
knew both reasonably [probabiliter) he should be admitted on probation for a year, that in the
meantime he might learn the antiphons and hymns, and if at the end of a year he knew them
without book, next year he should be set to learn the psalter in the same way, and if he knew
both reasonably should be admitted, and if not, rejected. As reading meant reading the lessons in
Latin, a knowledge of Latin was implied. The admission examination was conducted by the
vice-chancellor in reading and by the succentor in singing. This we learn on the admission,
13 April, 1439,* of John Ingleton, described as 'organista' and as a junior vicar, viz. of the second
form, who is stated to have been so examined ' according to the form used in the church of
Lincoln.' He swore to * excuse ' his master, who was Thomas Kempe, afterwards archbishop
of Canterbury, from all ' hours by night as well as by day,' and to know his histories {ad sciendum
historias suas). On 6 February, 1404, the chapter had ordered the vice-chancellor and succentor
to examine all the vicars-choral as to ' historias totius anni.' The ' histories ' which they were
required by statute as early as 1236 ° to know by heart and sing without book were the responds and
verses which followed the lessons, taken on Sundays from the historical books of the Old Testament
and on saints' days from the stories or legends of saints. Originally, no doubt, the ' histories ' were
the lessons or legends (the words at first were the same) themselves, but the name had been transferred
to the responses at the end, and the various histories were known by their first words, ' Deus omnium,'
and the like. A similar order was repeated, 21 May, 1450, to all the vicars, ' to know their histories
without book according to the ancient custom,' and they were ordered to say them at fitting times
of the year to the succentor and the vice-chancellor, who were to report to the chapter.

But they were also required to acquire real learning. On 20 December, 1432, William Wode
newly admitted a junior vicar, was ordered 'to learn his grammar so that he might be fit to take orders
at Easter, or otherwise to provide himself with service elsewhere than in the church of Lincoln.'
In 1452-3 Richard Byrksland, alias Chapman, late a chorister, was admitted a vicar-choral of the
prebendal stall of Merston, and it was enjoined on him that he should for a whole year from that
day go to the grammar school and attend it regularly and sedulously and diligently learn on pain of
deprivation. At the end of the year he was to come back and be examined and formally admitted
if fit. So on 13 October, 1459, Thomas Stokeley, a junior vicar and an acolyte, was warned once,
twice, and thrice to abstain from the society of ribalds {rihaldorum) and women of bad character in
the town, and to attend the grammar school {melius vacet sco/is gramaticalihus) better for the future,
with a threat that on the next complaint he would be removed. Attendance at the song school
was also required, as on 10 January, 1482-3, a vicar-choral was admitted 'if he is sufficiently
instructed in playnsong, pryksong, discant, and faburdon.' On I2 November, 1491, Hamo Thwyng,
who had been a poor clerk, was admitted a vicar-choral, but ' as he was not perfectly instructed in
song and grammar he was sworn to use his diligence to learn the organ and discant, and grammar,
within the year following.' On 25 March, 1524-5, a vicar of the first form, William Freman,
was himself admitted song master or instructor of the choristers.

On 20 May, 1542, three of the junior vicars, who, 'contrary to custom, had their chambers
in taverns and other houses of laymen in the close and outside,' were ordered to sit at table for their

iison.'

' Short Account of the Ficars-Ckoral,Poor Clerks, Organiits,and Choristers of Lincoln Cathedral, cited as 'MaddisL
London, 1878, by A. R. Maddison, Priest- Vicar, p. 27. The first form, as already stated, was the lowest.

' Maddison, op. cit. 8.

' Wordsworth, Line. Cath. Stat. 145. * A. 2, 33, fol. 7^.

' Proctor and Wordsworth, Breviarium ad usum Sarum. mcc. ' Sciendum autem quod haec predicta
Historia, " Deus omnium " semper dicatur usque ad primam Dominicam post Kalendas Augustii ... in prima
Dominica post Kal. Aug. semper inchoetur Historia " In principio," ' and so on. The respond on beginning to
read the Book of Kings on First Sunday after Trinity was ' God is the hearer of all, he sent his angel and
toolc me from my father's sheep,' a sort of musical dramatizing of the story of David.

432

SCHOOLS

commons either in the vicars' house, the choristers' house, the fabric chantry-house, or that of
Burghershe or Cantilupe chantry, and to frequent the grammar school at proper times and not
' wander round hither and thither as they now did ' ; while six poor clerks were warned at the same
time. So a vicar ' of the second form,' William Smythe, on 14 November, 1545, was brought up
before the chapter ' for not staying at nights in the vicars' house, but in laymen's houses outside the
close, and being very remiss in getting up for mattins and reading the holy Scriptures and attending
the grammar school as he is bound.' He confessed his fault and promised reform. In the injunc-
tions delivered by Queen Elizabeth's commissioners for Lincoln Cathedral, September, 1559'
article 2 ran : ' Item, that your petye canons,' as they were now for the first time called, ' shall
dailye, all such as be not maryed, and not hable of themselves to studye Goddes worde, at vacant
houres aforenone and afternone (the servyse tyme onlye excepted) resorte unto the gramer scole and
there learne suche thinges as they may thereby afterwards be the more able to serve God.' After
this we hear no more of forcing the vicars to attend the school.

About this time ^ they were reduced in number from twenty-five or more to twelve. The
junior vicars disappeared, and only the priests, now mostly married men, who lived cleanly and
soberly, remained. They did not require the antidote of attendance at school to provide them with
occupation and keep them out of mischief.

It does not appear whether the school which the junior vicars, and latterly the poor clerks, were
supposed to attend was the high school or the choristers' school. If the latter, the master of it
must have had a curious mixed team to drive, ranging from 7 years to 30 or thereabouts,
and the time-table must have been a little difficult as well as the discipline. The difficulty must
have been enhanced by the fact that the masters were usually drawn from the ranks of the vicars
themselves.

We can with more or less completeness trace the succession of the masters of the choristers'
grammar school and also of the masters of the choristers' song school, which was soon afterwards
set up as a separate institution, though sometimes one master was appointed for both.

In June, 1410, the bishop^ ordered that the choristers were to speak Latin and not English
among themselves in church and in the close, and not to make a noise round the altar, and to treat
their seniors kindly and honourably. They are not to go out of their house without leave ; are all
to sleep in their dormitories, and their master is to treat them like gentlemen [honeste), and to clothe
them and feed them according to his means, and the food is to be good.

In September, 141 5,' the will of Robert Walker, schoolmaster of the choristers {magistri
scolarum choristerum), was proved in chapter. He was apparently succeeded by Thomas Maupas,
since on 21 September, 1427, John Swaton, chaplain, was admitted by the chapter on the resigna-
tion of Thomas Maupas, last master and keeper, to the rule (? teaching) and keeping {regimen et
custodiam) of the choristers ; and he is sworn to govern them and their college churches and
stewardship {iconomiam) in temporals and spirituals. It must be allowed that this looks more like
the appointment of a steward of the choristers' house than their schoolmaster. In fact, if the
appointee had been a canon one would have supposed this to be an appointment of the canon
overseer. On 21 May, 1429, John Retford, clerk, 'master or teacher of the vicars and choristers
in song {cantu),' asked permission to resign his office for the service of the noble lord Sir Henry
Percy, earl of Northumberland. Here then the choristers' song schoolmaster appears separate
from the grammar schoolmaster. But in consequence probably of Retford's absence being only
temporary, on 11 August, 143 1, William Frankys,* chaplain, was, on the presentation of the
precentor, admitted ' to the school of song and grammar in the close of the church of Lincoln
especially to teach the choristers their song and grammar.'

On 20 December, 1432,^ John Tenelby, a canon, was appointed supervisor choristarum and
magister regiminis, while the same day John Dawson was appointed steward [seneschallus) of the
choristers with the same fee as ' Sir Makyns ' had and a chantry lately held by Rowston.

By 26 June, 1434,* John Retford, the ' master of the choristers' Song School,' had returned
from the service of the earl of Northumberland, as he was on that day excused by the chapter
from getting up to midnight mattins and from attending choir on weekdays that he might more
easily find time for teaching the boys singing, which the chapter regarded as a meritorious work
for which he was necessary. What happened to Frankys's appointment as grammar and song
master does not transpire, but as he is found on 4 February, 1435-6,' as 'Clerk of Re and Ve,' a
mysterious title which is short for ' recessit ' and ' venit ' because his duty was to record the goings
and comings of the canons, so as to see that their residence was properly kept and that they only
received their share of daily distributions and obits and the like, he had been relieved of his teachins
functions.

' Maddison, op. cit. 47. ^ Reg. Repingdon, fol. 46^. ' A. 2, 30, fol. 39.

' A. 2. 32, fol. 59. His name has been misread as Faukes, Fawkes and Foukys.

" Ibid. fol. S^b. ' Ibid. fol. 94. ' Ibid. fol. 114.

2 433 55

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

On 12 January, 1436-7,^ the chapter consolidated two chantries, that of William Ulph,
otherwise Wolf, a former canon, which had sunk in value to only £1 a. year, and Stretton's
chantry worth five marks, in the hands of Thomas Farford, and at the same time declared that no
one should teach boys, youths, or old men reading, song, or grammar, or any liberal scierice, m
any private place in the close ; but there should be for the future one school for all, kept in the
choristers' inn {hospitium) for reading and song, and one pedagogue or teacher for it, receivmg m
respect of the choristers i6j. 8i. a year from the choristers' house, and from others such fittmg
amount as is customary ; and Farford took this duty on himself, the precentor promising him a
dividend of 40^. But nevertheless there would be as usual another pedagogue to teach grammar
provided at the expense of the choristers.

This was expressly said to be without prejudice to the agreement made about keeping the
schools in the city and in the close. Thomas Farford was still in office on 5 October, 1448,
when as ' instructor of the singing ^ of the choristers ' he assisted the succentor in examining a
chorister on admission.

Meanwhile, on 18 August, 1440, ' John Broune had been admitted pedagogue or master of
the choristers in grammar. There is no further mention of the choristers' grammar schoolmaster
in the act books until 12 July, 1483,* when the chapter conferred on Robert Harecorte, grammar
master of the choristers, the chantries of John Chedworth and John Colynson. This use of
Chedworth's chantry was very appropriate, as he was a fellow of Merton transported to Cambridge
to become one of the first fellows of King's, and soon after provost, and then bishop of Lincoln.
It was probably Harecorte against whom the choristers' cook drew his dagger and was sent to
prison for it on 21 September, 1488.'

The wills proved before the chapter at this time are full of educational bequests. Thus on
29 December, 1455,° John Leek, chaplain and sacrist of the minster, gives to William Clark, his
servant, a chalice and patten and set of vestments, and the bed he lay on at night, and also his
maintenance at the grammar school (exhibicionem suam ad scolas gramaticales) for two whole
years, and likewise a silver salt-cellar and a maple bowl. On 8 May, 1463,^ John Breton, clerk,
gives to his ' brother, Master John, to continue school ^20 at the disposition of Master Thomas
Breton, his brother, viz. four marks a year ; and if the said John be beneficed or called to any
promotion then the residue to be distributed at the discretion of the said Thomas to any secular
priests attending school (scolas exercentes) to celebrate in the university of Cambridge ' for me and
my benefactors.' This was, of course, a university, not a grammar-school exhibition. So is the
next bequest of John Tylney, clerk, 4 May, 1473,* 'I will that Robert Porch, my servant, be
maintained {exhibeatur) at the University of Cambridge out of my goods for a year.' Again,
2 March, 1477-8,' Mr. Robert Wymbysh, sub-dean, directed that Thomas son of John
Wymbish, no doubt a nephew, should be maintained at the grammar school (exhibeatur ad scolas
gramaticales) out of his goods for a year.

On II February, 1491-2,^" John Raskyll, chaplain of Chedworth's chantry, was ordered to
remove for ' certain demerits,' and the same day it was ordered that the next chantry falling
vacant should be conferred by the chapter as a body on the coming grammar schoolmaster, not-
withstanding it was the chancellor's or anyone else's turn to present. The new master's name is
not given. He was apparently the hero of a woful tale told by the sub-dean, who was canon
supervisor of the choristers' house, 2 November, 1499,^^ of how that house was suffering great
damage owing to the paucity of commoners in it, and that the choristers' master in grammar had
already departed from having his commons there, because he had no companion at table except
the steward of the house, who being often absent on business, he was left to dine alone.
The sub-dean also complained that the chantry priests had their commons in taverns and
other houses of laymen contrary to the ancient custom of the church and the orders of the chapter,
to the damage of clerical reputations. The chapter discussed a resolution that all the chantry
priests should commons either in one of three chantry houses, or the choristers' house ; but
eventually postponed the matter. On 2 March, 1501-2,^^ Mr. William Thrope or Thorpe,
' master of the school in the close,' was admitted chantry priest of Russell's chantry in the chapel
of St. Blaise. Russell's chantry was again an appropriate appropriation to education, for he had
been scholar of Winchester, and scholar and fellow of New College and first chancellor of
Oxford University to be elected such for life. On 1 8 January, 1 5 04-5, Thomas Dernley was admitted
master of the grammar school in the close, and to the chantries of Bishops Russell and Chedworth.

The next appointment mentioned is somewhat mysterious. On i March, 1538-9,^°
Mr. William Dighton was appointed to the keepership {custodiam) of the grammar school in the

' A. 2, 32, fol. 120. " A. 2, 34, fol. ib. ' A. 2, 32, fol. 137. * A. 3, I, fol. lib.

» A. 2, 37, fol. 46^. ' A. 2, 35, fol. zU. ' Ibid. fol. 97. ' Ibid. fol. 135.

' A. 2, 38, fol. 97^. ■» A. 2, 37, fol. 70. " A. 3, I, fol. 164. " A. 3, 2, fol. 191.

" A. 3, S, fol. 163.

434

SCHOOLS

close of Lincoln, with all and singular the lands and tenements to the keeper of the same belonging,
to enter at Lady Day following.' He seems to be the William Dighton who appears for many
years as master of the ancient grammar school, the school in the city, and was afterwards sheriff
and mayor of the city. Perhaps as the word ' custodia ' is used he was only put in temporarily and
ran both schools together. On 27 February, 1547-8,^ John Plumtre, master in arts, was admitted
by the chapter to the office of master of their grammar school {sue scale gramaticalis), the first
time this school is spoken of as scale in the singular instead of scalarum in the plural. He was to
hold at the pleasure of the chapter with the fee due to such office. Plomtre or Plumtree was a
fellow of Merton College, Oxford, where he took his B.A. degree in 1538, and M.A. on
21 July, 1542.

The commissioners of Edward VI on 24 April following directed that ' in this
cathedrall churche the Kyng's majestye wolleth that of the common lands and the revenues of that
churche shalbe ordeyned kept and mayntayned contynally a Free Grammar Scoole, the Master to
have yerely 20 marks and his house rente free, and the Usher yerely ^^6 13^. 4^. and his chamber
fre.' As we noticed above, when the school was first established in 1407 ' it was to be free only
for the choristers ; others were to pay reasonable fees. The royal injunctions made the school a free
school, that is free from tuition fees. The choristers were now to have exhibitions to keep
them at school on ceasing to be choristers. ' Item, they shall fynde suche choristers as have
servyd in the sayd churche fyve yeres or more, and have their voices chaungeyd, at somme Grammer
Scoole, and gyve them yerely ^^3 6i. id. of the Revenues of the common lands for the space of
fyve yeres,' with a provision, already stated apropos of the poor clerks, that if they are ' proveyd
by the scholemaster then to be unmeyt to lerne or negligente and suche as wyl not diligently to
applye themselves to learnynge ' the chapter was to be discharged of ' fyndyng of them.' On
4 January, 1558—9,' James Maydwell, B.A., was appointed to the office of pedagogue of the
grammar school in the close (ad officium Pedagogi scole gramaticalis infra clausum). He was a
fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, where he took his B.A. degree on 17 June, 1555. In the
September following. Queen Elizabeth's Commissioners' (Thomas Bentham, William Fletewood,
and Stephen Nevinson), repeated the injunction of the commissioners of Edward VI as to the
maintenance of a ' Free Grammer Scole,' with stipends of £p.o and a house to the master, and
j^io and 'his chamber free ' to the usher. They added that ' the chaunter' should have the
nomination and admission of the choristers — thus reverting to the custom before 1293 — 'after
they be adjudged hable and mete to the said rowmes by the Scolemaster and teacher of the said
choristers,' and directed ' the said schoolmaster to have his free commons among the choristers
over and above his whole ordinary patent and stipend, to the intent he may serve to the honest
good ordering of them in cleane keeping and good maners, and so as he may make answer for
their defaults.' It will be seen, however, that the schoolmaster and teacher of the choristers had
by this time come to mean the song schoolmaster and organist. On 5 November, 1565,'
William Sanderson was admitted ' master of the Grammar School of the church,' which apparently
means the choristers' grammar school. On 26 June, 15 77,' the precentor and chancellor, at
the door of the outer cloister, promised Mr. Christopher Digles, LL.B., the office of school-
master {Ludimagistri) of the grammar school in the close when it became vacant. He had been
nominated scholar of Winchester College by Bishop John White, then warden of Winchester,
in 1556,^ became scholar of New College 3 June, 1562, and B.C.L. 19 February, 1570. He
was perhaps too big for his place. On 20 September, 1580, at the chapter's visitation, he was
' detected of negligence in not teaching and instructing the boys coming to his school,' and
warned to reform on pain of removal from office. He did not reform, however, and on
6 February, 1 581-2,* the dean, being about to depart south on business, gave his consent before-
hand, ' in view of the marked and manifest negligence of Digles in not teaching the boys
committed to him,' that he should be peremptorily warned to provide for himself elsewhere before
next Michaelmas and no longer exercise his office. On 27 April ' they presented him to the
vicarage of Frystroppe. So Digles disappeared from the school, to reappear on 22 January,
1583-4, as rector of St. Mary Magdalen's, in the close ; in 1585 as rector of Partney ; and on
21 September, 1592, as canon with the prebend of Sixty Shillings. With him disappeared the
grammar school in the close, killed partly, no doubt, by his neglect, to be merged in the old grammar
school in the city. But of this anon.

To finish with the choristers' masters. In 1448 we saw that Thomas Farford was song master
to the choristers. The next mention of one is 29 April, 1474,^" when William Staynclyf, chaplain
was admitted to wear a habit in the church like a chantry chaplain and to inform and teach the
choristers and clerks in the church aforesaid.

' A. 3. 6. ' A. 3. = A. 3, 5, fol. 441^. * A. 3, 2, fol. 83.

» A. 3, 8, fol. 24^. « Ibid. fol. 58. ' T. F. Kirby, Winchester College, 13^

» A. 3, 8, fol. 64. ' A. 3, 8, fol. 99. "> A. 2, 36, fol. 53.

435

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

On 29 March, 1477, a new departure was taken in the grant by letters patent of the dean and
chapter to William Horwode, clerk, for life, of an annual rent or fee of 1 001. and 3 yards of woollen
cloth for a gown of the suit of the chapter's gentlemen {ad sectam generosorum nostrorum), and also that
he should be a fellow (socius) and servant at the altar where the daily mass of the Blessed Mary is
said, and to serve there as well in singing and playing the organ in person or by a sufficiently
instructed deputy, receiving from the provost of th^t altar the usual rate for a fellow of the same,
and 135. 4^. a year for playing the organ. This grant was on condition that he would teach the
boys, i.e. the choristers, of the church as well in the science of singing, viz. ' playnsonge, pryksonge,
faburdon, diskant, and cowntour,' as also playing on the organ, and especially to teach playing the
clavicord to two or three of them whom he found fit and teachable for such playing ; the boys
taught this science and art finding their own clavicords at their own expense.

Till then the choristers' song schoolmaster had been a separate officer distinct alike from the
public song schoolmaster and the organist. Now for the first time the practice began which has
prevailed ever since, except in 1524-38, of making the organist also the teacher of the choristers in
singing and music.

This requires a little explanation, as this and similar entries have been confused through its not
having been noticed that there were in fact two entirely distinct * pairs of organs,' and therefore two
different organists, in the minster, until the sixteenth century, when the two offices became united
in the hands of the choristers' music master.

An organ is mentioned in the second chapter act book, when, in 131 1, Thomas of Leden-
ham was appointed to the custody, blowing, and cleaning of the organs. The casual nature of the
entry shows that an organ had existed before, and no doubt one existed from the foundation of the
church.^ In the customs of the church compiled in 1260 ^ appears a paragraph ' on organ playing at
the lectern.' Speaking of feasts and vigils when the prayer is said at the lectern in choir, the
document proceeds : ' When the prayer is finished let some good singers who have been warned
beforehand by the master of the song-school go and chant to the organ {organizent) at the lectern.'
This was only on ' major doubles,' i.e. the greatest feasts. On ' minor doubles,' or lesser feasts, the
boys of the choir were to ' organize ' in surplices, and this ' organization ' was to be arranged by the
succentor. At the end of Lauds again the vicars or the choir-boys were to ' organize ' at the orders
of the succentor.

When in 132 1-2' the chapter revised the scale of payments to be made from offerings at the
tombs of the Blessed Hugh, Robert (Grosseteste), and John (Dalderby), bishops of Lincoln, owing to
the offerings having fallen off, among those who received payment of their labour about St. Hugh's
tomb was the person who carried the organ [trahem organa), who received the large sum of 6s. 8d.,
half a mark ; while among those paid in respect of St. Robert's tomb on 8 October was everyone
singing to the organ {cuilihet cantancium organum) ^d., and again to the organ carrier, and probably
player {trahenti organa), 6s. 8d. This makes the pay of the organist 135. ^.d. a year, and that
is the sum which was still paid in 1452-3 : * ' to William Myham, chaplain, for keeping the organ,
13^. 4.d.'

There was another organ, however, for the purpose of the Lady Mass daily performed at
prime, though not as usual in a Lady chapel, the whole church being dedicated to the Virgin. The
accounts of the clerk of the common fund for 1305 ' show the large sum of £16 os. Sd. paid for the
commons of a chaplain, eleven poor clerks, and two others, ministering at the altar of Our Lady at
mass throughout the year. This altar was at first in the chapel of St. Mary Magdalen,* at the
extreme west end of the church on the north side, but after the chapel was converted into a church
outside the minster, was translated to the chapel of St. John the Baptist at the east end of the
church behind the high altar, and the Lady Mass was celebrated there while the bell was ringing
for prime.' It is expressly stated 18 December, 1434,* that this mass was sung organice, with organ
accompaniment. On 13 April, 1439,^ John Ingleton, organista, was admitted a junior vicar and
particularly undertook to say the mattins of the B.V.M. in choir. This seems to imply an extension
of the use of the organ.

On 10 September, 1442,^" the question of a new organ in the high choir was discussed in chapter
and it was agreed ' that such organs shall be made in the best manner possible and set up before
Christmas next as appears in a bill indented between the chapter and one Arnold, "organer" of the
city of Norwich,' and 5 marks were to be paid him from the fabric fund. Thirty years later a tenant
of the chapter was excused half a year's rent because an organ builder who had built a new organ

' There is a famous description of an organ in Winchester Cathedral in 971 which required two plavers
and 70 blowers, and which was thumped (j>u/sare) and could be heard all over the city.
^ Black Book, 368. Cf. as to date p. 125. ' Ibid. p. 357.

* Wordsworth, Line. Cath. Siat. xliv. ' B. j. 2, 4.

^ Wordswonh, Line. Cati. Staf. cclxix. Nos. 18-20. ' Ibid. 6, 7. " Maddison, op. cit 32

' At the episcopal visitation in October, 1 43 7, he was a chorister. '"A. 2, 33, Vol." 1; 1

436

SCHOOLS

had lived there for half a year ; but whether this was a new organ for the Lady Mass does not
transpire. In 1477, as we have seen, for the first time the organist of the Lady Mass became also the
choristers' music master. On 10 January, 1482-3, he was further admitted to play the organ in
the choir. It looks as if the offices became separated again under the next master, as on 7 November,
1488, the chapter agreed that John Davy, 'song master of the choristers' house,' should have a
grant of his office by deed, at pleasure (quamdiu eidem capitulo placebit), though his predecessor
had it for life ; while on 18 December, 1490, John Warcop, a junior vicar, was given the office of
playing and the keepership of the 'organ in the high choir (officium lusus et custodiam organorum in
alto choro) at the usual fee of 26;. 8d., as John Davy held it.'

In 1 50 1,' at the bishop's visitation, the treasurer complained that the song master {in cantu) of
the choristers does not use diligence about teaching them, but hardly teaches them once a day. In
1506^ Leonard Pepir was appointed organist in the choir (ad lusus organorum in alto choro). In
1508' he was clerk of Re and Ve, and also vice-chancellor, a combination which seems to have
prevailed from 1352 at least. Thomas Ashwell, instructor or informator of the choristers, appears on
29 January, 1507-8, as examining a chorister before admission. Ten years later Mr. John Gilbert
was, on 27 March, 1517— 8, admitted to the office of ' master of singing or of the choristers.' On
25 March, 1524-5, he was described as ' bacheler of the art of music,' and given the office of organ
player [lusoris ad organa) in the choir as well as at the altar of the Blessed Mary, with a fee of 40J.
a year for the latter and 13^. 4^. for the former on Sundays and principal double feasts, with 4 yards
of cloth for his gown. At the same time and place the office of ' song master or instructor of the
choristers ' was given to William Freman, a vicar of the first form. So on 24 October, 1528, letters
patent were granted to Robert Dove, vicar-choral, of the office of song master and teacher of the
choristers for life. The offices of organist and master of the choristers were again combined in the
person of Thomas Appilby, admitted 20 April, 1538,* ' in magistrum cantus sive instructorem choris-
tarum necnon in lusorem ad organa tam in choro quam in capella B.M.V. ubi videlicet missa
B.M.V. quotidie celebratur.' It thus appears that owing to the Lady Mass being daily celebrated in
the chapel of St. John Baptist, that chapel began to be called the Lady Chapel. On 4 October
following,' in the presence of the bishop after a visitation, letters patent were ordered to be given to
James Crawe of the office of song master or master of the boys of the choir and player of the organs,
the duties of both which he now discharges,* with the ancient salary and an augmentation of
ly. 4.d., which last, however, was not to appear in the letters patent. The patent is then set out,
and it appears that the pay was ;^4 as choristers' master and 3 yards of second best cloth, 40J. as
organ player at the Lady Mass, and 1 3^. ^.d. as organ player in the choir. He was to teach ' Playn
song, Prykyd song, Faburdon, Discante and Countor, and the clavycords.' fie had a chamber over
the outer gate of the choristers' house.

A generation elapses before another appointment is recorded, when we discover from his being
mentioned as present at the admission of a chorister on 24 December, 1553, that William Moncke
was then 'Master or Instructor of the choristers,' and therefore probably organist as well.'

A famous musician next appears on the scene in the person of William Birde. On 24 April,
1563, he was given for life by letters patent of the chapter, 'in consideration of his services already
given and in future to be given in the office of song master and master of the chorister boys
(magistri cantus sive magistri puerorum choristarum), all wages, fees, liberties, and profits thereto
belonging at £6 ly. 4d. a year, payable by the choristers' steward, and also the office of organist
(pulsantis sive lusoris ad organa), viz. another ^6 13;. 4^., payable five- marks by the clerk of
the fabric and the other five by the clerk of the common fund.' He therefore received exactly
double what his predecessor in 1539 had done. But in the interval the chantries had disappeared
and the various pickings in the form of payments for obits arid the like ; so that it may be doubted
whether the real profits were any greater than they had been. Six years afterwards he was
'convened,' 19 November, 1569,8 before the chapter and his salary as organist was stopped till
further order, but this order was revoked 31 July, 1 5 70. Not long after ^ he went off to the
Chapel Royal {sacello regio), Thomas Boutler or Buttler being appointed 7 December, 1572, on his
nomination to succeed him as master of the choristers and organ player ; but in the latter capacity
he received only half Birde's salary, viz. ;^3 6^. 8^. The meaning of this was that Mr. Bird, as
he is now called, received the other ^^3 65. Sd. by way of pension. For the chapter, on 2 November,
1573, sealed a grant of an annuity of ^3 6s. 8d. to Bird somewhat grudgingly, saying they did it

' Reg. Smith fols. 140—7, 'non adhlbet diligenciam suam circa doctrinum coristarum.'
' Maddison, op. cit. 81. ^ Ibid. 80, 79.

' A. 3, 5, fol. 159. ' Ibid. 1693.

* Probably, therefore, Appilby was dismissed as a result of the visitation for not performing the duties of
his office in person.

' A. 3, 6, fol. 379. ' A. 3, 8, fol. 44. ' Ibid. so.

437

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

' because certain noblemen and Councillors of the Queen have directed gracious letters to the
behalf of the said William Birde, and not for any other reason or for any other right they recoj
in Byrde.'

Butler held ofEce for a long time, though not without his troubles. On 20 September, i
he was convened before the chapter for his negligence in teaching the choristers, which had
' detected ' at the bishop's visitation. On 5 November, 1584, his pay as organist and also as
clerk was sequestrated until he exercised his office as organist on vigils and week-days as w«
Sundays and feast-days ; a month later, 4 December, this order was revoked. No doubt h(
conformed to the requirement. Ten years later, described as * organista et choristarum
magister,' he was brought up, 11 January, 1594-5,^ for his notorious negligence in not teaching
of the aptest of the church to play the organ {ad modulandum orgdna) so that they might suppl
place in his absence. On 16 December, 1597, John Allen was appointed to the office of org
and schoolmaster of the choristers. Thenceforward the offices were always combined. But as
before this the organist had ceased to be a general educational officer we need not follow the fori
of the office further.

With the sixteenth century we can resume the history of the grammar school proper
ancient grammar school of the city and church of Lincoln, which its natural parents, the dean
chapter, had abandoned, and which the mayor and corporation of the city fostered.

The first appearance of the school in the earliest city minute book of the city council
extant, beginning in 151 1, shows the council engaged in providing new buildings for the old scl
On 1 5 March, 151 7-8,^ it was

agreed that a byll schal be made of all the names of Aldermen and Scheryff peres ' and chamber
peres ' within this city, and Mr. Maior to call all theym togeder to know what that every man wyl
accordyng to their valour to the purchasing off a Scholehouse for the mayster of the Grammar scl

i.e. a committee was appointed to get a new school or a new master's house, it is not very (
which. On 10 June, 15 17, it was agreed by the council that 'Mr. Dighton, Mr. Alanson,
Mr. Wymark shall have communication with Mr. Chaunter for a tenement in Skolegate
belongeth to the Prior of Markby, and they to geyt it off the sayd Prior for terme of yeres, ar
[ = that] this so to be in effect and stable.' ^

The school was in ' Skolegate,' probably the same street that is now called Free School 1
If so the school remained on almost the same site for 800 years, as it was only in 1900 tha;
branch of it called the Middle School ceased to be carried on there. On 25 August, if
Richard Talour had taken lease of a garden in Skolegate for ten years at 8^. a year, an(
1 5 April, 1 5 1 8, the mayor and the chamberlain of the north ward were directed to oversee
tenements in Skolegate ' lyke to fall down and the tylc of theym to be takyn down and savyd t<
use of the comyns.'

The provision of the new schoolhouse took almost as long in those days as it has done in t
On 2 October, 1518,° ' reparacions ' were ordered of the ' Skole house,' and on 2 1 October ^
members were directed to collect money of the inhabitants. It was not till 7 April, 15 1 9,*
Bartylmew Wyllyfford was told to ride to Markby Abbey ' to speak to the Prior, for the sealii
the deed of the house for the schoolmaster and to bear the money with him that is owing
same.' On 24 October ' all the money ' gadered and graunted to the beeldyng off the skolehc
should go to the ' purtchesyng ' of the same, and Mr. Efford undertook to deliver the money an
the prior seal and deliver his deed. But the prior was dilatory. Two years after, on 20 I
1521,^" it was again agreed by the council that the prior should receive the rest of the pun
money ' when that he hath sealyd and delivered is dede, sealyd under the convent seall of the
abbey, off ii tenements in Skolegate.' A rent of is. a year was to be paid for these. The
seems to have entered into possession, as on 31 December, 1521,^^ it was agreed that ' reparati
the house of the skolemayster shall be made to be done at March next coming.'

But two years after, 12 October, 1523, Mr. Mayor was to charge the schoolmaster to re
no stuff that is in the house next St. Rumbold's Church in Schoolgate until further considerati(
had in the same. This was repeated 2 July following. On 4 January, 1526-7, ' co
Mr. William Dyghton schoolmaster and takyth the tenement next the Scolehouse ' on a bui
lease for forty years from Michaelmas, 1526, at 2d. a year rent, to re-edify the same withii
first yere off the termes off his proper cost and charges.' Apparently there was some dispute ;
it, probably because he did not carry out the building as agreed, for on 4 May ' Mr. Dyi

' A. 3, 7, fol. 121. ' Council Book, i, fol. 73.

* The sheriff's 'peers' were those who had served the office of sheriff, just as the chamberlain's peen
those who had served the office of chamberlain.

< Council Book i, 23. ' Ibid. fol. 59^. ° Ibid. 89. ' Ibid. 90^

« Ibid. 95. ° Ibid. 104,^. " Ibid. fol. 129*. " Ibid. fol. i^^

438

SCHOOLS

scolemaster comyth and grauntyth to stand to the taking of the tenement .... sett betwyx
Saynt Rumbold Churchyard without Glaskyttgate and the Scolehouse according to the takyng off
the same by him takyn afore ' and gave sureties to appear in the court and make answer to all
actions against him. On 1 9 July ^ the mayor was to cause the house ' to be beeldyd sufficiently at
the costs of the Comyn Chaumbre, as well in tymbre wark as in stonewark and all other necessary
reparations.' On 7 January, 1527-8,^ Mr. Sapcott, gentleman, was given a lease of the same
house for eighty years at the rent of 8j. a year on a repairing lease. But 3 June, 1529, 'whereas
Mr. Dighton, the Scolemaster, has graunt of a tenement at the Scolehouse and after that Henry
Sapcott had another graunt of the same,' because 'writings were not yet sealed by the Prior of
Markby ' both leases were declared void, and Mr. Burton was to ride and get the deeds sealed. As
there is no more said about it we may hope that at length, ten years after the negotiations for the
purchase began, the prior of Markby duly sealed the deeds and the proceedings were complete.

The schoolmaster during the whole of this time seems to have been Mr. William Dighton, a
relation no doubt of Mr. Robert Dighton, mayor. As ' Willelmus Dyghton de civitate Lincolnie,
skolmayster,' he appeared before the mayor and two justices of the peace of the city, 26 November,
1520,' and had to get two aldermen as his sureties in ^^5 and himself in ^10 for keeping the peace
towards the king and all his people, and to appear at the next sessions. On I O December * follow-
ing he joined with John Welcome, scrivener, in giving security for a ' scoler ' of his to keep
the peace. An assault more or less was not, however, a very unusual thing among the gravest of
citizens or clerics in those days. Dighton must have been a man of some substance, as on 9 October,
1522,' when the mayor was directed to 'set workmen for the tylyng ofF the scolehouse,' he gave the
lime, while ' Mr. Chauncelar of the church of Lincoln grantyth all the tyle that shall goe to the same.'
It is satisfactory to find that the chancellor of the minster still performed his duty to the school
though the dean and chapter had set up a rival to it. It would not appear, however, that it
received an endowment from him. In the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 ° the valuation of the chan-
cellorship [dignitas cancellarit) is given as £(^2, 135- 9>^d. (which at the under-estimate of 20 to I is
equivalent to some ;^i,270 a year of our money) and includes los. 'for the rents of divers lands
belonging to the Chauncellor Fee with the Grammar School {cum scola grammatkaU) ' and 7^. 6d.
' for a pension (i.e. fixed payment) paid by the dean and chapter for wines of the schoolmaster
{magistro scolarum).' But there is no allowance claimed, as there certainly would have been (since
it is claimed by the chapter but not allowed in respect of the choristers' schoolmaster), for any pay-
ment to the ancient grammar schoolmaster.

There is a mysterious entry in the council book under the heading ' Scolemayster ' 20 May,
1527, 'that the said Mr. Dyghton grauntith to get an able learnyd man to kepe the Gramour Scole
in this citie, wich man shalbe assigned and admitted by Mr. Chaunceller of the church of Lincoln.'
This is followed by an entry already noted,' in which he gave sureties to appear in court on Monday
next and make answer to any action brought against him. The agreement seems to have been
made in view of his appointment on I March, 1528-9, to the keepership of the grammar school in
the close. On 14 September, 1533, he was elected sheriff of Lincoln,* and he was afterwards
mayor. On 15 October, 1549, Alderman William Dighton was sought to be made answerable for the
* cheipe ' of silver of the great sword, which was gone in his mayoralty; but on 25 August, 1550,
he was discharged and a new ' cheipe ' was ordered at the council's expense.

On 12 November, 1539,^ it was agreed by the common council 'that there schalbe a large
door mayde at the layt Scowlehowys that the pagents may be sent in and every pagent to pay
yerely 4^. and Noy schyppe I2d.' This interesting entry shows that the ancient schoolhouse
was still standing. The ' pageants ' were the movable platforms and properties of the plays shown
by the various craft-gilds or city companies, representing scenes from old and new testament history.
At Lincoln the great play does not seem to have been, as usual, on Corpus Christi Day, but on St.
Anne's Day, the day of the Virgin's mother, 26 June, which had been made a special feast day by
papal order in 1383.^" The mention of Noah's ship as an extra-sized, and therefore more highly-
rented, piece of pageantry, is an interesting reminder that Lincoln was in early days a great seaport.

From 1539 ^^^ school disappears from view for a whole generation, until 3 September, 1560.
Then the common council agreed that the usher of the ' Fre Scole,' as it is now for the first time
called, should have jTio a year ' out of the rents of the three parsonages.' These were the livings of
Hanslope in Buckinghamshire, Surfleet, and Hemerswell, which the city obtained from Henry VIII
in 1545, out of the spoils of the monasteries, to enable them to pay their fee-farm rent to the crown

' Council Book, i, fol. 198. " Ibid. fol. 2o6i5. ' Ibid. fol. 125.

' Ibid. fol. 1263. ' Ibid. fol. 153^.

^ Fa/or Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 17. ' Council Book, i, 197^.

* Ibid. fol. 229. ' Council Minutes, ii, 27^.

'° Wordsworth, Line. Cath. Stat. 541 ; Wilkins, Cone, iii, 178. A special commendation of her had been
added to the Hours and Masses of the Virgin in 1336. Wordsworth, Line. Cath. Stat. 839.

439

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

they alleging that the removal of the staple for the export of wool to Calais had led to the dec:
the city, so that there were 200 houses vacant and the fee-farm rent could not be paid. The §
now made by the city was conditional on the free school being ' kept in the old Scolehouse w
the city, and so that the maisters of the Close (i.e. the dean and chapter) make the said house an
Scolehouse ' and keep it in repair. The arrangement seemingly was that the dean and chapt
accordance with the queen's injunctions had to maintain a free grammar school, paying ,^20 tc
master and j[^iO to the usher ; the city consented to relieve them of the latter payment if the sc
was kept in the old grammar school down town and not up on the hill in the close. Two ;
later, 6 August, 1562, the corporation ordered the usher's stipend to be paid to Michaelmas,
then he ' to have warnyng no more to trust unto any more stypent, untyll suche tyme as the mai
of the close have further agreed towchyng the reparacions of the Scolehouse and contynuance 0I
said Free Scole there.' Matters as usual dragged on. On 18 September, 1563,^ Mr. Recorder
Mr. Robert Monson were to ' make an end ' with the chapter as to the yearly stipend of the i
and the repairs of the school. On 13 November ^ ' towching the common Scole keeping'
offered ^^5 towards the usher's pay. But apparently negotiations broke down, for on 13 May, 15
the mayor and his brethren agreed themselves to provide ' a learned Scolemaisler to keep up a
Scole within the cytye ' to be paid ^13 bs. id. 'out of the parsonages.' On 8 July* there was
to be an usher, and a place was left blank and never filled for the name of the usiher, with ^(3 1 3/
a year. On 12 June, 1567,^ John Drope, a ' Bachiler of Arte allowed and sent by Mr. A
deacon of Lincoln,^ shall be Usher of the Fre Scole,' and to have * yerely of the Comon Council
for his waiges, as John Mason late Ussher had,' so we may conclude that John Mason was
usher appointed in 1560, and was perhaps the chorister of that name who had been admi
24 December, 1553.' It would also appear that a compact had been arrived at with the cha]
for a year later we get the first mention of the building which for the next 300 years was t
the home of this ancient school.

On 8 May, 1567, it was resolved that 'Forasmuch as Robert Mounson, Esquire, is please<
make a Free Scole of his own charges in the late Gray Freers, it is agreid that he shall have all
glasse remaynyng in the Free Scole towards the wyndowes glasyng in the newe scole.' Ro
Monson, who we saw in 1563 already interesting himself in the school, was one of the Mon
still settled at Burton near Lincoln, and was a barrister ; in September, 1563,^ counsel for the c
and three years after this, 12 July, 1570,' made recorder of Lincoln and afterwards a judge of
common bench.

The Grey Friars, the house of the Friars Minor or Franciscans, which thus became the sil
the school, as the Grey Friars of London had already become under Edward VI the site of Chi
Hospital, was close to the old school. The house of the Grey Friars of Lincoln was surrenders
1535, and granted to John Pope. A John Pope was chancellor of Lincoln Cathedral in i
The building now adapted by the munificence of Robert Monson for the purposes of the sc
consisted of what was apparently the church, standing on an upper floor, approached by a (
modern) outside staircase, about 1 20 ft. long, running down the middle of it above an under-cro
eight pillars. Until quite recent years it was only the upper story that was used as a school ;
that was divided into two rooms ; the eastern one, formerly the church, forming the school, and
western one in early days being put to base uses as a store-room, a magazine, and the like.

This gift seems to have given new educational zeal to the corporation, for on 31 Oct<
1571,^" we find them granting ziis. id. to 'Robert Marschall, his son being a student within
University of Crist's College in Cambridge, for and towards his first tearme of his exhibition.'
12 April, 1572," when an usher was about to 'newly enter' it was settled that he should .
£() 13J. ^d. a year ; and on 14 March, 1574,^^ it was agreed to pay ' to the Scholemaster j^
and a committee was appointed to ' travell to other citizens to knowe what wilbe gifFen of ;
wyll.' On 2 October, 1574," an agreement was made with Mr. Justice Mounson, as he is
called, to give him a reversionary lease of the parsonage of Hanslope for forty years, for a fir
;^ioo and ;^8o a year, 'and in consideration also that he shall assure to the corporation the s
house, and grounds cauled the Grey Freers ... for ever.' Monson was to have a lease for his life
penny a year rent ; but if the lease of Hanslope fell in during Monson's life, then the lease o
Grey Friars to remain to the corporation for ever. Accordingly a deed of covenant was duly 1
10 December, 1574, whereby, in order that the corporation might enjoy the conduit or water-o
lately " in question — it had been made by the warden of the Grey Friars with licence from

' Council Book, iii, 180. ' Ibid. 184. ' Ibid. 186. ■■ Ibid. 188.

^ Ibid. 1 83, 1565-99. * Was also president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

' A. 3, 6, fol. 379. ^ Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 56. ^ lyj 5,

'» Ibid. Council Minutes, ii, 6ib. " Ibid. e^b. " Ibid. 7gb. >3 ibid_ g^"^

'* On 21 May, 1 57 1, it appears that the conduit had been stopped and the common waters of th(
were low and corrupt. Hist. MSS. Com. ReJ>. 65.

440

SCHOOLS

city 5 April, 1535 — and also ' for the desire that Robert Mounson had towards the maintenance of a
Free Grammar School in perpetuity, if the mayor and commonalty shall so think it good, as they
do well and charitably intend it hereafter if they may.' Mounson covenanted to convey the premises
to the corporation. On 14 December,^ as the corporation had to pay ;^300 to the carl of Rutland for
a release of part of the fee-farm of the city which had been granted him, a longer lease of Hanslope
for 99 years was granted to Monson in consideration of ;r200 fine. The voluntary subscriptions
for the payment of the schoolmaster did not come in freely, as on 19 February, i574~5>^ ''^ ^^^
resolved that the whole city should be assessed for the master. In other words, resort was had
to an education rate. Next year on 22 August, 1575,' the mayor was ordered to pay the
schoolmaster quarterly, and 'appoint an officer to gether the same.' On 10 December the cham-
berlain of the east ward was ordered to repair the school windows.

On 10 July, 1576, 'the scolemaster. Master Plumtre, shall have his stipend of 20" marks payd
quarterly ... by Mr. Maior.' Was this Mr. Plumtre the son of John Plumtre, M.A., who on
27 February, 1547-8, had been admitted master of the grammar school of the church? On
5 December, 1576, William Mayson was appointed to be usher at £\ a year and a ' freis ' gown.
On 14 September, 1578, John Herd, son of Antony Herd, was appointed to be usher 'at Christmas
and Mayson now usher then to depart.' ^ Herd, however, did not appear in time. So on 25 February,
1578-9," the council resolved that ' whereas John Herd was appointed . to have entered at Christmas
last, and . came not . It is now agreyd . that William Knowles shalbe Usher of the said Grammer
Scole, and to entre at Our Lady Day in Lent next.' His stipend was to be ' ;^4, and for and
toward a freeis (frieze) gown lOj.' Knowles proved only a stop-gap, as on 7 May, 1580,^ 'John
Hyrd, clerke, now vicare of St. Maryes,' was offered the ushership to enter at Midsummer at
£^ lOj. a year. On 13 January, 1581-2, ' the stipend was 'amended and encreasyd ' by 30J. a
year, making j^6 in all.

We now come on another university exhibitioner maintained by the corporation, this time at
Oxford. 1 1 January, 1 580,' William Storr, a scholar in Oxford, was given 20s. 'towards the buying
of bokesand his furtherance in learning.' On 24 March, 1581—2, he was given 'towards the buying
of apparel and bokes ' 40J. and ' towards his mayntenance at lerenyng, beyng a power scolar ' 20J. a
year so long as the mayor and his brethren should think meet. He matriculated at Corpus Christi
College 28 November, 1581, and took his B.A. degree 9 July, 1584. On 30 October, 1587,
;^5 was given him ' towards his proceeding bachelor next Lent,' coupled with the somewhat
ungracious remark ' in consideration that he do not hereafter challenge any more exhibition of the
city.' It was not, however, B.A. that he was going to become, but M.A., taking that degree
25 May, 1588.

On 27 August, 1580,' negotiations were again started by the council with the dean and
chapter, a committee being appointed to ask them ' whether they be content to join the two schools
together.' Nothing seems to have happened till 22 December, 1582, when as 'mocyon haithe bene
heretofore maid betwene the maior sheriffs and commonaltie of the one partie and the dean and chap-
piter ' of the other ' towchyng the election of a lerenyd scolemaster, and also for the election of an ussher,
that better order of teachyng may be had for the profite of youthe and scolers in the Fre Scole, all
whiche matters are wrytten at large in articles and openly redd,' the council appointed the mayor,
recorder, and two aldermen to confer with the chapter.

Apparently as a result of the negotiations, on 12 August, 1583,'" the council agreed that 'the
Scolemaster Mr. Temple shall have lent of the common chamber 20 marks ' for three years from
' Barthilmewetyde,' to be repaid ' in anno Domini 1586 or at suchc tyme as he shall gifFe over
teaching at the scole within the said citie.' On 22 December, 1583," new articles according to the
effect of the first articles were to be ' drawn and pennyd by learned councell of both parties ' and
'engrossed on parchment ; ' and a month later, 18 January, 1583-4,^ the 'Indentures of Covenants
touching the Grammer Scole,' or the ' free Grammer Scole ' as it is also called, were sealed by the
dean and chapter and by the council.

By this document, which as far as the grammar school proper was concerned seems only to
have confirmed the actual practice since 1560, an end was put to the rival school, the Close Grammar
School, which the chapter had set up 250 years before. Thenceforward the state of things existing
from 1090 to 1409 was to be restored. There was to be only one grammar school, and that one
the ancient school in the city, now carried on in the Grey Friars.

The deed'' is remarkable for its outspoken confession of the evils of overlapping : ' Whereas there
haithe bene heretofore two Gramer Scholes kept at Lincoln, whereof the one of them was kept
' Council Book, iii, 85. ' Ibid. 87. ' Ibid. 88. « Ibid. io8^.

' Ibid. III. « Ibid. 117^. ' Ibid. 1273. s Ibid. 116

Mbid. ii83. "Ibid. 1343. "Ibid. 137. 'Mbld. 138.

" The original, much eaten by rats, is among the City Muniments. I am indebted to Colonel Williams
for a correct transcript of it. An imperfect abstract of it in C.C.R. xxxii, pt. iv, is all that has hitherto
been known of it.

2 441 56

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

within the close . . and the scholemaster that taught there was maynteanyd by the De;
Chappiter . . and had his wages and stipend paid by them ; And the other was kept wit]
citie . . and the scholemaster that taught ther was maynteaned by the mair sheriffs and (
altie . . and had his wages and stipend payd by them and whereas the Scholers that were
in the two severall scholes did not (as by experience yt ys found) so muche profit and proc
lerenyng as it was looked for and wyshed by ther parents and kinsfolks to ther no litell greyffe, w
dyverse did withedrawe ther children from the said scholes and others beying thereby dfscoredj
forbere to put ther children to schole to the hynderance of good knowledge and lerenyng, a:
gretest cause hereof thought to be in this that the said severall stipends were not sufficient to iy:
mayntene able and sufficient scolemasters to teache in the said severall scholes ; For refori
whereof and for that one schole ys thought to be sufficient for the teachyng and bryngyng upe oft!
dren within the said citie in good lerenyng and vertuus lyfe.' Therefore they proposed to
and yone ' the schools and make one school with a master and usher. The deed then provid
the dean and chapter should appoint the master, who was to be ' at the tyme of the election a
of arte and a continewer in one of the universities untill he be a Master of Arte and well able t(
bothe the Greke and Latten tonges learnedlye and skylfully.' They were to pay him j^20 a
city j^6 1 3^. J^d. a year. The city, in the persons of the mayor, recorder, and five ' of the au
aldermen whiche have been mairs,' was to appoint the usher who was to ' have at the tyme o
tion commendable knowledge in the Latten and Greke tongs and be also able to vcrsifye and
the Greke gramer at the least,' and they were to pay him ^^i 3 6x. 81^. a year. The schoolhouse,
ordered to the contrary by the parties, was to be for ever kept in the late Grey Friars ' as nowe oci
and used ' which the city was to keep in repair. The bishop on his part covenanted that he
not ' licence any nether willyngly or wittingly promyt and suffer any other gramer schole . . w
the said citie, the suburbs or procinct or withein three myles of it.' Only children or scholars
to enter into gramer ' were admissible. The school was to be a free grammar school for the ch
of freemen and of other inhabitants of the city and county of the city, and of the close and
or bailey of Lincoln, the choristers and ' the poure clarks of the cathedral,' who were to p;
entrance fee under the usher and is. under the master, and ' no other payment or duties sh
demaunded or tayken of ene such child or children of suche men as are afore naymed unle
parents, kinsfolke, freynds or freynd of such child will of ther own goodwill bestow any m(
better reward of the ussher or scholemaster.' The dean and ' thre of the auncient reside
with the mayor, recorder, and two or three of the 'auntiente aldermen,' were to visit the school
a year or oftener, and the chapter to reform any ' default on the master's behalf,' the city on the u

The whole of the Grey Friars was not used for the school. On 10 February, 1583—.
* close ' adjoining it, which Mr. Robert Monson lately held, and the Friars itself ' except the 1
course and the scholehouse with libertie for scholers as haithe been before tyme,' was agreed to
to the then mayor, Mr. Robert Rishworth, at j^6 135. 4^. a year for twenty-one years ; but
the council broke up the mayor surrendered it back again, and took the close only at £^ a
The Friars itself was to ' remane and contineawe yerely to the maior for the tyme beyng
towards the mayntenaunce of ther houskepyng.' On 26 June, 1589, the 'chamber at the
house end ' was made ' a storre howse for the gun-powder and the matches ; and also the armoi
belongyth to the common chamber.' It it is terrible to think what our present-day educatio
would say to the school being a powder magazine.

On II December, 1585, 40^. a year was allowed of the common chamber for four ye
John Harewood ' a blynd young man and a scoler in Cambrige, and that he do and shall pro
lernyng and be placed in some colledge there,' while Thomas Yates, also a ' scoler in Cam
was the same year allowed 40X. for three years.

The Mr. Temple under whose auspices the new order of things was inaugurated was a i
who attained to no small distinction in his day. He had been a scholar of Eton, whence he
on to King's College, Cambridge, in 1573, where he took his M.A. degree in 158 1. He wov
appear to have stayed at Lincoln more than four years, as in 1586 he was — during the inefl
demonstration of the English forces in Holland, made famous by the death of Sir Philip Sidr
the skirmish of Zutphen — secretary to that poet and hero. He accompanied Leicester's prot^g6
to Ireland in a similar capacity and became provost of Trinity College, Dublin, in 1609, M.I
Master in Chancery, was knighted in 1622, and died, aged seventy-two, in 1626. Perha'ps hii
claim to distinction now is that he was grandfather of his namesake Sir William Temple.

TECHNICAL EDUCATION

It is interesting a few years after this to find the city engaging in the promotion of tec
education in the days of Elizabeth, though it must be admitted that it was rather by way of a
law measure than from a zeal for education. On 31 July, 159 1, a committee was aoDoin

442

SCHOOLS

confer with Mr. Greene of Boston, who offered, if the city would find him a house and lend him
£300 freely, i.e. without interest, for five years, to set 400 poor on work at wool for that time.
On 8 October certain rules drawn up in conference with John Cheeseman, knitter, for the establish-
ment of a knitting school were confirmed. Cheeseman, on receiving £b to pay his debts, undertook
to ' set on work ' in his ' science ' all that are willing to come or are sent by the aldermen ' and to
hide nothing from them that belongeth to the knowledge of the said science.' Forty stone of wool
was to be provided by the council, which Cheeseman was to take at the rate of two stone a week,
paying for the previous week; 'his stipend to be according to the agreement made at his first coming.'
What that was is not stated. But on 4 August, 1592, further 'Articles' were agreed on ' at the
knitter's house ' in St. Saviourgate between Cheeseman and Francis Newby. Newby and his wife
Jane were to daily repair to Cheeseman's house to learn his trade of ' knitting, spinning, dressing of
wool, and keeping his mill ' until well instructed. They were then for the wages of £2 a year to
overlook 30 scholars to see that they do their work, and work according to pattern, and to receive
in addition 2d. for every pair of stockings made by the scholars and the full market price for every
pair made by Jane, while they were to have the profit on all mending and footing of stockings brought
to them. Ten spinning wheels were provided, for which Cheeseman was paid lbs. 8d. How the
experiment answered does not appear.

On 23 November, 1597, William Marett was granted a lease of the ground where the sheep-
market was kept, ' saving the wekelie Shepemarkctt as yt is now used by Mr. Sheriff,' and ' the
romes under the Schole ' to ' dwell in yt and leave yn it to sett the poore on work in suche sorte as
he dothe now.' This was by spinning, as on 29 February, 1612,^ when Mr. Marett, having gone
at Mr. Mayor's request to Peterborough, ' and brought with him one to set the poor on work to
knit and spin ' his charges were paid.

On 1 2 November, 1612,^ ' there shall be a house of correction made according to the statute,
of the house called the Freers under the free school, and malt querns and such other provision as
shall be fit to set poor on work be provided.' On 15 July, 161 5, the house under the free school was
let for I IS. a year to certain citizens who combined to buy wool and set the poor on work there.
On 14 December one John Bracewell was fined 35. ^.d. for charging 'the mayor and his brethren
with swaggering dealing, when they with mildness were executing their office, to the use of the
poor children at the spinning school.' At the same time a ' marshal ' was paid i^. a week ' to bring all
wandering and begging persons to the house of correction and spinning school, there to be set on work.'

Ten years later the spinning school had again failed and another doctor was called in. On
1 6 November, 1 624, Gregory Lawcock, a freeman, ' is contented if he have convenient stock to take
upon him to set all the poor of this city upon work to spin, knit stockings, weave garterings, make
stuffs and other manufactures of wools and out of the cloth to clothe the same poor.' j^6o given by
Mr. Dennis for loan to the poor was to be called in and lent to Lawcock, and ^^20 given him to provide
tools, bring workmen, and j^io a year paid 'towards the charge and loss in teaching young spinners '
and the mayor's ' account dinners ' were to be curtailed to meet the expense. Every citizen after
Easter following was to wear ' at least one suit of apparel and one pair of stockings of such cloth or
stuff as shall be made in the city.' On 6 December coals were to be allowed out of the common
coal house ' to the poor scholars in the spinning school, so it do not exceed one chalder all this winter.'

THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL AFTER THE UNION
To return to the Grammar School. On i March, 1586-7, the usual difficulty as to school
windows was felt. Apparently it was the custom at barrings out at Christmas, and on Shrove
Tuesday, for the boys to break all the windows, a custom which the common council sought to put
an end to. They agreed that the ' windowes in the Scole-house now broken and defaiced shall
forthwith be newlye glased and amended,' but ' after the repairing the Scolemaster to stand to the
upholding thereof with glasse when neede require.'

Mr. John Plumtree appears as usher on 12 December, 1588,' when the council agreed that if
the chapter would give Mr. Plumtre, the usher of the school, £2 6s. Sd. a year for life ' this house '
will give him ^^5 yearly, and the benefit of a freeman, and so he be discharged from teaching any
longer, because he is old and doth no good upon the children. The chapter acceded to the
proposal, for on 9 September, 1589,* we find them granting Mr. John Plumtre, late usher {sub-
pedagogo) of the Grammar School of Lincoln, a pension of five marks a year, to begin at Christmas,
1589. The council seem to have performed their part of the bargain by making the incoming
usher pay the pension of his predecessor. On 22 May, 1590,6 Mr. ' Walwoodde ' was elected
usher ; and on 5 September * following we read that ' Mr. Walkewoodde, usher, shall have a gowne
to be given him of the cyttie's chardge, at this time onelie, in consideration of the yerelie stipend that
Mr. Plumtre, the late usher, hathe nowe owt of the said Mr. Walkewoodde's wages.' So poor

' Council Minutes, iv. %zb. ' Ibid. 1 13^. ' Ibid. 182.

* A. 3, 7, fol. 114. ' Council Book, iii, 193^. * Ibid. 195^.

443

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Mr. Walkcwoodde was only getting ;^io a year. But who was the usher Plumtre ? Was th
who had been master reduced to the position of usher, and then thus got rid of altogether
was he a son of the master of 1576, and thus the third Plumtre in succession to bring forth th
of learning in due season for the nourishment of Lincoln Schoolboys ? The making a special
of the gown because Walkwoodde paid his predecessor's pension was rather mean on the ]
the city fathers. For, as we saw, they always used to give the usher a gown, and from later 1
the custom appears to have continued up to the Restoration.

There do not seem to be any entries in the Lincoln records of the appointme
Mr. Nethercotes, whom we find, from the admission register of Gonville and Caius College, CamI
to have been head master in 1593-4, one of his pupils, John son of James Botterill, aged 18,
admitted in that year. Nethercotes had gone before 24 November, 1597,^ when the counci
both ' Mr. Mason, the scolemaster, and Mr. Walkewide,^ the ussher of the Frescole,' a cloth
' at this tyme onelie of the cyties curtisie and liberalitie,' at the price of 40/. for the master'
33J. 4(/. for the usher's gown. Though this ' livery ' was an annual custom, the city di
want it made a legal obligation, as on 20 February, 1 602,' we again find the schoolmaste
usher having 40X. ' for a gown so as the same be no precedent,' and again in 1606 their gow
given them, * the cost of each not to pass 40^.' How long Mr. Mason stayed as head master we <
know. John Phipp, or Phipps, occurs in the chapter act books as head master in 1 61 6. Thei
some dispute between him and Walkwoode, as on 20 October, 1 62 1,* ' Whereas there hath
great contention and suit between Mr. Phipps and Mr. Walkwood, late the free schoolm
about a promise of 20 nobles (^^6 1 3^. J^d.) for Mr. Walkwood's goodwill to give over the s
it is now agreed that for the ending of the controversy one half of the said money, viz. 5
(^3 6s. 8d.)y shall be paid to Mr. Phipps.'

Exhibitions were maintained. On 13 October, 1602,^ 20J. a year for three years were all
to Edward, son of Edward Rockadine, deceased, ' if he so long remain a student at the Univers
Cambridge,' and on 14 July, 1617,* ' John Galland's son, now ready to go to Cambridge, shall
4OJ. per annum until he shall commence bachelor or have a scholarship or other means to ma
him there.'

On 27 March, 1617, King James I made a ' progress ' to Lincoln from Grantham and !
a week there. Whilst on this visit ' he went to the " Spread Eagle " to see a prize played then
fencer of the city and a servant to some attendant in the court who made the challenge, wh(
fencer and the scholars of the city had the better, on which His Majesty called for his porter
called for the sword and buckler, and gave and received a broken pate, and others had hurts.'
doubt the boys thoroughly enjoyed beating the representative of the court at fencing, and appre
the fray with the king's own porter.

On 22 April, 1624,' free books were ordered to be provided at the Free School for the
the children of poor inhabitants.

Nathaniel Clarke, the schoolmaster at the time, must have been a judicious man, as he re
office through the whole of the Civil War and the Interregnum. We can trace some of his sc
going up to Cambridge at St. John's and Caius, the only colleges at either university whicl
assisted the history of schools by recording, in the admission of their undergraduates, the schoc
often the names of the masters of the schools from whence they came. Thus, on 24 April,
we find William, son of Anthony Haire, the mayor of Lincoln, going up as a pensioner,
paying undergraduate, not a scholarship holder, at the age of 16. At the same age Thomi
son of Timothy Kent, rector of Donington, went up in January, 1635. James Boulton, t
of a husbandman, i.e. farmer, at Bardncy, went up as a sizar in 1637 at the early age of 15.
next boy from Lincoln School, HinclifFe, son of the vicar of Timberland, who went up as a si
1640, was 17 ; as also was the next, in 1651, Robert Brittaine, whose father was a merchant ;
it is not uncommon to find boys admitted at 19 and 20. The average age of the first 25 rei
admissions at St. John's in 1630 is 17.

Deans and chapters were abolished by Act of Parliament 30 April, 1649, ^^^ their ' ter
possessions, manors, lands, and the like,' ordered to be sold ; but an express saving claus
contained in the Act for all payments for schools and other charitable objects. The ' sf
possessions,' rectories, vicarages, tithes, together with the first fruits and tenths, which now
Queen Anne's Bounty, were vested in certain ' trustees for the maintenance of ministers
trust to assign salaries and augmentations to ' preaching ministers and schoolmasters settled 01
firmed in living or place by Parliament.' It does not quite appear whether it was because an

' Council Book, iii, 243.

' This makes us wonder whether the real name of the usher was Wallwood, Walkwood, or Wa
It was probably the latter, derived from some bandy-legged ancestor. A Mr. Walkwide was usher at
School in 1560. ' Op. cit. iv. izi.

' Corporation Minute Books. ' Ibid. 18. ' Ibid. 143^. ' ibid. iq6

444

SCHOOLS

of the trustees was necessary for the continuance of the payments for schools, or whether it was
because of some hitch in obtaining payment ; but whatever the reason, an order was made on
9 July, 1652,^ in favour of Lincoln Grammar School. ' Whereas the yearely summe of £p.o was
heretofore payable by the deane and chapter of Lincolne to the schoolemaster of the Grammer
Schoole of Lincolne at 4 tymes a yeare by equall porcions towards his wages and stipend for teach-
ing there, the payment whereof is since transferred and charged upon the said trustees ; It is there-
fore ordered that the said yearely summe of £7.Q be from tyme to tyme paid and continued unto
Mr. Nathaniel Clarke, the present schoole master there, by quarterly payments for soe long tyme
as hee shall continue schoole master there as aforesaid, to be accompted from the 16 day of October,
1650.^ Also in pursuance of an order of the said trustees of this instant, 9 day of July, It is
ordered that Lieutenant Colonel John Robinson, Receiver, doe fi-om tyme to tyme pay unto
Mr. Nathaniel Clarke, schoole master of the gramer schoole of Lincolne, the yearely summe of
^^20, by quarterly payments, to be accompted from the 25 day of March, 1 65 1, the same being
formerly payable by the dean and chapter of Lincolne.' On 14 July following the immediate
payment of a half-year's arrear due 25 March, 1651, was ordered.

Clarke must have died about 1656, for on 28 May, 1658, we find Charles, son of George
Walker, gent., aged eighteen, a pensioner of St. John's, Cambridge, noted as having been educated
under Mr. Umfrevile. Scholars 'bred' under Umfrevile were admitted at the same college
up to 1665. So he remained in office at the Restoration. A year or two after, the school had on
20 September, 1662,' to disgorge some books it had acquired on the dissolution of the chapter.

In November, 1668, the city actually invited the interference of the chapter, and determined
that there be ' further address made to the said bishop and the said dean and chapter, to desire their
care and pains in visiting and making inspection into the school.'

In 1681 Mr. Bromsgrove was master;* in 1683 Mr. France. In that year,^ Nathaniel
Gibson, M.A., lately made ludimagister et principalis preceptor of the grammar school, resigned,
and Mr. Samuel Garnston was elected. There seems to have been some dispute between the
master and the usher, as at the visitations of the school on 8 and 14 April, 1684, some interesting
statutes were made by the visitors, mostly directed to regulating the respective spheres of master
and usher. General was the request to the city to assign a place in St. Peter's Church for the boys,
to which they were to be taken by the master or usher. The school hours were fixed at 7 a.m.
from 10 October to 10 February, and 6 a.m. for the rest of the year. ' The master and usher shall
use their utmost endeavour to break that mischievous custome of barring out the master at
Christmas, and the better to effect that and gain reputation to the school. . the master shall
take care that at their breaking-up at Christmas some publick exercise may be performed by them.'
He was also to ' reduce the pretended customes of playings at the assizes to a day or two at the
most.' As there were only 15 boys in the upper and 40 or 50 in the lower school, the master
was to remove boys from the lower school to make the number equal. The master was to
exercise authority ' over all the boys. . . that the masters of all other schooles have and his pre-
decessors in this school have formerly enjoyed. (9) Because it would be highly prejudicial to
the school if more than one method of teaching shall be used, and tis fitter that the master should
prescribe a method to the usher then the usher to the master ; Therefore the master shall appoint
what method shall be used throughout the school, and the usher shall observe such a method. . as
hee shall appoint.' When the master removes boys to the upper part of the school, * he shall not
pick out such as may probably pay him best to the prejudice of the usher, but shall take them
according to the bookes they learn or the classes in which they are.' (14) 'And that nothing
may be wanting to the flourishing of the school and rendering it useful to the publick, the master
and usher shall use their utmost care to improve the boyes in the Latin and Greek tongues, and to
teach them the true science of religion towards God, conformity to the church, obedience to their
prince, and good manners towards their betters. . . (15) And that the city and county may have
publick testimony of the flourishing state of this school, the master shall appoint two boyes every
year on Michaelmas Day. . to congratulate the choice of the city in two orations, the one Latine
and the other Greeke.' Garnston seems to have done his duty. In 1685 he sent a boy to
Cambridge, and was still sending boys there in 1720.* In 1711 he was thanked by the city for
his sermon on 30 January, and ^^lo voted for defraying his charge of printing it, and on 26 October,
1 7 14, he was elected vicar of Hanslope.

On 26 May, 1688, the usual stipend of ^^20 was granted to Mr. Christopher Colson, lately
elected usher of the free school.' A distinguished usher was Peniston Booth,' who on 9 December,

' Lambeth MSS. Aug. 969, pp. 1 1 3-4.

' This is signed John Thorowgood, Wm. Steele, Nic. Martyn, Richard Yong, Jo. Pococke.

' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 104. ' St. John's Reg. i, pt. ii, 81, 93, loi.

' Chap. Act Bk. 1670-1702, fol. 102. "St. John's Reg. z, 24.

' Chap. Act Bk. 1670-1702, fol. 112. ' Ibid. 115.

445

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

1 7 1 8, was desired to print his sermon preached at St. Mary's upon account of the Anabaptists,
;^lO was paid him for defraying the charge. The sermon, Friendly Advice to the AnabaptisH
A Reply to Mr. Ebenezer Hall's ^Antidote,' was duly printed at Cambridge, 17 19. ]
answered it, and on 9 February five guineas were given to Mr. Booth for printing his book A
plication to the Anabaptist's Answer. This hammer of Anabaptists was eventually rewarded \
the deanery of Windsor.

On the appointment of a new head master in 1724, it was resolved on 8 July that '
stipend given by the city for the master of the free school be increased from twenty nobles to ^
per annum, with ^^lO for a house, it being found that a deserving man will not accept of it ur
a salary of ;^50, the dean and chapter only allowing ;^20.' Mr. John Goodall was appoin
' the dean and chapter having been unable to find a person duly qualified as having been educs
at Westminster or Eton, and of the degree of M.A.' It does not appear whence the qualificai
of Westminster and Eton was derived. Probably by way of increasing the pay without furt
charge to themselves, on 10 May, 1 731, the city decreed that no persons not born within the i
were to have the freedom of the school — an order which, of course, did not mean that others w
to be excluded from the school, but only that they would have to pay tuition fees. It was qi
contrary to the agreement of 1584, but in the absence of further endowment desirable :
even necessary. Goodall sent a considerable contingent of scholars to Cambridge. He died
25 May, 1742.^ Mr. Shelton, the usher, supplied his place till 10 September, when the E
Mr. Rolt was elected master.

In 1765 Mr. Hewthwaite was master, sending a scholar to St. John's College, Cambrid
He was probably the John Hewthwaite admitted a sizar at St. John's,^ 13 January, 1746-7, v
became vicar of Cottingham, near Beverley, in 1757. On 28 October, 1766, the city paid 1:
twenty guineas for globes and maps, he having undertaken to teach the scholars geography gra
He held with the mastership the vicarages, first of Morton and Haunby, 31 December, 1766, tl
Messingham with Bottesford, 8 September, 1768, and finally Bicker, 9 April, 1766, which
held till his death, 16 September, 1802, aged seventy-three. Like most masters in the majority
schools in all parts of England in this century this master held office too long. On 17 M
1792,^ an inquiry was ordered by the corporation into 'why the free grammar school has been k
upon the decline.' The report of the inquiry is not forthcoming, but as on 15 August the corporat
determined to hire a house for the head master, and on 29 October advertised for an usher in pL
of the Rev. Mr. Carter, late usher, appointed head master, it may be assumed that the cause of
decline was the head master's age, and the result of the inquiry his resignation. The usher's sal
was raised on this occasion from ^£30 to ;^50. In March, 1793, two houses in Broadgate w
bought for ;^6oo for the head master's residence. Some interesting extracts from the StamJ
Mercury of this date show that the summer holidays at this time began at Lincoln as at ot
public schools, e.g. Winchester and Eton, at Whitsuntide. The 'Potation Day' was held
1796 on Thursday, 12 February, which was probably a substitution for Shrove Tuesday, wl
' speeches were delivered by the young gentlemen, who acquitted themselves to the great satisfact
of a very numerous audience. A large party of gentlemen who had been educated at the sch
dined together at the " Reindeer," and spent the day with that harmony and conviviality whici
usual among old schoolfellows. It is intended that this same meeting shall be annually held.'
1802 the ' Potation Day ' was altered to Thursday before Whitsuntide. The midsummer hoUd
began on Friday before Midsummer Day, and lasted for a month ; the Potation Day in 1 8 1 2 '
removed to the week before, and the Old Boys' dinner to the ' Saracen's Head.' Some g
verses recited on the Potation Days have been preserved, but cannot be reproduced here.
December, 1820, both head and second masters resigned, and advertisements weie issued
candidates to take office at Lady Day, 1 82 1.

In 1839 the Commissioners of Inquiry concerning charities reported* that the corporation f
the master, Mr. Adcock, ^^46 1 31. 4^. a year, and that he ' teaches the usual routine of a class
school.' He had some boarders besides day boys, of whom all paid an entrance fee of /i
while sons of freemeri of the city paid ^^i is. a year, and of non-freemen £^ ^s. a year
distinction which the commissioners found to be the subject of complaint, and to be unauthori
by the deed of 1584.

The lower school under the usher, Mr. Sandon, was ' commercial,' and the sons of freer
in it paid only lOJ. dd. a year, the others paying the same as in the upper school. The comr
sioners reported that he had reduced the pay-boys by half and the free-boys by three-quar
during the last five years, and they ' were compelled most reluctantly to listen to a long serie
charges brought against the usher, Mr. Sandon, respecting his ill-treatment of the children.' T

' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. x[v, App. viii, 117. ' Reg. ii, 121, 564.

' Corp. Min. Book, iii, fol. 781. * Char. Com. Ref. xxxii, pt. 4, 341.

445

SCHOOLS

commented on his exhibition of temper, and pointed out to the governors that they had the power
of dismissal, which they immediately exercised.

In the middle of the century the ecclesiastical and the municipal corporations came to see that
it was quite impossible to maintain the school efficiently under the existing conditions as to endow-
ment, so by a deed of 8 November, 1850, they varied the agreement of 1584. The curriculum
of the school was extended from classics to include French, mathematics, English literature,
history, geography, ' and such other arts and sciences as the parties might agree upon,' and the
head master, instead of the corporation, was to appoint the usher. But while the curriculum
was extended and the organization improved, the qualifications for the masters were narrowed.
Hitherto there had been no legal restriction on the religious opinions of the masters, now both
were to be members of the Church of England, and the head master was to be a clergyman, as
no doubt he had in fact been for some centuries. The stipends were increased. The dean and
chapter increased their £p.o to ;^50 a year minimum, and if there were not less than 60 day-
scholars to ;^8o a year ; and the corporation agreed to pay the £'^() hitherto paid by them to the
master, and ^^50 to the usher ; with an augmentation to the master of ^ip ^'^ L^^ * y^^^i ^^ ^^ ''^'^^
of ;^i a head for each scholar up to 50.

Mr. G. F. Simpson, the head master under the amended agreement, was successful for some
time. But ill health overtook him and he died in April, 1857. In June of that year there were
only 47 boys in the upper school, as the master's part of the school was called, including
16 boarders, and 28 in the lower or English school, and the average age of the latter was under ten
years.

The Rev. John Fowler, who had been head master of the Devon County School, was then
appointed. He at once raised the standard of teaching in the lower school, adding mathematics and
elementary science, and instituted a regular system of promotion to the upper school. Next year
two schemes of the Court of Chancery for two ancient hospitals connected with Lincoln came into
operation which greatly helped the school. One was for the Mere or Meer Hospital of St. John the
Baptist in the county of the city of Lincoln, founded in 1244*^ by Simon of Roppelle or Ropley for
13 poor men and a chaplain as master, appointed by the bishop of Lincoln. In 1553 the number had
been reduced to three. In 1680 the hospital had ceased to exist, and there were only 6 out-pensioners
receiving j^4 a year, and the warden £8 a year, the lands being let on leases on which the ' ancient
and accustomed rent was reserved.' In 18 19 the then warden Richard Pretyman, son of the bishop,
received over ;^9,500 on a renewal of the lease of the lands. The Commissioners of Inquiry certified
the case to the attorney-general in 1837. The result was a scheme made by the Court of Chancery
on 16 June, 1858, by which the ancient number of poor was restored with pensions of ^20 each ;
and of the rest of the income, then about ;^i,200 a year, half was paid to the Lincoln Diocesan
Training College for Elementary Teachers, ;£200 a year to the national schools, and ;£i45 ^
year to the grammar school. The other hospital was that of Spital (i.e. hospital) in the Street, also
founded in the thirteenth century, or perhaps earlier. Under a scheme, 16 June, 1858, j^2,50i
of its accumulated income was paid for the improvement of the grammar school buildings. A
new boarding-house was provided for the head master situate not down in the somewhat sordid part
of the town where the school was, but on the hill a little way east of the cathedral close. The
Schools Inquiry Commission in 1864^ found 55 boys in the upper school, of whom 14 were
boarders paying forty to fifty guineas a year, while there were 65 boys in the lower school.
But the head master had taken to sending the most promising boys off to compete for scholarships
at Shrewsbury, including the present head master of Shrewsbury, Dr. H. W. Moss, and Mr. T.
E. Page, a house master at Charterhouse, whose classical editions are well known, and who is the
president of the Assistant-masters Association. The result was very good for the boys sent
there, but not very good for the school itself. Mr. H. W. Eve, however, reported unfavourably
on the system as a whole under which the English school was subsidiary to the grammar
school. The result was that the mistake of 1409 was repeated. In 187 1 the school was cut
in half, the lower school being placed under an independent master, and each school divided in
half. Thus the classical school, as it was now called, was divided into an upper classical school
with fees of ten guineas, and a lower classical school at fees of eight guineas a year ; and the lower,
now called modern school, was divided into a lower modern at fees of three guineas, and an
upper modern at fees of four guineas a year. This exceedingly complicated arrangement was con-
firmed by a scheme of the Charity Commissioners, under the Endowed Schools Acts, begun in 1877
but not passed till 23 August, 1883. In the interim, Canon John Fowler was succeeded in the
head mastership by William Weekes Fowler, of Jesus College, Oxford, who had for seven years been
a housemaster at Repton School, and though a classical man was specially great in entomology.

The scheme of 1883 completely severed the two schools. The Grammar School was removed
to a new building erected just below the head master's boarding-house, the money being found by a

' Char. Com. Rep, xxxii, pt. iv, 394. ' School Inquiry Rep.

447

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

grant of ;^io,000 provided by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in recognition of the liabilil
chapter estates to maintain a cathedral grammar school, while the chapter contribution was i
from £^()0 to ;^300 a year. A separate governing body was established for it, consisting of
and four canons, the Lord Lieutenant and Chairman of Quarter Sessions, and five co-optat
city being represented only by the mayor. On the other hand the lower school, now called the
School, was placed under a governing body on which the chapter was represented by a sing,
sentative, the rest being the mayor and four appointed by the town council, and four
governors of Christ's Hospital. The fees were fixed at £^ to £lO a year, and there was f
for 30 scholarships for boys from elementary schools into it and for twelve scholarships of
year out of it to the grammar school.

The money for these scholarships was mainly provided out of the endowment of

Hospital, Lincoln, founded by will of Richard Smyth, M.D., of Welton, near Lincoln, 10

ber, 1602, who gave the manor of Potter Hanworth, on the other side of Lincoln, for ' c

founding, and establishing a ' Blue Coat school, a small imitation of Christ's Hospital in ]

By patent of 21 June, 1611,^ granted on the request of Lord EUesmere, Lord Chj

one of the executors of Dr. Richard Smith, the hospital ' for the sustenance, relief and ed

and maintainance of poor orphan and indigent boys ' was incorporated of one master, six go

and twelve poor boys. The master was the mayor ex-officio, the governors were Sir A

Thorold, of Blankney, of whom the manor of Potter Hanworth, which formed the mi

of the endowment, was held by knight service, and his heirs male, the junior resic

canon of Lincoln, the recorder and the senior alderman, and the town clerk ex-officio, a

resident in the borough of Lincoln. One of the boys was always to be named by Thorc

his heirs. ' Ordinances to be observed within the Hospitall of Jesus Christe in the city of Lincoln 1

by Richard Smyth, Doctor of Physicke,' were made 4 January, 1 613-4, by Sir Thomas E

knight. Lord Ellesmere, Lord Chancellor. ' The said children shall firste and especiallye be

to read Englishe, and to write and to cast accompts, whiche when they shall have well ai

fectly attayned unto, then if any shall be found apte for further learninge, the master and g

may appoint such as they shall fynde soe fytte and apte to be sent dailye to the grammar sc

be there taught as other scholars.' The rest were to be ' trained in some industry and laboi

apprenticed. A poor man and two poor women were ' to provide and dresse meate and di

the children and to wash their clothes and every way to look to them that they be kept clea

wholesome.' Of the twelve children 6 were to be born in the close or bailey of Lincoln, 1

Potter Hanworth, and three in Welton. This hospital with an income of ;^2,8oo a ye

giving in 1877 an elementary education with board, lodging, and clothing to about 20 boy;

it was the opposition caused by the proposed application of the bulk of this endowment to exhit

at the middle school, and of the residue to founding a girls' school in Lincoln, which cai

long delay in passing the scheme, or rather schemes, for there were five of them. Howevi

being laid before Parliament they were all approved by Queen Victoria in Council, 23 Augus

The two schools sanctioned by the scheme were fated in a comparatively small j

Lincoln then was to overlap and compete with each other, and each to prevent the other from

large and strong school. So they did for some fifteen years. At length, the Rev. Robert M

Hill, the head master of the middle school, beginning to fail in health, and both schools being si

to competition from a new secondary day school established in the Technical School by th

council in its upper work, and from a higher elementary school established by Chancellor L

the old buildings of Christ's Hospital in its lower work, some change was seen to be ne

At the end of 1 897 the governors asked the Charity Commissioners to consider the case. The

then 100 boys in the grammar school, of whom 26 were boarders ; and in the middle

92 boys, of whom 55 were scholarship-holders, and only 31 paid the tuition fees of ,^6

On the other hand the girls' school established under the scheme, though owing to the fal

value of land it had received no endowment beyond its very fine building on the hill-side bel

cathedral, was extremely flourishing, with 196 girls in it. On 26 June, 1898, after inl

with an assistant-commissioner from the Charity Commission, the governors of the two schc

the city council resolved on the re-union of the two schools under one governing body.

was given to this by a scheme which became law by the approval of the Queen in Council on n J

1900. This constituted a single governing body of 15 members, a majority (8) appoii

the city council, one each by the Lindsey and Kesteven County Councils, three by thi

and Chapter, and two by the Christ's Hospital Governors, who are practically a joint comm

the chapter and the city council. The Grey Friars, which had been ruined as a school

the erection of a very large rebuilt St. Swithun's Church close above it, was now left vacant

used by the city as a museum. The whole school was removed to the grammar school sit

the essence of the scheme was the direction to provide new buildings on a better site. Mr

' Pat. 9 Jas. I, pt. ii.
448

SCHOOLS

Harding Chambers, an exhibitioner of Balliol College, Oxford, where he obtained a first-class in
mathematics, afterward an assistant-master • at Charterhouse, was appointed head master of the
re-united school in 1900, Canon Fowler retiring to a living.

A splendid new site of 24 acres was bought in 190 1 on the top of the cathedral hill, just
east of the town on the Lindum Road, and plans have been prepared of new buildings to
accommodate 150 boys, towards the erection of which the city council, under their newly-
acquired educational powers under the Education Act, 1902, have given ^11,000. There are
now 134 boys in the school under a staff of six assistant-masters. It cannot be doubted
that an era of success greater than it has ever enjoyed before is in prospect in modern times for
this ancient foundation.

EARLY LINCOLNSHIRE SCHOOLS OUTSIDE LINCOLN

Among the schools of Lincolnshire outside Lincoln it is difBcult to know to which to give
the palm of antiquity. For the first reference to schools in the county outside the city, the
digest of Lincoln cathedral customs sent to Scotland in 1236, implies the existerice of several schools.
It is to the effect that the chancellor of the church 'appoints to all the schools in Lincolnshire as he
pleases, except to those in prebends.' Rather oddly the particular schools in the county which
happen to be first mentioned in the records which remain to us are some of the exceptions, that is
schools in prebends, i.e. manors or estates appropriated to and under the jurisdiction of a particular
canon, exempt from the chancellor's prerogative. Thus in 1264 mention is made of the schoolmaster
of Louth in a mandate of the bishop directing him to induct a vicar of Louth ; Louth being a pre-
bend in the cathedral, the prebendary of Louth had jurisdiction over the school, and it never appears
in the Chapter Act books. So again at the beginning of October, 1309,^ the chapter discussed the
mastership of the grammar school at Strubby ('regimen scolarum gramaticalium apud Strubby'). 'At
length, with the consent of Mr. Richard Stratton, then provost (i.e. the canon who for the time«
being managed the estates belonging to the common fund of the chapter), to whom the appoint-
ment was asserted to belong in virtue of the provostry, he expressly refusing to make such
appointment, at the request of Sir Henry of Rowell, chaplain (no doubt the vicar or parish chaplain
appointed by the chapter as rectors), granted the mastership to William called Priour, of Orreby,
clerk, for a year from Michaelmas Day,' which was the Monday before the meeting. Accordingly,
letters patent of the chapter were sealed appointing him. Nearly a generation later, 20 Septem-
ber, 1334,^ we find the chapter conferring the grammar school of Strubby, vacant by the
resignation of Adam of Strubby, clerk, on John of Strikenay, clerk, by letters patent, addressed
' to the vicar of the prebendal church of Strubby.' The grant was expressed to be
' for the teaching of boys wishing to frequent the same school for a year from Michaelmas Day, and
the vicar as deputy of the chapter was directed to give him bodily possession of the school.'
Fleeting personages were these mediaeval schoolmasters, always on their promotion. For next
year ' when the chapter held a visitation of their prebendal churches on Thursday after St. Peter and
St. Paul (29 June), among the matters inquired into were the character, life, and behaviour
[moribus, vita, et conversacione) of Mr. John of Gunthorpe, schoolmaster {magistri scolarum) of Strubby.
The jury of inquiry said that his reputation was good, and he was free from vice as far as they
knew. Strubby School does not again appear in the chapter records nor elsewhere. No doubt the
provost regularly appointed, and so the appointments do not appear in the chapter books.

It is not until 1329 that we get any definite evidence of what other schools there were in the
county under the chancellor's jurisdiction. In that year, however, the chancellorship was vacant, and the
chapter therefore exercised its powers and performed its duties. Hence we find an entry in the chapter
act books which merits special notice for its illuminating importance in the history of schools.

Memorandum, that on the Ides of June, in the year aforesaid (1329), the reverend men and masters

{Domini), the Lord {Dominus) Dean of the Church of Lincoln, and Giles of Redmere, and John

of Schalby, Canons of the Church of Lincoln, as vicegerents and in the name of the Chapter,

sitting in a certain low room below the Lord Dean's chapel in his house, and discussing the

collation of the Grammar Schools in the County of Lincoln which were vacant, through the

vacancy of the Chancellorship of the said church of Lincoln thereby in their hands, and as to the

persons to be admitted to such schools ; Finally conferred the Grammar School of Barton on

\ William of Gurney, the School of Partenay (Partney) on John of Upton, the School of Grimsby

on William of Coleston, the School of Horncastle on John of Beverley, the School of St. Botolph

'. (Boston) on Robert of Muston, and the School of Graham (Grantham) on Walter Pigot,

• clerks, from Michaelmas, 1329, to the same feast next year, in such name as above and by way

f of charity ('nomine quo supra et intuitu caritatis') ; expressly granting that they and each of

6 them should be inducted into the bodily possession of the said schools in accordance with their

Id respective collations.

Jil

' Line. Chap. Act Bks. A. 2, 21, fol. 20. ^ A. 2, 23, fol. 21b. ' A. 2, 24, fol. 5 and 6.

2 449 57

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

The chapter, it will be observed, would not take upon themselves to make a perm
appointment, or for what was probably the full statutable term of three or four years ; but
made an interim appointment for one year. Accordingly, on 29 May in the following year,
the chancellorship being still vacant, the dean, Antony Beck, and canon Giles of Redmer,
meeting in the dean's house, this time in a room described as being under the parlour {solaria
treating of the collation to the grammar schools belonging to the chancery of the church of Lir
called the masters before them and continued them for another year to Michaelmas, 1331.
same process was repeated in 1 33 1, the chapter using these words: 'as you hold them so
them {uti possidetis ita possideatis).^ On this occasion we are told expressly that the mastf
Stamford and Boston were not present, and sent no excuse for their absence. Stamford, i
be observed, was not among the schools included in the appointments of 1329. Next yea
dean being absent, the sub-dean and chapter renewed the appointments, and in the two folic
years, meeting in the chapter-house, did the same. Thus the same masters were continued
1329 until 1335. Then, the chancellorship being filled up, the schools disappear from view.

We know, indeed, that there were other schools, if not in 1329, at all events not very
after this date. Thus on the Saturday after Corpus Christ! Day the chapter in the vacancy o
chancellorship admitted Sir John, son of Edward Smith {Fabri) of Brune (i.e. Bourne), to
mastership of Bourne School on the presentation of the abbot of Bourne. This was, of coursi
' monastic school ' in the sense of being a school for monks or conducted by monks. The j
presented no doubt as lord of the manor, not as abbot.

There were then at least eleven grammar schools, including that of Lincoln itself, an
may well suppose that of the fourteen places in Lincolnshire which belonged to the cathedi
prebends Louth was not alone in maintaining a grammar school in the single county of Lin
a county which, though important and one of the largest and richest in the country, yet wai
the largest and richest or most populous. Yet the origin of Grantham School has been attribut(
Bishop Fox in 1528, of Stamford to Alderman RadclifFe in 1530, of Grimsby to King Edwar
in 1547, of Louth to the same king in 1551, of Barton to King Philip and Queen Mary in i
and Horncastle to Lord Clinton in 1 571. These attributions of origin are now seen at the be
represent restorations or augmentations of schools long previously existing. With these evide
before us we may shrewdly suspect that Alford, attributed to 1565, and Gainsborough, a '
Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth,' may boast far more ancient pedigrees than those ■
which they are credited.

BOSTON GRAMMAR SCHOOL

We have seen how this school appears in the Lincoln chapter act books from 1329 to ]
under the mastership of Robert of Muston. It is clear that the school was a settled institution
and not a new creation. As will be seen there is good reason to think that it was an endc
school from at least 1260, and very likely existed long before that. It is natural to suppose
the importance and antiquity of the town, due to its celebrated fair, the Nijni Novgorod of medi;
England, that it may well claim precedence in antiquity for its school next to the Cathi
Grammar School itself. But the existing Boston records do not begin till the fourteenth centu

The school, however, reappears in the chapter act books on 5 February, 1387-8,^ when
sub-dean and chapter promised Mr. John of Newbald (i.e. probably Newball in Lincolns
the grammar school of St. Botolph on the first vacancy. He had not long to wait. On 1 7
following ' the dean and chapter in the vacancy of the chancellorship addressed their letters pj
under the seal ad causas (i. e. for legal business) to Mr. John Newbald, master in arts'
appointed him to the rectorship of the grammar school of the town or borough {viUe sive muni
of St. Botolph. Six months afterwards, 17 January, 1389-90', the dean and chapter, using
same formula, conferred the school on Mr. John of Bracebrygge.

The next mention we find of a schoolmaster at Boston is in connexion with one of the
survivmg records of the numerous gilds which existed at Boston, as in all ancient towns In
British Museum* is preserved the register of one of the most important of the gilds that of Cc
Chnsti. It was founded 8 May, 1335, as appears, says the register, from its book of sta
(which has alas disappeared), by Gilbert Alilaunde, twenty-six members joining at its incep

■ A. 2, 27, fol 30. ' A. 2, 28, fol. 21.

P K Kl "' ^\ K ;, f /u'P''u ^^\^°°^' numbered 27 and 28 overlap without being iden

Probably one is the rough draft and the other the official codv ^

* Karl. MS. 4795. ^''

SCHOOLS

Amongst the distinguished company who later belonged to it we find entered under the year 1367-8
the schoolmaster of Boston {magister scolarum Boston). Unfortunately his personal name is not
given. The fact of his admission as a member being recorded may be taken as evidence that he
was not one of the chaplains of the gild, and therefore that the school was not maintained by the
gild. In 1404^ we find the entry of a member of the scholastic profession as a member of the
gild which is absolutely unique. In the aldermanry of Hugh Wytham, among the entries is that
of ' Matilda Mareflete, schoolmistress in Boston {magistra scolarum in Boston).' This title has been
translated ' mistress of the school in Boston,' which would mean the grammar school. Apai t
from the practical impossibility of the chancellor licensing a woman as head master of the grammar
school, it is pretty certain that the word ' grammar ' would have appeared in the title if she had
been mistress of the grammar school. The record gives us no help towards determining the
question whether Matilda Mareflete kept a girls' school or was the mistress of a school of the
' petties,' or little ones, a preparatory school for small boys. The second alternative is much the more
likely. In 1445 James' Wake, late master of the grammar school in Boston (' nuper magister
scolarum gramaticalium in Boston'), was admitted.

The register of the Corpus Christi Gild makes one wish that there were many more of the
registers of gilds preserved. At Boston no less than nine gilds are included in the certificates
returned into Chancery in 1389 ; and it is certain that the school was connected with two of them
and quite possibly was supported and subsidized by others. The gilds returned, besides that of
Corpus Christi, are the Ascension, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Katherine, St. Mary,
SS. Peter and Piul, the apostles SS. Simon and Jude,^ and the Trinity. It is probable that some of
these gilds were really trade gilds, or at least supported by trades, though it is only in the case
of St. John the Baptist's Gild* — 'The Simple Gild and Company of Cordewaners' (i.e. boot-
makers)— that this is expressly stated.

The earliest and greatest of all the gilds was that of St. Mary the Virgin, specially it
would seem of the Purification of the Virgin (2 February), on which day 1,000 loaves and 1,000
herrings were distributed by it to the poor. It was founded,^ according to the certificate of
the warden {gardianus) Peter of Newland (which, unlike most of the returns, is in Latin and not
in the vulgar tongue, French), in honour ' of the female advocate of the human race,' not only for
Bostonians, but — as was also the Corpus Christi Gild — for the whole of England (' nostrum et suc-
cessorum nostrorum AngKe tocius'), on the first Sunday in Lent, 1260. In the certificates of 1389
it is stated that the gild was not then possessed of any lands or tenements. This statement must
certainly be taken with some reservation. It probably means that the gild, having been founded
before the Statute of Mortmain, had no licence to hold lands and did not want one. For one object
cf the inquiry into gilds in 1389 seems to have been to make those which did not possess licences
in mortmain get them, as the Patent Rolls in the following year are crowded with licences to gilds.
It is probable this gild had lands held by trustees and not vested in the gild itself. At all events,
in 1394^ it took out licence, for which the large sum of ;^40 (;^8go at least of our money) was
paid, to hold its lands of Queen Anne as of the honour of Richmond. Hence Queen Anne
became the reputed foundress' of this gild, founded at least a century and a quarter before her time.
The earliest mention of the grammar school in connexion with the gild is in a bull which the
gild obtained from Pope Julius in 1506,' when, in addition to the privileges as to power of choosing
a confessor given to the brethren by previous popes, he granted the brethren and sisters that visiting
the gild chapel on great feasts, Easter, Whitsuntide, Corpus Christi, or the Nativity or Assumption
of Our Lady, Michaelmas Day, or the First Sunday in Lent or in their octaves, should have the
same virtue as a visit to Rome, provided they had paid entrance fees of ^s. Sd. and paid is. z year
afterwards for the maintenance of the 7 priests, 12 choristers, 13 beadsmen, the lights, and grammar
school of the brotherhood.

When Thompson wrote his history, published in 1856, there still remained in the Gildhall,
the old hall of St. Mary's Gild in the South End at Boston, the account books of the gild from
1 5 14 to 1546 — that is, to its dissolution. Thompson describes them 'as in fine preservation,' and
it is obvious from the extracts he gives from some of them that there was a nearly continuous and
complete series. But in 1875 the whole of the corporation documents were removed from the
Gildhall and bundled in utter chaos, and without protection of box or bag, into a neighbouring

' In Mr. Pishey Thompson's History of Boston, p. 117.

' In Thompson, History of Boston, p. 119, he appears as Jacob. The entry is, of course, in Latin, Jacobus,
the translation of which, for a Christian at least, is James.

' This is the gild otherwise called the Postill Gild, and was the sailors' gild.

* P.R.O. Gild Certificates, 85. ' Ibid. 87.

' Pat. 16 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 7, 18. ' Thompson, History of Boston, 139.

' Thompson, History of Boston, says I 5 10. But an extant form of admission of a gild member B. M.
Wolley Charters, 394, 'printed by Richard Pynson,' recites the bull as dated 16 May (17 Kal. June), 1506.

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

warehouse. Now the only remnants to be found ^ are an account for the year 1525—6 and
for the year 1545-6, and from the latter most of the capital letters have been cut out.

Thompson quotes from the earliest accounts then extant, for 1 5 14, the item 'Fee to
Watson, master of the grammar school, £(), and his vestments 8i. 4^.', and ' to other pi
rectors, etc., ^2"] ijs.' Vestments is a bad translation of vesture, meaning simply clotr
gown or livery of cloth which, as was usual, was provided for the master. Preachers is
due to a misreading of predicatoribus for preshlteris, as it is quite certain that the gild did nc
tain more than one preacher, if that. The now extant account of 1525—6 shows a gross
from endowment of £2?)(), and from entrance fees of brethren and sisters, new and ok
amazing sum of ^^1,058, making in all ;^i,347, or some ^^26,800 a year of our money. 1
the numerous details of information supplied by these accounts we learn that the bailiffs
allowed £() for the chambers of the clerks of the gild, ten in number, including ' 6$. 8d,
garden of the choristers' master,' and ' ioj. for the rent of the singing house {domus ca,
which belonged to the Corpus Christi Gild.' This singing house was either the song scho(
house in which the choristers lived, one building perhaps serving for both purposes. Ag
southern chamberlain paid ' for woollen cloth bought for the livery of Mr. Garret, the scho
(magistro scale), lOs., and for the other nine chaplains of this gild at 6^. 8d. each, £6.' The 1
chamberlain paid the same amount, so that the schoolmaster's gown cost £1 and tl:
chaplains' 13^. 4^/. each ; a striking testimony to the importance of the schoolmaster in 1
of the brethren. Similarly, the Robert Westwoode who was the choristers' schoolmaster h
clerks of the gild, whose ' livery ' cost 1 3^ . 4^., the same rate as that of the lower chaplains
choristers were given not only 'le brodecloth ' for their gowns, but also their tunics, ' birretts
shirts, shoes, stockings, in fact all their clothing, including combs (le comys) at 2d. each
' pair of knives ' each and ' le baggs ' at a cost of £"] 4J. ^d} Straw for their beds cost 2<
The bedesmen were clothed not in cloth but in russet frieze at a cost of ^^4 19^. dd., includ
crowns (the town arms) in embroidery or metal plates on the gowns. The aldermen j
stipends of the staff. Among the chaplains, Thomas Garret, master of the grammar
[magister scale gramaticalh, the word school now having become usual in the singular n
heads the list and receives ;^I0 a year, the same salary as the head masters of Winchester an
Of the rest the next chaplain only got ^^5 13J. \d., and the keeper of the jewels [jacalium, i.i
£S bs. 8d., which was the salary of five of the others, including two who celebrated in the
{hospicium) of St. John in the South End. Two others received ^^8 and one £6. It is su
to find that the singing clerks [clerici cantatares), or lay clerks as they are called in cathedral c
now, received as much as the chaplains or more. The educational clerk heads the list ; Mr.
woode, the master of the choristers, receiving ^^13 6s. 8d. besides ^3 6s. 8d. for teaching t
sing, while the choristers' commons [cammensa libus) zost £ij 6s. 8d. and their servant 20^.;
was also allowed for paper and ink for them, so presumably they were taught to write
organist, John Wendon, also received ^^13 65. 8d. The others received three of thei
one £8, and three more ^5 6s. 8d. Singing and music therefore was highly pr
Boston in the sixteenth century. John Broke, the keeper of the Lady choir, the east
the south aisle, was paid ^^3 6s. 8d. a year, with is. ^.d. 'more for seeing the choristers sz
mattins every day,' which, with other little payments for calling ' le assembles,' scouring the
stick, and providing rushes for the chapel, and sleeping in the vestry in winter, brought h
receipts to £4. 4.S. 8d.

In view of the great establishment shown by the gild account of 1525, it is a little astc
to find that ten years later, in a return to the crown for the first-fruits and tenths' t
of St. Mary of Boston is said to be worth only ^24 'in the income of lands in'm
given for the salaries of four priests or chaplains founded there by Sir Hugh Wytham
James Frere, and John Palmer, each receiving, for his wages and clothing, ^6 a year.' A
tional entry of ' lands in the hands of feoffees given for eighty years by John Robynson to
gild for two priests each receiving yearly ^6 ' is crossed out, no doubt because the foundat
not perpetual. The omission of the other four priests is probably to be explained by its bei
that they were supported by voluntary contributions, not by endowments. The result is t

' On my inquiring after them some five years ago, Mr. R. Staniland, the then town clerk h
transported to his house and let me search them. I found some of the payments mentioned above '
had boxes made for them, now returned to Mr. Slater's warehouse. By the kindness of Mr Mabin S)
the present town clerk with the help of some of the grammar school boys, I went through he e b
tveTerished " "' "' ' '""'^ ""P' ''^ ^"°""' ^"^ '5^5-6. It is to be feared that

" Not their trousers, but bags in which the knives were kpnt W» .,,. • -1
in Durham monastery for pairs of knives and ' loculis'"r" burst ?; kHp thl^in " ""''""'^ '° '^'

' Valar Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 88. P ^^ '"•

452

SCHOOLS

gild of Corpus Christi, which is returned as supporting six priests at ;^5 ds. Sd. a year, actually
appears in the Falor as a richer gild, with an income of ,^32 a year, than that of St. Mary, which
possessed more than ten times its income. To 1537 ^ has been generally attributed the only Boston
schoolmaster who is reputed to have been an author, one Wilfrid Holme, who wrote a long English
poem, ' The Fall and Evil Success of Rebellion,' on the ' Pilgrimage of Grace.' But the poem
itself shows that its author was a country gentleman at Huntington in Yorkshire, and apologizes for
omitting any mention of the rebellion in Lincolnshire because it was ' very far distant from my
habitacion.' So Boston School cannot claim him.

In 1540 we find the only other gild account now extant. It is a bailifPs rent-roll for the
year ending on Thursday in Whitsun week, with such expenditure as was incident to the landed
property of the gild. In the fourteen years since 1525 the rental had grown from £102 to £128.
The only reference to the school occurs in the mention of ' rent of 20s. for a pasture called Scole-
house greene in Boston, lately given to the gild by William Ruscham ' ; while among the out-
goings is one of * 6s. for ditching round the same pasture,' this time called ' Scole Grene.'

Five years later, when the dissolution of gilds was impending, a tale is to be told of which sad
havoc has been made by the Boston historian. After the dissolution of the monasteries and the death
of Henry duke of Richmond, the natural son of Henry VIII, who was lord of the manor of Boston
as part of the honour of Richmond, the people of Boston obtained the incorporation ^ of the town
on 14 May, 1545, as a free borough {liier hurgus) holding directly from the crown as of the manor
of Caistor, under a mayor and aldermen, with recorder, town clerk, markets and fairs, and all the
usual attributes of a municipal borough, with the special attributes of a port and grant of admiralty
jurisdiction. In the letters patent granting this, a very remarkable and exceptional clause was
added by which the aldermen, wardens, or master and brethren and sisters of all the gilds of
Boston were enabled to grant, and the mayor and aldermen to receive, all the gild lands and posses-
sions real and personal to their own use, the corporation undertaking to maintain and observe
all the observances, services {pbsequia), charitable gifts, and other ordinances of the donors. By
other letters patent which passed the Great Seal four days later — 18 May — the newly-incor-
porated borough obtained from the king, at the then huge price of ^i,6\b i$s. \d. (close on
;i^35,ooo of our money, and relatively a much larger sum), the manor of Boston and all the other
messuages north and south of the manor of Hallgarth, and a large list of property including Jesar
(i.e. Gisors) Hall and the beam in it for weighing merchandise, the office of the beam, the docks
and staithes, and customs, together with the Hussey Tower, the mighty red-brick tower which
still stands near the school-house, and the rest of the property of Lord Hussey, attainted of high
treason in 1538, and the church, rectory, and vicarage of Boston, which had belonged to the
Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. Besides these were innumerable items of property in Boston
belonging to dissolved monasteries, probably largely acquired for the purpose of house-room when
attending Boston Fair from distant Durham, Jervaulx, and Fountains to the neighbouring Swines-
head and Thornton. The total yearly income was ;^i6o 175. \d. ; so the town paid for it in only
ten years' purchase, about half the ordinary number of years' purchase at the time, but they paid in
addition a perpetual rent-charge of ^2 1 1 2i. The purchase-money was to be paid by instalments,
only ;^I07 \Qi. being paid down, and in fact the payment was not completed till the reign of
Philip and Mary.

No doubt the clause in the incorporation charter enabling the gilds to grant their property
to the corporation was intended, besides preserving the schools and almshouses, to provide the means
of paying for this great speculation in property. It was very promptly taken advantage of.
' Nicholas Robynson, esquyer,' the first * Maior did take his corporal othe in the Guyhalde of the
said borrowe,' together with the aldermen, headed by Thomas Sorsby, and other officials on
I June, 1545.' On 12 July * following John Margerie, alderman of St. Mary's Brotherhood,
Stephen Clarke, master or warden of the Trinity Gild, Thomas Soresbie, master of St. George's
Gild, John Tupholm, master of St. Peter and St. Paul's Gild, and Robert, bishop of Down and
Connor," master of Corpus Christi Gild, and the brethren and sisters of the respective gilds,
granted all their goods and lands to the corporation. By an odd mistake the conveyance of
the last-mentioned gild omitted the name of the gild, so a new grant had to be made on
10 August.

' Thompson, History of Boston, 103 ; from Baker's Chronicle, 230. ^ Pat. 37 Hen. VIII, pt. iv, m. 23.

'Cor. Min. Books, i, extending from i June, 1545, to the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
Unfortunately most of the earlier entries are missing, it being significantly recorded in 1551, Henry Fox
mayor, that ' this man took home with him all the pamphlets of assembles and are so lost and not restored.'

* Not 22 July as in Thompson, History of Boston, 150.

' The Irish sees throughout the Middle Ages were largely held by Englishmen who lived in England,
and acted as suffragans to English bishops. Thus the first warden of Winchester College became archbishop
of Dublin, but lived and died warden of New College, Oxford.

453

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

in the covenant in their cl
Unfortunately for the town they had been too '^""^"''^'"l^jes Act of Henry VIII. Bl
The grant thus made saved the gild possessions from the "-'"^,. j ^y the founders swept

obligation imposed to carry out the observances and ^"^'«^ 1546, the corporation deter

within the Chantries Act of Edward VI. ^^^^i^^ Zt'Jr^lUs'tting an end to the (
that 'the Pageants shode not goo "^XrcTemonjes we^LppS superstitious uses we

"^n t\Z\S:it Sjt'Je m^inirdra^d^that Mit'^^^ v'enom pLned the whole
?h t urnTfth:Bostl olds to the Chantry Commission in 1548 showed a very large re
from the gilds. Gild of Blessed Mary, ^^323 ^S^- 5 Corpus Chr.st., ^^114 16.. 7^- ; St. Pete
St Paul, /57 7s ; Trinity, ^£20 3.. jd. ; St. George, £11 <)s. lOd. ; total, ^527 ^2s ; wh.
pkte was of great value. According to this return St. Mary's Gild, besides eleven chaplains
seven singing clerks and an unnamed number of choristers and of poor bedesmen. 1 he ch:
were still, as in 1525, headed by the schoolmaster, now William ^ Harnsoon or Harrisor
received /lo 2s. a year, none of the others getting more than £b 2s. But two of the singm:
got /8 13^. 4^. The organist of St. Mary's choir was paid £2 y. ^d. The choristers, pr
seven in number, cost ;^6 17/. lod. for their maintenance [exhibtaone), while £10 \bs. wa
for their commons, or a commoner with them,' it is not quite clear which. The maintenan
coals of the chaplains and bedesmen cost ^^32 i^s. Sd. The master of the beggars {magtster
cantium) was paid 5^. 4^. ; the chaplain's manciple or cook, £1 6s. 8d. ; the barber, l^s.-, tl
woman in the poorhouse, 6s. Sd. ; and the washerwoman lo^ lod. a year. The town s c
were paid by the gild £1^ 13s- ^d., and ;£20 was borrowed from its income for the town affa

At first . . 1 r. J. -..._!._

But on 8 Ma

to London _ _ , .

certen articles concernyng the lands of late Corpus Christi, and nowe to the corporacion,
answer to be maide to the lorde AdmyralL' The Lord High Admiral was Edward ]
Lord Clinton, who had obtained a grant, 24 February, 1550-1, of the lands and possessii
the Corpus Christi Gild, which were thus treated as confiscated to the crown under the Ch:
Act. Worse was to follow. On 21 June, 1552, at the common council there were ' op
letters of the Lord Marquess of Northampton, who had obtayned at the King's maiesties 1
all the late gilde landes that perteyned to the corporacion, as Qur Lady's, St. Peter's, the Try
and Saint Georges, requiryng the sole lease for the same.' A grant had been made by
patent, 25 January, 6 Edward VI, to the marquis, then Lord Chamberlain. There was
disposition to resist, but wiser counsels prevailed, and, finally, * for divers consideracions
movyng . . for avoydyng of further damages they thinke and so holly agree (that
certen condicions) they will make a release and surrender, that is to say, to have this hal]
th'arrages with other thyngs as may be obtayned.' Accordingly on 9 July ' the surren
release . . was sealed in the Guyhald.' On 20 July ^ the marquis sealed a deed releasing 1
burgesses of Boston ' all goods and catalls of the gilds.' These they appear to have sold,
31 October we find that ' this act shall be a sufficient discharge for Henry Hoode, nowe the
of and for all manner of goods and processyon garments ' solde by hym of late in the Gu
The Gildhall they were suffered to keep, the kitchen under it and the chamber over it
on 6 October prepared for a prison and for a ' dwellyng howse for one of the servintts ' 1
jeants. But the Gildhall had apparently already been granted away by the marquis,
17 January, 1553—4, Mr. Foster, the town clerk, was ' to require a letter to Mr. Hunston :
release to the Guyhald.' The matter was not settled for nearly ten years, when, as will be
the corporation paid heavily for the Gildhall.

The marquis did not long enjoy the gild lands. He was sent to the Tower 23 July,
tried and convicted of high treason, in consequence of his support of Lady Jane Grey, a
consequence, though his life was spared, all his property was forfeited to the crown,
corporation of Boston took advantage of this. On 12 October, 1554,* the town clei
another were sent to London ' for £^0 with the faculties.' This is explained by a further
on 22 October, when a letter of attorney was sealed to them ' for the town's affairs befo
Lord Chancellor and elsewhere . and for the ereccion of the landes for ^^50 by yei
other faculties,' to mean the grant of the gild lands and a charter for the school. These

'A. F. Leach, EfigM Schools at the Reformation (1896), 136, sets out the gild of St. Mary
Chan. Cert. 33, No. 31, contains the account of the rest.

' In EngRsh Schools at the Reformation his name was through an oversight printed Willielmo for Wil

' Pro commensali cum eisdem. * Corp. Rec. A paper book marked Fox's Lands.

' i.e. the garments used in the Corpus Christi procession and the play which accompar
followed it.

* Corp. Min., vol. i. The year 1554 is given, but this seems to be a mistake.

45 1

SCHOOLS

eventually obtained — to judge from an entry of 31 January, 1554-5, ' agreed that the house which
John Mason dwellith in sholde be solde for payment of ^^loo to the King and Queenes maiestie ' —
at a cost of ;^I00, or ^^2,000 of our money. So no deep gratitude need be felt to King Philip
and Queen Mary by the people of Boston for the return of the endowment given by their own
ancestors, by letters patent of 6 January, 1554-5;^ though they did recite that the grant was
made for the reformation of the enormities perpetrated by the Chantries Act, and because 'edu-
cation of youths and children in good letters was their royal duty and function.' The property of
St. Mary, SS. Peter and Paul, and Trinity Gilds, as the same came to William, marquis of Northamp-
ton, ' which now extend to the yearly value of £()0,' was made over to the mayor and burgesses
for ever

to the purpose of finding, maintaining, and establishing for ever a Free Grammar School in Boston and
a fit master or pedagogue to teach, instruct, and serve in the said school for the education and
instruction of children and youths in grammar and also to find two priests to celebrate divine service in
the parish church and four poor inhabitants of the borough to pray there for ever for our good estate
while we live and for our souls when we have passed from this light, and for the souls of our ancestors
for ever.

The lands were to be held as of the manor of Caistor, Lincolnshire, by fealty only, and the
rents were to be taken from the day of the attainder of the marquis. That there might be no
question that the grant was a trust and not general corporate property, the letters patent go on —

And we will and order that the Mayor and burgesses and their successors shall lay out, expend,
and convert all the income from the lands for the maintenance of the Schoolmaster and usher {^edagogi
et suppedagogi) of the school aforesaid and of the chaplains and poor men and for other necessary things
only touching and concerning the said borough, school, chaplains, and poor men aforesaid and the
support and maintenance of the same and not in any other manner or to any other uses or intents.

The total property included in the grant consisted of 50 messuages and 227 acres, 5 perches
of land, about two-thirds of it derived from St. Mary's Gild. So that not more than a quarter, if
so much, of the whole property of the gilds was bought back. The lands recovered became known
as ' the Erection Lands.'

It has been made a charge against ^ the corporation that they parted with the lands in Walcot,
part of John Robynson's lands. But the Corporation Minute Book above quoted shows that they
parted with them because they could not help it, in order to keep the Gildhall and the rest of the
lands. On 27 October, 1 56 1, 'wher there is a certen demand by Mr. Hunston maid for the hall,
the garthyng to it, ;^io a yere of the ereccion lands' and 'other things,' now he is contented to comen
and fall to talkes for the same,' a committee was appointed to confer with him. On 23 May, 1562,
articles were agreed, and on 14 August he was granted the Stone thyng or Toll thing and appur-
tenances at Walcot and ^^90 was paid him in cash, he relinquishing his title to the rest of John
Robynson's lands.

The corporation at this time hoped to recover more of the property, sending on 7 April, 1562,
'a letter to Mr. Cicell for his favour to helpe us to a lycense of ;^ioo or 100 marks in mortmain
and to gyve him ;^20 for his goodness therein.' But the money was spent in vain.

After the charter the school was at first still carried on in the old school-building in Wormgate
a tortuous street, running northwards at the west end of the church. It was included in the
letters patent as ' a house in which a grammar school {scola litteratoria) is kept,' part of the posses-
sions of St. Peter and St. Paul Gild. It was not till 1567 that the corporation thought it neces-
sary to provide a new site and buildings. On 19 May, 1567, it was agreed ' ther shalbe a new
Scholehouse erected in the Hallgarth.' On 12 April, 1568, a committee examined the building
account and found that the ' charges came to one hundryth four schoure fyftene pounds and eleven
pence,' or ^^195 os. iid. The final payment was 15 October, 1568, when Anthony Clay wood,
late mayor, paid ^26 balance due from him for his mayoralty ; ' the other ^^4 was allowed him for
2,000 thatche tile that he delivered to John Dixon for the Scholehouse.'

The school thus erected still forms the main building of the present school. The old stone
which was over the entrance porch is still preserved, inscribed ' A°., 1567, Regine Elizabethe nono
Maior et Burgenses de Bostonia uno et eodem consensu puerorum institucionis gracia in piis litteris
banc aedificaverunt Scholam. Gulielmo Ganocke, stapulae mercatore, ad tunc maiore existente.'
This building remained untouched until 1850 when a class-room and a new entrance porch
were added. In 1903 considerable additions were made. Two extensive laboratories, both
chemical and physical, with a lecture-room, now occupy the whole of the south side
of the old playground, and a covered fives court has been erected on the west. These
buildings have necessarily contracted the wide open area of the old Hallgarth or Mart Yard.

' Not 1553-4 as in Thompson, Hist, of Bos ion, 272. Philip only married Mary, and became Icing,
25 July, 1554.

' Char. Com. Rep. (1837), xxxii, pt. iv, 8.

455

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Here the great annual fair was held for centuries. It is still proclaimed by the town crie
the very words of the old formula in the school playground. Formerly it was surrounded
shops, which were removed in the eighteenth century.

Positive proof is afforded that the school was carried on in the old school by the church
till the new building was ready, by the entry on 2 September, 1570, 'at this Assemblie Mr. Boi
did purchase the old Scolehouse at Wormgate with a certen peace of ground nere the same 1
within his pasture, which was agreed that he should have the fee symple thereof for ^^8.' It
not however conveyed till, by a deed 10 August, 1572, it was granted to Robert Bonner on a
for 99 years perpetually renewable. The commissioners of 1837^ identified the schoolmas
dwelling-house with that then and now used for Laughton's School, It seems to have been use
the master long after the school itself was removed to its present site, as in 1580 the corpon
directed the schoolmaster to take his house at the North Church Stile and keep the same in repair,
in 1639 it is called the ' house in the churchyard, commonly called the Schoolmaster's house, belon
to the corporation.' The present master's house was not built till 1825 when, to the spoilir
the view of the simple but beautiful Elizabethan building, the hideous structure of yellow brick
built on the west end of the playground between the school and the road and river at a coi
j{^2,oo7 \%s?

We find what is probably the name of the first schoolmaster under the ' Ereccion
an entry of 27 April, 1568 : 'Item, that John Dyson shall pay to Master James Smyth 20i. w
was dewe to hym at the feast of the Annunciacion last past for his fee, and to take his acquitanc
the same for full payment of his fee unto that day.' He seems then to have given plac
Mr. Walter WodrofF, who had to borrow money to get to Boston. On 1 1 June, I
' Where at this Assembly John Wilkinson is in surplusage of the church accompt 65^.
and hath receyved the some of looj. of the debt of Mr. WodrofF, scolemaister, that oi
same he is allowed the said surplusage,' and having paid the mayor the rest is discharged. An
31 December, 'Whereas Walter WodrufF, clerke, nowe scolemaster of this Borough stode ai
bounden to pay ;^5 at Christmas last, he is given to Lady Day next to pay it,' and
25 September, 1570, his 'bill' for ^5 was again extended to Christmas, 1570.

An usher was provided for in the charter : and one had probably always existed in th
school. By deed 7 April, 1558, Richard Briggs, yeoman, who was an alderman, gave the mayo
burgesses a messuage in Fishtoft and 32 acres of land in Fishtoft, Boston, and Skirbeck, reserv
life interest to himself and Audrey' his wife. On 12 January, 1567-8, the corporation 'on
and agreed that the messuage lands and tenements that are gyven to the maior and burgessi
Richard Bryggs after the death of him and Awdry nowe his wife that the same shalbe to the fyn
of an Ussher in the gramer schole of Boston for ever.' At the same time a lease was sealed to
for two pastures in the Holmes at ^^3 13^ \d. a year 'for 21 yeres yf he and his wyfe lyve so 1
with another lease to Mr. Sowthen of the Marshes at £b a year ' towards the fynding of an U
in a Grammar Schole in Boston,' while ' Mr. Hawkridge hath done and is agreed to pay f^
yere to thuse aforesaid.' The nature of the transaction is rather mysterious and does not
whether it was a gift by Briggs or a purchase, or partly one and partly the other. The applic
to the usher of the rents reserved on the leases to the other persons named was probably only a
of providing the usher's endowment until Briggs's lands came into possession. No usher's 1
however is recorded till ten years later, 25 March, 1577-8, when it was agreed that ' Mr.
shall be the Usher of the Grammar Scool and to be removeable at the discression of the Corpor
upon reasonable warnynge, and notwythstandyng to contynewe chaplen still, and have the fee
stipende belongeinge to the chaplen onelye.' The chaplain thus referred to was the mj
chaplain, one of the two chaplains provided for in Philip and Mary's charter, not the preach(
the borough who assisted in the parish church and preached there, but another whose special
was assigned 4 June, 1575, which was probably the time when Mr. Pike was appointed, f
service at St, John's Church in the South End. The nave in this church was pulled down in i
and in 1626 the chancel was removed and its stones applied to repairing the parish chun
St. Botolph ; the licence to do so falsely stating that it ' had not then been employed for any d
use for the space of 200 years or thereabouts.' To use the mayor's chaplain as usher w;
ingenious way of saving the corporation's pocket.

The same year it was agreed ' that a dictionarye shall be bought for the scollers of the
Scoole, and the same boke to be tyed to a cheyne and set upon a desk in the scoole, whereunt
scoller may have access as occasion shall serve.'

In 1586 there was a change in both places, Mr. Peter Lylley being 'chosen to be sch
master of the Grammar Schole,' while ' one James Harry, Bachelour of Artes, is elected to be u
and to have li for his stipend ' by yere upon good likinge both of this house and of the saide u

' Char. Com. Rep. loc. cit. 9. 2 \\i\A. 11.

= Not Adrianne, an impossible name for that time, as Thompson, History of Boston, 279.

456

SCHOOLS

This was cheap enough, but it is probable that Harris, like his predecessor, was also mayor's
chaplain. On 6 January, 1588-9, Mr. Samuel Beadle, 'Mr. of Arte, late of Bennet College,'
i.e. what is now known as Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, was appointed head master. Next
year seats were provided for the boys in St. Botolph's Church. At the next election, 31 December,
1597, the corporation descended to a ' Batcheler of Arte,' John Newall.

In 1 60 1 it was agreed that 'there shall be bough te at the charges of this Corporation two
dictionaries, one greek and the other latine, and that the Schoolmaster for the time being shall see
that they be well kepte for the use of the Schoole.'

On 15 January, 1608-9, Mr. John Blackborn, M.A., became head master. He resigned
23 July, 1613, and Mr. Bariona (? Barjonas) Doue, elsewhere called Dove and Dowe,^ came, but
'yealded up his place,' after two years, on 13 February, 161 5-6, when Anthony Dixon, who had
been usher from i June, 1604, to 1 1 January, 1608-9, ^^^ 'entreated to take paines to teach the
schoUers in the free schole heare untill a sufficient scholemaster can be provided.' On 28 March,
1616, Mr. John Stretton, ' Mr. of Artes this next commencement,' which shows that he was a
Cambridge man, was appointed. Three years was enough for him, and he resigned 13 January,
16 1 8-9. On 10 February Mr. John, M.A., was elected 'to have the same wages and house due
to him,' but he ' surrendered ' 4 June, 1619, and Mr. Thomas James was elected the same day.
He surrendered after a year, 31 October, 1620, when William Wattson, 'Mr. of Art,' came. He
was an Oxford man of Lincoln College, where he had matriculated 22 May, 1601, at the early
age of 15, so that though of nineteen years' standing he was still only 34 years old. He actually
stayed for seven years, when ' by Mr. Hicks, his grandfather,' a member of the corporation, he
' surrendered himself, being called to be the minister of Horblinge.' The ushers were even less
stayers than the masters. Their dates run : 15 December, 1592, Mr. William Harcastle ; 31 July,
1595, ' one Anthonie Bourne ' ; 9 June, 1598, Mr. Thomas Pearson ; i June, 1606, Mr. Anthony
Dixon, who on resignation apparently in disgust at not being made head master when Newall was
appointed 18 January, 1608—9, received ^^13 6s. Sd. 'as a gratuitye ' ; 10 February, 1608—9,
Mr. John Emmeth, whose stipend was ^^lo a year. On 12 October, 16 13, Mr. Doctor Baron,
Mr. Cotton (who was the famous John Cotton, then vicar of Boston, whence he had to fly from the
Laudian persecution to what became in his honour New Boston, now Boston, Massachusetts),
Mr. Ingoldsbye, and Mr. Wooll (the late vicar) were ' appoynted to make triall whether
Mr. Emmath {sic) be a fitting and sufficient man to exercise the place of the usher of the Grammar
Schoole within this boroughe, and to conferre with him to knowe whether he will conforme himself
to teach after such rules as Mr. Dove, the chiefe schoolmaster, doth.' Apparently he would not
conform, but he was treated gently on the score of health. On 25 November 'Mr. John Emmith,
having been for a long time sicke and weeke, and being not able to continue his place of ushershippe,
hath freely and willingly surrendered up the same, which surrender this house hath accepted,' and
gave him his wages to Christmas, with ;^io more ' for a further gratuity and contribution from this
house towards his better relief and succour.' Next day Mr. Robert Boughe was chosen, ' his year to
be reckoned at Christmas next.' On 16 October, 16 17, Anthony Dixon, after being acting head
master, returned to the ushership ; he ' shall serve this quarter ensuinge for Mr. Boughe, and he is to
be satisfied for his wages during the time of Mr. Boughe's absence.' On 10 February, 1618-9, he
was formally re-elected usher, and proved the most permanent of all, only retiring 20 January, 1625,
when he was ' now growne aged and weake and very blind.' ' In that he hath been very service-
able in this house ' he was given ' as a gratuity during the pleasure of this house the yerely
sum of £i^.'

Mr. Samuel Winter was elected in Dixon's place, and for the first time an usher succeeded
to the head-mastership in his person on 9 May, 1627. On 8 February, 1630, he left, when
Mr. William Goodwin was chosen ' heade scholmaister of the Borough.' How long he stayed does
not appear, but it could not have been long, as Samuel, son of Abraham Browne, an innkeeper of
Boston, is entered at St. John's College, Cambridge, 9 April, 1636, as having been at school under
Mr. Atkinson for more than seven years. On 28 February, 1636-7, Mr. Atkinson, ' head schole-
master,' was ordered a ' gratuity from this house out of the ereccion lands, the some of ^5 in regard
the proffits of his schole hav been so greatly hindered by reason of the late visitacion uppon the
Buroughe this last year.' This entry seems to show that tuition fees were charged to those outside
the borough, unless perchance it was the Shrove Tuesday cockfight and the presents that accompanied
it which had failed. The visitation was the plague. Next year, 18 December, Atkinson received
another gratuity of ^4 ' in regard of his extraordinary paines and dilligence in the schole and for his
incouragement therein.' But this encouragement could not keep him. On 20 July, 1640,
Mr. Thomas Welfyt was chosen usher in place of Mr. Cooper, ' late usher and now the Head-
master'— the first use of this term simpliciter. Mr. Richard Cooper was from New Inn Hall,
Oxford, where he had taken his B.A. degree 3 June, 1630, at the age of eighteen, and his M.A.

' Not Done, as Thompson, History of Boston, 285.

2 457 58

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

degree i6 May, 1633.^ He was thus only 24 when elected usher and 31 when he becaff
head master. In the year 1627, on 18 May Mr. Wallys and on 31 July Mr. John Rayn(
had been successively chosen ushers, and on 18 April, 1628, Mr. Jeremy Vasis or Vasin (wti
became rector of Skirbeck). Samuel Kendall followed in 1633, resigning on 8 April, 1636, whe
Cooper was appointed. Welfitt, who succeeded Cooper as usher, received, 20 July, 1640, 4°^- t<
his 'charges comminge from Yorke hither.' On 18 December he had gone, when Mr. Jeren:
Collyer, ' Batcheler of Arts,' was elected. He went ofF to the head-mastership of Ipswich 1
1645, and became the father of the famous Jeremy Collier, non-juror writer and bishop. U
5 August, 1642, Mr. Richard Cooper retired, « being settled at a place in the ministry.

Between 1642 and 1657 there were no less than four masters, MiUington, LL.B., 1648
Eusebius Morton, 1652 ; Ashall, 1652. Then the corporation, tired of perpetual change mac
Richard Palfreyman, 'as master of the Free School belonging to this borough, upon his electic
engage to this house that he would keep the said School for five years at least, and to give a year
warning when he intended to leave the said School.' Palfreyman only just stayed out his five yea
till 1662, though his retirement then may have been due to the politico-religious reaction which toe
place. His successor was Jonathan Jephcot of New Inn Hall, Oxford, vicar of SwafFham, Norfol]
in 1633, but sequestered by Parliament. On his arrival new books were provided, a large folio Englis
Bible, a Scapula Lexicon, a large Calepynus' Dictionary, a large quarto Homer's Iliad, and Tully's Si
Orations. But Jephcot, who was fifty-three years old, did not find schoolmastering to his taste, an
retired after a year. Philip Ormston of Christ's College, Cambridge, came in. He was brought t
Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1649, by the Parliamentary Commission, and was second master (
Magdalen College School, 1649-51. He, during the Commonwealth, held a living, and whe
elected was vicar of Claxton, in Leicestershire. He actually held the mastership for thirtee
years to 1674.

After Thomas Palmer, 1674-9, the corporation resolved 'that whosoever hereafter is electe
schoolmaster shall, while he continues in that office, not accept of any parsonages, curacy, or emploj
ment whatever, or preach without licence from the mayor.' Edward Emerson of Lincoln Collegi
Oxford, was elected. But the restriction was not successful, and he went away in a year, thoug
the salary was now raised to j£30 a year. A native of Boston, Joseph Bell of Lincoln Colleg(
Oxford, who then came, stayed six years. His successor, William Speed, held for four years
Edmund Kelsall for five. He was allowed to preach till February next, and in 1 700 to 'assist' th
vicar, and in 1702 became himself vicar of Boston. Samuel Coddington held for seventeen yean
1702 to 1719 : then Thomas Colborn of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, for seven years, havin
the vicarage of South Ormesby as well as the mastership, and retiring on the vicarage of Walpoh
Norfolk. John Rigby, 1726, was in 1728 allowed to 'accept Leverton rectory upon his engagin
to attend the school and employ a curate at Leverton.' During his time plays were performed b
the boys at Christmas, he writing prologues and epilogues for them.^

On 12 May, 1732, 'upon the question put the Rev. Mr. Joseph Smith is duly elected Maste
of the Free School of the Borough (there being seventeen Ballots in the Box for his election and si
Ballots in the Box against his being elected) with a Sallary of £so to commence from May Da
last on the resignation of the Rev. Mr. John Rigby observing the Proviso annext to the Resolutio
of this Hall for the Augmentation of his sallary.'

In 1737 Matthew Robinson of Lincoln and then a fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, wa
elected. He was only twenty-four years old and held Kirton vicarage with the mastershif
Dying in 1745, he lies buried in Kirton Church. His successor, James Muscatt, was of Merto
and then of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was already rector of Staughton, Bedfordshire, an
died there. Then came Thomas Bateman, 1758-69, and W. S. Lewis, the first master with tw
Christian names, who only held for one quarter, June to September, 1769. The Rev. Obadiah Be
of Lincoln College, Oxford, then established a record. Appointed in September, 1769, at the ag
of twenty-three, he held office for twenty years. The corporation quarrelled with him fror
1775 to 1779 over his opening a door into the Mart Yard, as the school yard was then callec
and establishing a ' conveniency ' for the boys. Bell was also vicar of Frampton. His reign seerr
to have destroyed the spell of restlessness, probably because the Erection Lands had become moi
valuable and the place was better. Since then no head master has held office for less than a quartf
of a century. John Banks, B.D., ruled from 1790 to 1820.

In 1803 a prospectus or 'Plan of Instruction and Management at Boston School, conducte
by the Reverend John Banks, B.D., with the Assistance of well-qualified Masters,' shows that th
school was a boarding school as well as a day school. ' The boys are not allowed to go into tl

' So Foster, Jlumnl Oxontenses, but it is probably a mistake, as he is described as ' Batcheler of Arts ' whe
elected usher, and as it took seven years to become an M.A. and he only matriculated in 1627, there w
not time.

' Thompson, History of Boston, 255, from Spalding Gentlemen's Society.

458

SCHOOLS

Town without particular Leave ; and the younger ones are never suffered to walk alone near any
Place of Danger ; the Head Master walks out with the Boarders when the weather is fine. One
of the Masters or Housekeeper visits every room soon after the Boarders have retired to Rest ;
and the Head Master goes round to the different Apartments at such Times as he supposes himself
to be least likely to be expected by the Boys. With regard to their Manners and good Order it
may be justly asserted that they are much praised in the Town and neighbourhood of the School
as regular and well-behaved young Gentlemen.'

Dr. Homer, appointed in 1820, had been a master at Rugby, and was at first eminently
successful. We learn from the late Mr. Roy's ' Reminiscences' that in 1835 when he was at the
school there were 50 or 60 day boys in attendance, but no boarders. During the year he was
at the school he says he got through two Greek plays, translations in Greek and Latin prose and
verse, with 28 chapters of Genesis in Hebrew, a few Psalms, and six chapters of Isaiah ; but
Mr. Roy adds that there were no boys going then from the school to the university.

The Commissioners of Inquiry in 1839 ^ seem to have been only interested in questions of the
property of the Erection Lands. Of the school itself they only say that there were 20 boys on
the foundation instructed in an English and commercial education, while six of them learnt French
at a fee of ;^ I a quarter : and that other boys got classics free but paid ^\ a year for English and
commercial subjects and £^\ a year for modern languages. After the Municipal Corporations Act
the Erection Lands were taken out of the hands of the corporation and placed under a body of
municipal charity trustees, 15 in number, appointed by the Court of Chancery. Dr. Homer
stayed too long. The school dwindled away in his latter years till in 1847 there were no boys at
all. At length resort was had to the court, and under a scheme established in 1850 the head
master, who was also vicar of Freiston, retired on a pension of ;^8o a year. The scheme
established tuition fees of ^^3 a year for all boys. But, as was pointed out by Mr. H. W. Eve in
1867,^ the scheme was framed as if the head master and the usher were to keep two independent
schools ; the head master paying £^\ a head to the second master for the boarders, and the two
sharing the day boys' capitation fees equally, so that the usher's place, having the separate Briggs
endowment, was as good as, or better than, the head master's. The head master taught classics and
mathematics, the usher English, French, geography, and arithmetic, and gave religious instruction.
Both were to be members of the Church of England, an innovation wholly unwarranted by the
charter ; but neither was to hold a cure of souls. George Edwin Pattenden, B.D., who was
appointed head master in 1850, quickly raised the school. In 1864 there were twenty boarders,
for whom 40 guineas were charged, and about 70 day boys. The assistant commissioner who
then visited it spoke highly of the instruction given not only in classics but in modern languages
and English and geography, one or two open scholarships at Oxford and Cambridge being won
every year. This success was maintained throughout Dr. Pattenden's reign. A report of
Mr. T. H. Ward, fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1871, found Virgil, Tacitus, Aeschylus,
and Thucydides well done. The Gaisford Greek Prose Prize at Oxford had just been won by
G. E. Jeans, scholar of Pembroke, Oxford, a Boston Schoolboy. The mathematics were good
and the French ' excellent ; much better than amongst boys of the same age at the great public
schools.'

In that year the Endowed Schools Commissioners, in consequence of an application to enlarge
the head master's house, held inquiries with a view to a new scheme, the governors being desirous
of making the school a whole under the control of the head master. But when the scheme was
published a storm of opposition broke out, owing partly to its proposing to raise the fees to the very
moderate figure of j^5 in the junior and ;^io in the senior department of the school, partly
because it proposed to amalgamate Laughton's School and the Blue Coat School and make
them a girls' school ; while the clergy opposed it because the vicar's and lecturer's shares out of
the Erection Lands, which had been raised considerably by the scheme of 1850 — when the endow-
ment brought in about ^1,100 a year net — had not been increased. The scheme was dropped.
In 1877 the corporation again tried to get a scheme passed. The school had then risen to
136, viz. Ill day boys and 25 boarders, with four masters, besides the head master. A new
scheme was published 12 February, 1879, but though under it the maximum tuition fees were
lowered to {i>, yet it was violently opposed because it proposed to inciease the payments to the
clergy. It, too, was dropped In 1887 Dr. Pattenden, who had kept up the high standard of
the teaching to the last, retired.

Mr. William White succeeded. He had been at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge,
where he became a Senior Optime ; and was then mathematical master at Marlborough College.
He has never taken boarders, the head master's house not being adequate for more than ten or
eleven according to modern standards, and the trustees being unwilling to spend money on enlarge-
ment. He has maintained the school at about 90 day boys ; and has always obtained one or

' Char. Com. Rep. xxxii, pt. iv, 12. ' Sch. Inq. Rep. xvi, 162.

459

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

two open scholarships at the universities, chiefly in mathematics or science, every year ; besid
getting boys into the Indian Civil Service, the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, and so fort
At length on 29 May, 1903, a scheme was made under the Charitable Trusts Acts by tl
Board of Education. This constituted a governing body consisting of the mayor of Bosto
ex officio, with five representatives of the Town Council, four of the Holland County Council, 01
of the Council of the Senate of Cambridge University, and six co-optatives. The tuition fe
were raised to a minimum of 0> a year, ten scholarships were established in the school for bo
from public elementary schools in the borough, and provision was made for leaving exhibitions
£7.0 to ;^50 a year each. The payments to the clergy remain at the amount fixed by the schen
of 1850. About ;£8oo a year out of a gross endowment of ^^1,475 a year is applicable for scho
purposes. Under the scheme excellent new lecture-rooms and laboratories for science-teaching hai
been added. The numbers have risen, the distinctions have increased, and this ancient scho
gives a highly efficient classical and modern education.

LOUTH

Louth School first appears in records on 23 October, 1276,^ when on the collation of Gilbe
Fitz-Alan of Theddlethorpe (Tetilthorp) to Louth vicarage, a letter was sent to the schoolmaster 1
Louth to induct him. Louth being a prebend of Lincoln Cathedral, its school was not under tl
immediate jurisdiction of the chancellor of the church, but under that of the prebendary. Consi
quently we do not get any mention of it in the chapter act books, such as we find of the other anciei
schools of the county when in the vacancy of the chancellorship the chapter exercised the char
cellor's powers. Hence 177 years elapse between the first indication of the existence of a scho(
at Louth and the next.

On Monday after Trinity Sunday, 1433,^ Thomas Rydlay, master of the grammar school i
Louth ('magister scolarum gramaticalium de Luda') was attached in a plea of debt brought b
William Smyth and was fined id. for not appearing.

Louth, like most of these old Lincolnshire towns, was studded with gilds. St. Mary's Gil
appears to have been the chief and oldest of them, as in a licence in mortmain by Edward L
21 May, 1317, it is said to have been then ancient, 'the alderman and brethren of the gild of th
Blessed Mary of ancient foundation (ah antiquo constitute) ' being empowered to receive a new endow
ment of j^4 lox. 8^d. rent for a chaplain to celebrate in the church of St. Herefrid of Louth. I
the gild certificates of Richard II,' St. Mary's Gild is returned as founded and ordained in honou
of the Blessed Virgin Mary by William Gympulthorpe and Ralph of Walton and others, a.d. 132c
to find seven serges {cereos, wax candles) to burn before the image of the Blessed Mary in a chap!
in St. Herefrid ; and afterwards a chaplain was added to sing ' Salve Regina ' every evening at twilight
and they were governed by an alderman, a dean, and four quartermen. A copy of the letters paten
of Edward II, already quoted, is attached to the return, which shows that its original foundation wa
far more ancient than 1329. It then possessed ^^15 6s. 315?. in lands, besides those under the licenc
amounting to ^^4 10^. 8^. Its hall was, par excellence, the gild hall, and was apparently used, lik
that of St. Mary's Gild at Boston, as the town hall. The gild possessed in 1389 chattels to th
value of ;^I5 6s. 3^., but, according to the return, no lands except those of the chaplain. Thi
return, however, is quite consistent with the gild's possessing landed property held by trustees, c
which there is ample evidence in other cases. In an account book of this gild, now in possessioi
of Lord Monson, which begins in 1473, Nicholas Gysburgh {magister scolarum) in 1475-7 paid 20:
rent for the house he occupied — a very large sum for those days — the houses of the deans or canon
of collegiate churches dissolved being usually valued at that rate.

When we come to the sixteenth century we arrive at absolute evidence that St. Mary's Gil
helped to maintain the grammar schoolmaster. In the churchwardens' accounts of the parish churc!
1533, ' it is aggreed by the parishe that Mr. John Godeall, scolemaister of gramer, shall have yerel
towards his lyfvyng and wages, 405., that is to say, 10s. of our Lady Gild, 6s. Sd. of the pece* wich
he now hath, 1 3^. 4^. of St. Mighell light, 55. of Corpus Christi Gild, and 5^. of Saint Peter Gild
The 6s. 8d. was probably for writing the accounts, as in 1528-9 appeared the 'item, Joh
Gooddale writyng this accownte 3^. 4^.' In 1 531 this item was increased to 6j. Sd., in 1538 i
appears as 'John Goddalle wrytyng this accompte 6s. 8d. Item, to John Goddale for wrytyng an

' I am indebted for this reference to Mr. R. W. Goulding, whose researches into the historv of Louth ai
well known.

' R. W. Goulding, Court Rolls of the Manor of Louth (1901). ' P.R.O. Gild Cert 126.

* Mr. Goulding says it represents a collection at so much ' a piece.' But this sounds rather unlikeh
Is it not ' pence ' with the n omitted for abbreviation ?

460

SCHOOLS

attendyng all Ester weke about the town busynes 3;. 4^/.' As we saw at South wark^ and at
Wellingborough ^ as late as the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign it was a common practice to resort
to the schoolmaster for his services as a registrar and keeper of minutes and accounts.

In 1538 Goodall's name disappears from the churchwardens' accounts, probably because he went
ofF to be schoolmaster at the new college or collegiate church into which King Henry VIII had
converted Thornton Abbey. It consisted of a dean and four (secular) canons or prebendaries and
five minor canons, four singing-men, six choristers, twenty-four ' beidmen,' with an endowment of
j^6i6 lOJ. a year, equivalent to ^^12,320 of our money. At all events the chantry certificate of
1548 shows us the grammar schoolmaster {magister scale grammtkalis) John Goodall, 44 years
old, receiving yearly for his pension in the said college £%Q ; while the song schoolmaster {magister
ehorlstarum), Ralph Wadeson, 40 years old, received j^io, and six choristers (vocati QuerysUrs)
among them £16. This college was but short-lived, being dissolved in 1548. But the school at
Thornton was continued by warrant of the Chantry Commissioners, Sir Walter Mildmay and
Robert Kelway.' ' Forasmoche as it appearith that a grammer scole hathe been contynuallye kept
in Thorneton with part of the revenues of the late colledge there, and that the scolemaster there
hathe had for his wages yerelie ;^20, we have assigned . . that the said scole in Thorneton
aforesaide shall contynewe, and that John Goodall, Scolemaster there, shall have and enjoye the rome
of scolemaster there and shall have for his wages yerelie ;^20.' Meanwhile Louth School appears
in the chantry certificate under the heading of ' The Holy Trinity Gild,* founded by John Whit-
tingham and others to find a chaplain to celebrate in the church.' viz. Robert Beverley, who received
£^ 1 31. i\.d. a year 'and afterwards other lands and possessions were granted to the alderman brethren
and sisters and their successors for ever both to find a chaplain sufficiently learned in the art of grammar
to teach boys of the said town and the country adjoining good manners and polite literature, and
also that 6 poor men or women of the same towne should receive yearly relief from the issues of
the said lands, viz. 6s. Sd. a year for their fuel and commons (commensaiibus) and a house called
Trinitye Beid House for their dwelling together ; which said grammar school has been continued
from the time of the grant of the said lands to the present day, the teacher {instructor) of which is
Roger Ascue, alias Bawnus, age 35.' The total value of the gild lands was ^^19 ijs. $d., but it
is not stated what the schoolmaster received. The Continuance Warrant,^ however, of Sir Walter
Mildmay and Robert Kelway says that ' the Scolemaister there had 1 1 35. 4^. assigned to hym by
dede dated the 17th daye of December,' 1545, and 'Rogger Bonus otherwise Askue' was continued
'scolemaster' at that rate. In the ministers' accounts^ for 1548—9, the receiver general of the
county of Lincoln accounts ' for an annuity or annual rent of Roger Askewe alias Bawme, chaplain,
usher {subpedagogi) of the Grammar School in the towne of Louth,' at 1 1 3/. 4^. a year. The same
payment is made in the later accounts up to and including 1552—3 to 'Roger Askewe alias Ballmes,'
in which year ^^8 lOs. is paid for a year and a half ended at Michaelmas. It is not easy to make
out what this usher's real name was. In the school accounts he is commonly called Bonus. He is
probably the son or other near relation of ' one Bawnus ' who was prominent in the Lincolnshire
rising in 1536, which originated at Louth, and was contemporaneous with the Pilgrimage of Grace
in Yorkshire, who ' coming into the church declared how that their jewels and ornaments should
be taken away,' and who is described by other witnesses as 'one Bawnes ' also as 'Balneus,'' and
as ' William Askew alias Bonus, tailor.' *

Not only was there a Grammar School in Louth before the Reformation, but also a Song School.
In 1532—3 it was agreed by the commonalty of the town that Robert Beverley, the singing-man,
should have ' of the comon pece, 10s. for every quarter from henceforth unto such time as he be
priest.' As we saw in 1548, he was then chantry priest of the Trinity Gild. The churchwardens'
accounts for 1534-5 contain a payment of \id. for ' hordes, nayles, and crookes to the Song Schole-
howse dore ' and ^d. to 'John Kytchen for making thereof.' The Song School is mentioned again
'" 1535-6, 1537-8, 1546-7, 1553-4, and 1556-7. When the new Grammar School was built in
'557-8 the payments included 'for I quarter [i.e. a thousand] of thacke [or thatch] to the Song
Scole and Kirkebie house, 4^.'

An inscription on the pedestal on which stood the statue of King Edward VI in the old
school building, removed in 1869, told how John Bradley, merchant of Louth, persuaded his

■ r.C.H. Surrey, ii. ' F.C.H. Northampton, ii.

• A. F. Leach, Engl. Schools at the Reformation (1896), 135, from Chan. Cert. 33, No. 124.

* Ibid. 138. This gild was of much earlier foundation than there stated, having been founded in I 376, by-
George Darcy and others, the chantry of Thomas of Louth {de Luda) canon of Lincoln, founded in 1 3 1 7 but
then decayed, being annexed to it. It was refounded and the chantry removed to St. James, the parish church,
by letters patent, 7 Oct. 1450, with further licence in mortmain, 16 Jan. 1453-

' Ibid. 138. ' P.R.O. Mins. Accts. 2 and 3 Edw. VI, 90.

' Misprinted in State Papers as 'Balnens.'

' Ibid. 194, misprinted ' Ashen.' The vicar of Louth, Thomas Kendall, was implicated and hanged.

461

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

half-brother Richard Gooderiche to petition Edward VI who converted into a school (Judu
literarium) what had been a chamber of priests [cuhiculum sacrificorum)^ endowing it with larj
estates which had belonged to the brotherhoods of Trinity and Our Lady and the chantry of Joh
Louth. A warrant signed by Richard Sakevyle issued out of the Court of Augmentations c
10 September,^ iSS'j setting out lands worth ^^40 a year which

the King's highness is pleased to geve twardes the mauntenance of a free scole in Louthe ar
towardes the sustentacion of 12 poore folkes to continew for ever. His highnes pleasur is al
that there be a corporacion made to take and purchase over and lese premisses landes and teni
ments. His further plesur is that there shalbe a Scolemaster and an vssher, for [to teche children] frel
and the Scolemaster to have for his stipend £,zo, the vssher ;^I0. To have thissues and profFet
from the feaste of thannunciacion of our Lady last past.

The ' parcels ' of the lands set out were part of ' John Louthe's Chantrie lands wort
£() OS. ijd.' gross and ^^5 18s. net ; part of the Trinity Gild lands £5 i6s. ;^d. gross, ^^5 15
net; part of S. Mary's Gild lands ^^ 16 js. iid. gross, £16 os. 3<3?. net; part of the Gild c
Blessed Mary in Garnthorpe, worth £i\. ly. gd., and part of the manor of Louth late belongin
to the bishopric of Lincoln, then in the king's hands, worth j^io a year. The total net valu
was £^2 lis. lo^d. ; of which it was estimated that 51;. lO^d. should be 'diducted an
allowed for yerely charges towards the maintenance of freshe water drennes and sea banckes.'

The letters patent or charter granting the lands and founding the schools were sealed on 2 1 Septem
ber, 1 55 1. With exceptional frankness they reveal that the so-called foundation was no newfounda
tion, but a mere revival. Most emphatic, too, is the testimony to the efficiency of Lout
School in the past as a public school, not only for its own youth but for the youths of al
the country round, who must have come there for the most part, as they have ever since, no
as day-boys but as boarders. The preamble is a striking confession of faith in learning a
the foundation of wise management of the state.

' The town of Louth,' which was not then nor for another century a municipal borough
was incorporated under the title of the Warden and Six Assistants of the town of Louth am
free school of King Edward VI in Louth,' to be elected in the Gildhall, for the management o
the school, with power to make statutes, to be approved by the bishop of Lincoln. Lawrenci
Eresbie was appointed in the charter as first warden and John Bradley 'merchant of the Staple of thi
town of Calais ' was the first of the six assistants with John Chapman, gentleman, and four othe
persons who are described as merchants. The lands given were, it may be noted, only part not th(
whole of the possessions of John Louth's chantry and the gilds. John Louth's chantry was ther
a comparatively modern one, founded only 20 February, 1466,* under the will of John Louthe
gentelman, for a chaplain in the chapel of the Holy Trinity and All Saints on the nortl
side of the parish church of St. James, Louth, for the souls of John Louth, Simon and Alic(
Louth, his father and mother and others, with licence in mortmain up to 12 marks a year. I
was returned in the chantry certificate* as worth ;^I2 igs. gd. gross, and ;^ii 16s. iid. net, Ar
extant lease of 28 July, 1547, shows that Chapman, the second of the six assistants, was ther
its patron. By the grant 'part of the manor of Louthe,' Louth obtained possession o
its own markets and market-tolls, acquiring as part of the possessions of the manor th(
quarrell or quarry in which the beast market was held, the Wednesday and Saturday market;
of the town, and the three yearly fairs on the Sunday after Easter and the two days after, St
James's Day and two days after, and Martin mass with the courts of piepowder held at them
The market tolls were let out at ;^io 51. a year. John Goodall,' presumably returned frorr
I'hornton, was named in the charter ' first and present master ' ' for life with a salary of j^20
while Roger Bonus, his successor in the old school, was named usher {subpedagogus) with ;^I0 :
year. The schoolhouse was to be ' Saynt Marye church near the town,' which the master anc
assistants were empowered ' to convert to the use of a school and for a house for boys and youths t(
be taught in.' As the charter states that the church is ' now occupied for a school,' the Protestant:
of 1 55 1 were not responsible for this conversion of ecclesiastical property to educational purposes
A similar conversion also took place at Stamford, where to this day St. Paul's church forms th(

1 Louth Records, 113, where sacrificorum is mistranslated 'monks.'

T^. \^; I; ^^^''^' ^"^^"^ ^''""'^ "' ^'" formation, 143. From Aug. Off. Particulars for Schools
Edw. VI, No. I.

' Gustos et sex assistentes ville de Louth et Libere Scole Regis Edwardi Sexti in Louth
' Pat. 5 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. I.

' Said in Louth Records 174 to be of 37 Hen. VIII, but it was in fact 2 Edw. VI.
« He is described as John Goodale of Louth. So it is just possible, though not at all probable, tha
he was not the same as the John Goodall, master of Thornton College.
' Primus et modernus.

46a

SCHOOLS

large school-room, while at Northampton St. Peter's church was in like manner converted into a
grammar school by Cardinal Pole himself.

Besides the school and its masters, the warden and assistants were to maintain the bedesmen, twelve
in number, ' in like manner and form as they were hitherto and heretofore sustained, fed, and main-
tained by the late gilds of St. Mary and of the Holy Trinity.' The chantry certificates show that
each gild had maintained six poor men or women, giving them 6s. 8d. a year each, in ' Our Lady's
Beidhouse ' and in ' Trinitye Beidhouse ' respectively.

The only records remaining of the warden and assistants before 1605 are the yearly accounts,
which are fortunately extant from the beginning to 1686 in a paper book of 944 leaves. The
first account was rendered at Michaelmas, 1553.

The accompt of Lawrence Eresbie, gent., warden of the King's Fre Scole, in Lowthe, of all the
rents by him receyved from the feast of thanunciacion of our ladie anno regni nuper Regis Edwardi
Sexti quinto to the feast of St. Michaell tharchangell anno regni Marie Regine prime, that is to say,
by the space of twoo yeres and a half.

It shows that the total rent for the first year was £^i 8s. ii^d. This went in paying
*Mr. Goodall for his wages ;^20,' 'Mr. Bonus ;^io,' twelve poor Bedefolkes £4.. Other items
were 'the case to the letters patents, 5^.' ; 'searching at the Rolls for the copie of the corporacion
of the graunt of the towne of Newark, and for writing the same, lOs.' The Newark grant was
apparently used for a precedent. In the two other years in this account the whole property, other
than the market toll, seems to have been let at ;^33 15^. 8^. a year. The account for 1554—5,
which is made by John Thew, ' baillie,' shows that the toll was paid by ' Mr. Doughtie, late grave
(gerefa) or reeve (or bailiff) of Lowth,' it being that year ^^lo 3^ 4.d. He paid the net cash after
payment of quitrents and repairs of the Bedehouses over to John Bradeley, whose account as warden
follows, for the year Michaelmas 1553-4.^ This account already shows an additional endowment
in the shape of ' rents and profittes belonging to Mr. Taillour's lands due at mydsomer,'
£j 8j. 6^d. The Charity Commissioners in 1837 could not ascertain the origin of this, but in the
account for 1554—5 we learn that Mr. Taillour's name was Thomas, and that the lands were
situate at Garnthorpe, now called Grimthorpe, and that he, by will, 12 February, 1523, gave ^ lands
and tenements said to be worth £/^. i Ss. I od. net for a chantry priest to pray for his soul in the parish
church, ' if the law should allow it,' and if not, for their ' scole.' Thomas Tailor, draper, was
churchwarden in 1501— 2 and 1509-10. The inhabitants on oath told the commissioners in 1547
that the income had been applied ever since Taylor's death in repairs of the tenements, which were
in great decay, and so no priest had ever been found. They therefore somehow managed to retain
the property, whether by authority or not, and applied the rents, now bringing in nearly double
what was stated to the Chantry Commission. This endowment was utilized to maintain the Song
School. Among the outgoings, both in the account for 1534-5 and in the first account, are the

* wages of Mr. Man.' This was the Mr. Man who ' sings bass in the choir at Lowthe,' who took
part in the rebellion of 1537. In 1552-3 he received i6s. 8d. for a quarter's wages, and this year
he received half a year's wages out of Taillour's lands, 42;. 8id. and 6s. 8d. more to make up his
whole year's wages, which were ^^4, while the churchwardens this year paid I2d. for two
boards and two tressles, a lock with two keys for ' William Man's ' scolehows ; the Song School house.
He last appears in 1560, when ^^d. was paid for washing his surplice. Meanwhile a real
elementary or preparatory school had been set up. At the end of 1553—4 we find 30J. paid
' to John Laycoke for teachinge the petie scole, in parte of £6 for his hole yere's wages for one
quarter, due at May Day last.' Laycock was succeeded in 1556-7 by Mericock. This petty
school, a preparatory school for the petties, or little ones, is no way mentioned in the charter, but
putting two and two together it may probably be inferred that it was due to Taylour's benefaction.
It lasted for nearly 200 years, and was then apparently abolished at the same time that another
great breach of trust, of which hereafter, was committed by the people of Louth and the school
governors.

Some other interesting items occur. The repairs of the school cost 6s. id. There was given

* to the mynstrelles 1 2d.^ as if there was a play, or at all events a speech-day at the school, and two
gallons of wine, costing 2j., were ' bestowed upon my lord of Lincoln,' together with a ' sugar loaf
51. 2d., 2lb. figs 6d., Jib. almonds 4^., lOO walnuts 4^., in the whole 8s. 5d.' It looks as if the
bishop, who was John White, ex-headmaster of Winchester, had come on purpose to visit the
school, probably to make statutes. No statutes are extant, but they are referred to in a minute of

' Not, as Mr. Goulding has mistakenly inscribed in the original book, 1554-5. Mary's reign began
19 July, 1553, hence Michaelmas 1 Mary was Michaelmas 1553, and she married Philip on 25 July, 1554,
the year then being called I and 2 Philip and Mary, i.e. I Philip and 2 Mary ; and Michaelmas
I and 2 Philip and Mary was therefore 29 September, 1554.

' Chan. Cert. 33, No. 129. This is Edward VI's commission, not, as Mr. Goulding says, Henry VIII's,
as is clear firom the Grimsby certificate, which gives a deed made 1 2 July I Edward VI.

463

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

1664. Among other items is 'paid for drawing and graving the common seale of the said scol
22s. ^d.' This seal is still extant, and is highly interesting. It is round. The legend
Sigill[um] com[mune] Libere Scole Gramatic[alis] Reg[is] Edwardi 6ti. in villa de Lowthe, and c
a space in the inner part of the seal is 1552 in arabic numerals. In the inner rim is show
a placard suspended by a knot of ribbon —

QUI : PARCIT : VI,
RGE : ODIT : FILIU.

Below is a stalwart pedagogue seated with his legs apart, and on his left knee a boy; th
pedagogue's left hand is holding up the boy's garment and baring the parts below the middh
on which a mighty birch erect in the pedagogue's right hand is about to fall. The boy's banc
are clasped in a vain appeal for mercy, while three boys standing behind are interested spectator:
and two in front seated with a large book on a stand above them look as if their turn was comin
next. The seal was evidently intended as an advertisement that Mr. Goodall, at all events, was
believer in the precept of Solomon.

At Louth as elsewhere the schoolmaster was the playwright or stage-manager of the day. I.
the account for 1555-6 appears, 'for wyn when Mr. Hennage was at the play, 13/. 5^.; t
Mr. Goodale for money laid forthe by him at the playes, 13X. 3^.' So in 1556—7 'paid t
William Jordayne and other ii mynstrelles for their paynes at the plays, 2s.', and in the accoun
for 1557-8 (wrongly headed in the account book, 1556-7), 'paid to Mr. Goodall for certyj
money by him laid forthe for the furnishing of the play played in the market stede on Corpu
Christi Day, the yere before my entering,' i.e. 1556-7. The old Corpus Christi play appears thu
to have been revived under the Marian reaction. It then ceased, and no further reference ti
a play occurs till 1568, when the old play had become the modern interlude, when ' Mr. Polsenne,
the then usher, was given 55. ' towards his charges of an enterlude he set out.'

In 1556-7 Mr. Bonus the usher died.^ There was ' gyven in reward to Mr. Goodale for hi
paynestaking during the tyme that Mr. Bonus rowme was void,' 26s. 8d., and there was ' gyven ii
reward to Nicholas the ussher for a furthnight that he served before our Lady Day, 6^. 8d.' So tha
Bonus died in January, 1556. Nicholas the usher was, as appears from the 1558 account
Nicholas Corker. At Michaelmas, 1558, he was teaching the petty school.

In 1556-7 the school was removed to the site where the main body of the present schoo
stands. From the first St. Mary's church seems to have been regarded as unsatisfactory. In thi
first account appears a payment of 6s. 8d. ' to one fFre mason that came from Lincoln to view thi
scole.' A memorandum of 25 November, 1560,^ says that 'Saynt Mary churche lately occupiec
for a school {gymnasia) now stands empty and disused, because the master and usher (Pedagogus e
Hypodidasculus) frequently and urgently petitioned the warden and assistants that they . . . an(
the scholars might be removed, and that they might no longer be compelled to teach their scholar
in the said church {templo), especially in winter, because of the extreme cold.' The bishop's licenci
to pull down the church, which cost the town ' 8s. for wine when my lord bishop was in towne,
and ' 2s. I id. for wild foull that was cared to my lord bishop,' was dated 24 December, 1560.

In 1556 the first step was taken towards a new building by a payment of is. td. to Simor
Kellam ' for three days for making ther sawe pytt at the Quarrell.' The ' petie scole ' was firs
taken in hand in 1556-7. On 25 January, 1557, two cottages were bought of Mr. Eresbie, thi
first warden, for jri2 ; and land was given by Mr. Langholme apparently for the site for the gramma;
school : ' paid to Thomas Grene for making one dede from Mr. Langholme to us, 3^. ^d.' Nex
year, 1557-8, the cost of the building is set out under the headings of the various trades employed
Joyners, Wrightes, Sawers, Glasyers, and Thacke (thatch), candills, nailles, waynscotes and othei
hordes, Smyth work, Thack-tyles, lyme, spetches, plaster and hart lattes, and the Thekers (thatchers)
Clay and timber leading, and Laborers. The total cost was ^^43 12s. 6d.^ From the absenc(
of any mention of stone, brick, or masons it is clear that the building was of the post and par
order, with clay and timber walls, and a thatched roof. From 9;. being allowed in the next year'
accounts ' for a decayed rent for two chambers now converted to the school house ' it would appea:
that part of the building was not entirely new.

A new usher came when the new school was completed. 'Paid for the carriage 0
Mr. Angell stuff at his first commyng, 12s.' and ' paid the 23 day of Marche in fiill payment of hii
half yeres pension ended at Lady Day, I559, ;CS-' He went at Christmas, 1559, Mr. Walkwidf
bemg paid at Lady Day, 1560, for a quarter. He only stayed till Midsummer. In 1559-6C
Henry Day was paid js. 4^. ' in recompense of his paynes for going to Cambrige for Mr. West t(
' Churchwrardens' Accounts, ' Pd. for laying down the graves of Arthur Grey and Roger Bonus 8d.' Ii
the Parish Register his burial is recorded 2 Nov. 1556, as that of 'Rogerus Ashide, clericus.'

' Account Book, fol. 46. The memorandum then went on to record that the stone and glass of th
church were being spoiled, so they determined to sell them.

' In Loud Records Mr. Goulding makes the amount ^^34 8/.

464

SCHOOLS

be usher ' ; and 2s. bd. more ' for his horse hire the same jurnaye,' and Mr. West was paid a
quarter's stipend to Michaelmas, 1560. He stayed only till Michaelmas, 1562. The account for
1562 shows $s. 'paid to one that went with a letter to Blithe for an usher.' The result was I Ox.
' in reward and geven for an ernest pennye to one Mr. Lunt, ussher,' and he received his first
quarter's wages at Christmas. But at Michaelmas, 1563, he gave place to Robert Gawdrie. He
stayed a year and a quarter ; William Calthorp being paid for 1565, and Justinian Johnson for the
last half of 1566. At last the school found rest in Mr. Richard Pelsonne, who came in October,
1566, and endured 11 years and then became headmaster.

In the years 1562 and 1564 St. Mary's church was dismantled, a chantry chapel attached to it
was made into the school counting-house, the rest was disroofed and the lead sold to Mr. Fairfax for
j^50, which was spent in building a new bridge — a curious way of applying the proceeds for the
benefit of the school. In 1564 an interesting account is preserved of the costs of Mr. Miles Graye
in obtaining from Queen Elizabeth the grant of the whole manor of Louth, part of which had
already been acquired from Edward VI, and the rest of the gild lands. He pursued her to
Windsor, stayed there for nine days, and at last got audience by giving Mr. Thamworth's man
a shilling ' for letting me into the parke to delyver my supplycacion to the Queenes Maiestie.'
By this grant the townsmen became the owners of their Gildhall. But the chief gain was in
the fines for the renewal of leases, falls of timber, and amercements or fines and incidental gains
belonging to the lordship of the manor.

In the accounts for 'the yere ended at the Feast of Pentecost Anno Domini 1577' John
Goodall, for the last time, appears. ' Paid to Mr. Goddall for his wages dew to him for
a hole yere ended at thannunciacion of our Ladie, 1577, within the tyme of this accompt ;r20,'
while Mr. Pelson, his ' under teacher,' received £<) is. i>d. ; why i u. iid. less than the full
j^io is a mystery. The parish register records the burial of John Goddall, ludimagister, on
19 August, 1576. Goodall's mastership was certainly a record for any school in England in
the sixteenth century, and probably a record to the eighteenth century. For assuming that
he was already master when he first enters the churchwardens' account in 1529, and he is
expressly so described in 1535, he held office for no less than 47 years, whereas it is very
rare in the sixteenth century to find any master who held office for more than twelve years.
Whether he was in holy orders we do not know, though it is probable. At all events, he
exercised the liberty conferred by the Reformation to take unto himself a wife. On 5 May,
1568, Emma uxor Johannis Goddall was buried, and on 8 November, 1571, Margret, his daughter,
was buried.

Mr. Pelsonne, the usher, succeeded Goodall as master at the same wages, but the new usher,
'Mr. Alday, his underteacher,' received ;^I2 los., an increase of ^2 los. He only stayed a year.
At the same time £'j lOs. was paid to Robert Odling, ' techer of the petie Scool,' and £6 to
'Richard Yngoldsbie, his underteacher.' Odling had been there since 1574, and in 1579 became
usher of the grammar school, but at the old salary of ;^io a year. He was succeeded in the
mastership of the petty school by his usher, ' Mr. Yngolbye.' Pelsonne gave place to Mr. Bucke
as master of the grammar school in 1579-80. The accounts give us little more information
about the schools than the names of the masters. Buck held till 1587, when he was succeeded by
William Finniman, who was buried 8 December, 1 591. In the early part of the seventeenth
century, during the mastership of Mr. Smith, which ended in 161 7, boys were being sent to
Cambridge. In 1623 we find i6x. paid 'for a Greeke lexicon,' evidence that school books of this
kind were not yet the possession of individual boys. In 1626 Mr. Allen became master, but he
was not a great success, and after several warnings, on 1 1 April, 1636, the warden and six assistants
determined to appeal to the bishop of Lincoln ' concerninge the ill government of the schole of
Louth as his honour hath already been informed.' Probably the large item in the accounts ' paid to
Richard Clarke for going to Boston to the Lord Bishopp for hipocrise wine and two sugar loafes
bestowed upon him, ^3 i8i.' is connected with this. In 1637-8 Allen went, 2s. 6d. being paid
Mr. Wadsley for writing and drawing 'at Mr. Barker's appointment.' In 1639-40 appears the
first augmentation of the schoolmaster's pay. Besides ^^43 6s. Sd. the ' Schoolemaister's wages '
appears ' Paid to them extraordinarily, ^5 1 35. ^.d.' but how divided does not appear. The whole
rental at the time was £1^1, and the town hall had been rebuilt in 1636 and 1638 out of the
school funds. Next year, 1641, 2s. 2d. was 'paid to Mr. Wardall when he went to Lincoln about
the Orders,' and ' spent when the orders were graunted to betwixt maister and schollers, 3^.' ; but
nothing is said as to what these new statutes were, though several pages are left blank apparently
for them. The next four years' accounts have never been entered, though space is left for them.
But it would not appear that the Civil War affected the school to any extent, as in the accounts for
1644-5 *he masters are paid as usual. In the year 1646-7 appears the first mention of the curious
custom of ' barring-out.' ' Expended on the Schoolmaisters at their shutting-out, and on the
c'ompanie with them and the schollers, 30J.' It appears that the statue of the so-called founder.
King Edward VI, was not contemporary ; for now there was paid ' For the statue of Edward the

2 465 59

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Sixt, a diall and other ornaments for the schoole, ^^6,' and ' for bringing them hither and settmg
them up, 28;.' The usual accompaniment of Parliamentary reforms was reform all round. Here,
as elsewhere, the pay of the schoolmasters was increased. In 1 646-7 * Mr. Barker, the head school-
master, had by consent £s,' and Mr. Walker, the usher, £2 extra. On 25 January, 1646-7, the
increase is increased and made permanent.

It is this day ordered that Mr. Anthony Barker of the free Grammer Scheie shall have by
way of [MS. torn] to the stipend of King Edward the 6th, the Fownder of [MS. torn] being
^20, £6 I p. ^d. added and to be paid him quarterly [MS. torn], augmented allowance to begin at
Midsomer quarter ensuing the date above written Memorandum the order [MS. torn] to his successors
with reference to the discretion of the [MS. torn] Assistants and soe longe as such head maister bene se
gesserit. Soe the headmaisters allowance [MS. torn], £z6 13/. 4</.

It is likewise ordered the day and yeare above written that Mr. [MS. torn], the present Usher of
the said schole, shall have added £1^ to the founders stipend, beeing ^lo to be paid quarterly. This
order likewise to extend to his successors, with reference to the Warden and Assistants discretion,
and soe longe as the Usher bene se gesserit. Soe the Ushers allowance to be j^l 5 yearly.
The next two years' accounts, 1647-9, ^""^ omitted. But in 1649-50 the schoolmasters
were paid ^^51 13J. 4c/., and extensive repairs at the school took place, costing ^^35 i^s. 3a'.,
while £\ 14J. 8^. was laid out in ' wyne, sugar, and sacke, tobacco and cakes when the scholars
shut out their masters.' There are no accounts for 1 650-1. In the interval Mr. Barker retired
leaving behind him a lasting memorial in a book, still in the school library, called Theatrum
Historkum, published in 1629,3 new system of chronology. In 1 65 1-2 we find ' Mr. Walker,
head scholemaster,' receiving the augmented stipend of ^^26 1 3;. 4^., and 'Mr. Skelton, usher,'
^^15. Mr. Walker, who was of Lincoln School and Trinity College, Cambridge, had been usher
since at least 1646. He held the head mastership for six years, till 1657, when he received
preferment as head master of Grantham. The Commonwealth and Protectorate were prolific in
new theories and books on education. Louth felt the influence, and Walker celebrated his tenure
of office at Louth by writing a school book, which he dedicated, 25 April, 1655, 'To the Right
Worshipful the ornament and encourager of the learned Mr. Peter Bradley, Warden, and the
Venerable company of Assistants.' The book is ' A Treatice of English Particles . . . where-
unto is affixed " Idiomatologiae Anglolatinae Specimen" or a taste of an English Latin Phraseologie, at
first intended for the private benefit of Louth School, but now published for the common good . . .
London, 1655.' No less than fifteen editions were published, a copy of that of 1720, ' corrected
and amended by A. Tooke, Usher of Charterhouse School,' being in the Louth School Library.

On Walker's departure in 1657, Skelton the usher succeeded, and saw the Commonwealth
out, no doubt assisting at the expenditure of £2 \()s. yd. 'on the proclaiming of the king att
Mr. Kilborne's,' 1659. ^^'■' Kilborne was the usher. The head master's salary was cut down to
;^25, and the usher's to ^^13 6s. 8d, At this time the petty school seems to have done with-
out an usher, Mr. Burke, 'petty scholemayster,' receiving j^io, and no usher being mentioned.

In 1665, Mr, Babb was appointed master at a salary of ^^25, including the ' ogmentation,' and
;^i 8j. was ' spent on gentellmen at ye enstallment of Mr. Babb into ye Schoole.' He held for
twenty years, Kilborne continuing as usher for the same time. They were succeeded by a Mr. Browne
and Mr. Wetherall, apparently in 1685-6, but as the four years' previous accounts are missing, that
is not certain. Browne's salary seems to have been cut down to the original ;^20. But as this
year's account is the last in the original book, and the next account book now extant only begins
in 1735, it is doubtful.

A copy of Minucius Felix in the school library inscribed 'Jos. Smith, Scholae Ludensis
Archididascalus, 1699,' shows that Smith was then master, but when he came there is no evidence.
On 20 January, 1702, an inquisition under a commission of Charitable Uses, issued from
Chancery 16 May, 170 1, was held at Louth, which redressed the wrongs from which the school
and schoolmaster had long suiFered, and which were threatened to be increased by the reduction of
their salaries, then ^^30 and ^^20 a year, to the original j^20 and ^^lo a year. This inquisition says
that the schoolmasters, Myles Hodgson, master, and William Steward, usher, had ' been then
possessed of the school scarce three years complete.' The commissioners found that the warden
and assistants had ' wilfully broken their trust ' by long leases on fines, by leases at undervalues and
expenditure on treats and feasts by the warden and the assistants. They set aside the leases, and
ordered ^^276 lis. yd. to be paid to the master, and ^138 51. 9^^. to the usher for arrears out
of the lands granted by Queen Elizabeth. For the future the rents were to be paid, half to the
master, a quarter to the usher, and a quarter to the twelve bedesfolk, who had been allowed to fall
into abeyance altogether, but were now revived.

Hodgson held office for fifteen years after his triumph, being succeeded in 1720 by John
Oscolme of Trinity, Cambridge ; then by John Wadeson, 1728-67, who was followed by John
Emeris, fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, from 1767 to 1796, then rector of
Tetford. Thomas Orme, 1796-1 8 14, was of St. John's, Cambridge, and from 1801 prebendary

466

SCHOOLS

of Louth in Lincoln Cathedral. He began a School Register in 1798, when there were seventy boys
including Charles Tennyson, afterwards the Right Hon. Charles Tennyson-D'Enycourt, M.P. for
Grimsby and elsewhere ; Edward Fowke, who became a baronet in 1 8 1 4 ; and John Franklin, the
famous arctic explorer, who perished circa 1847. The school was then of very high repute.
But in 1808 it had sunk to forty-eight boys, and continued to sink, no doubt owing to the
advancing age of the master, till in 18 13 only four boys were admitted. Orme died suddenly on
20 October, 18 14, aged seventy. John Waite, of St. John's College, Cambridge, succeeded on
27 October, 18 14. There were then only twenty-two boys in the school. An immediate rise
took place, thirty-four boys being admitted in the remainder of that year. In that and the next
two years entered in succession that wonderful trio of poetical brothers, Frederick, Charles, and
Alfred Tennyson, the last and greatest bringing up the rear. This is the account given by his
son of the poet's school-days : —

' 'When he was seven years old,' he was born in 1809, 'he was taken to the house of his
grandmother at Louth. His mother had been born in that town, being the daughter of the vicar,
the Rev. Stephen Fytche, and he was sent to the grammar school there, then under the Rev. J.
Waite, a tempestuous, flogging master of the old stamp. He remembered to his dying day sitting on
the stone steps of the school on a cold winter's morning, and crying bitterly after a big lad had
brutally cuffed him on the head because he was a new boy. I still have the books which he used
there, his Ovid, Delectus, Analecta Graeca Minora, and the old Eton Latin grammar. Among the
incidents in his school life he would recall that of walking in a procession of boys, decked with ribbons,
at the proclamation of the coronation of George IV, and how the old women said that " the boys
made the prettiest part of the show." Later in school life he one day stood on a wall and made a
political speech to his school-fellows, but was promptly ordered down by an usher, who asked him whether
he wished to be the parish beadle.' This appears to be the occasion on which he addressed the boys at
Louth School, in the person of his uncle, Charles Tennyson, then M.P. for Stamford, in a long and
comic speech.

''A few years ago the present master of Louth School gave a holiday in my father's
honour. The compliment gratified him, yet he said, " How I did hate that school ! The only
good I ever got from it was the memory of the words ' sonus desilientis aquae,' and of an old wall covered
with wild weeds opposite the school windows. I wrote an English poem there for one of the
Jacksons ; the only line I recollect is, ' While bleeding heroes lie along the shore.' "
'In 1820 he left Louth, and came home to work under his father.

' So much had he hated the school that, when in later life he was at Louth, he would not go
down the lane where it was.'

It is only fair to remember that Tennyson was a very small boy to be sent to a grammar
school. It is noticeable that he does not seem to have complained of the master particularly, but
rather of the other boys. Waite must have been a good teacher, as even Tennyson's progress
shows. The school under him and the usher, Mr. Dale, went up by leaps and bounds, the high-
water mark being reached in 1829, when there were 116 in the school, sixty day boys and fifty-
six boarders, and there were two assistant masters besides the usher, and a visiting French master.

A vivid picture of the school life under this modern Orbilius, Mr. Waite, is given by John W.
Hales, late professor of English literature at King's College, London,' to which, unfortunately, we
can only give a bare reference, as it is too long for quotation here.

Oddly enough the school has left its mark in poetry by a ' ghost-word ' in Tennyson's Dirge,
in which the poet wrote : —

The balm-cricket carols clear

In the green that folds thy grave.

It appears that there is no such thing as a balm-cricket. The poet, when challenged, explained that
it is due to a school book used at Louth, Analecta Graeca Majora, which in explaining a line in one
of Theocritus's Idylls, blindly followed a German editor in translating Tettix the cicada, as ' anglice
the Balm-cricket ' ; balm being a mistake for baum, a tree, the tree-cricket. As Tennyson was
only a little over eleven when he left the school, he must have been very well on with his Greek
for his age to be reading Theocritus even in an Analecta. He was certainly well on with his Latin,
as he seems to have read some Catullus while at Louth ; for in ' Edwin Morris ; or, The Lake,'
he writes : —

Shall not Love to me,

As in the Latm song I learnt at school,

Sneeze out a full God bless you right and left I

an adaptation of Catullus xlv, 8 and 9, and 17 and 18 : —

Hoc ut dixit, Amor sinistra ut ante
Dextra sternuit approbationem.

1 Memoirs of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1897), i, 6. ' Ibid, ii, 376.

' Gent. Mag. Dec. 1892, but first printed in the London Student in 1868, and then in the Journal of
Education, by John W. Hales.

467

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Notwithstanding his dislike of the place of torture Tennyson on 22 May, 1865, sent copies of the
' Idylls of the King ' and other works to that date to the library of the school, then under the
milder sway of George Christopher Hodgkinson. Hodgkinson was a wrangler from Trinity College,
Cambridge, and a scientist of some note in actino-metrical researches. He held from 1864 to
1878, retiring on a pension of ;^200 a year, when on 14 August, 1878, a new scheme under the
Endowed Schools Acts was approved by Queen Victoria in Council. This scheme dissolved the
old corporation of Warden and Assistants for a new body of governors, of whom the Lord-Lieutenant
of Lincolnshire and the High Steward of Louth were ex officio, and the Town Council appoint
four representatives, the rest being co-optative. To them by a scheme of 26 August, 1893,
two representatives of the Lindsey County Council have been added. The scheme incorporated or
reincorporated with the Grammar School Hardie's Charity under will of 17 August, 1562, subject
to a fixed Sunday dole to the poor of North Somercotes, 'for the schooling and bringing up in
learning of poor men's children,' an English school founded by Dr. Robert Mapletoft, dean of
Ely and master of Pembroke Hall or College, Cambridge, by will 29 June, 1676, for a fit person
to teach children to read, write, and cast accounts, and teach them accidence and make them fit
for the grammar school. It also added the Butter and Coal charities of Richard Wright, founded
10 October, 1573, and 24 November, 1575, one to buy Newcastle coal to distribute among
poor householders, and the other to buy 30 stones of butter in summer and salt it, and in the winter
distribute it to 32 poor people, and the residue of the income for cloth to be bought and dis-
tributed. These additions, though a very poor substitute for Queen Elizabeth's grant, added some little
endowment to the school. The first master under the new scheme was Herbert Branston Gray,
exhibitioner of Winchester and Scholar of Queen's College, Oxford, an assistant-master at
Westminster 1875-8. In his short reign of two years he doubled the school, and filled the church
by his sermons. But he was soon tempted away to Bradfield College, which he has augmented
sixfold in numbers, and has permanently established among the great public schools. The
Rev. Walter William Hopwood of Pembroke College, Oxford, who had been second master for
twenty years, after an interval as headmaster at Alford 188 1-4, returned to Louth as head master
in 1885, and held for twenty years of fair prosperity.

In 1900 Arthur Harvey Worrall succeeded him. From Grantham School he won a scholar-
ship at St. John's College, Oxford, and there obtained a first in Moderations and second in the Final
Schools in classics. He was an assistant master at Lancing, and then sixth form master at Bradfield.
Under his auspices the school has opened its doors to modern learning, and built an excellent block
of science buildings at the bottom of the beautiful cricket ground, known as the Sycamore Field. The
Lodge above, as the headmaster's house is called, has been rebuilt on modern lines of space and
comfort for boarders. The school now numbers about a hundred, of whom thirty are boarders,
with five masters. Its reputation is high and its numbers will soon be higher.

LOUTH GIRLS' GRAMMAR SCHOOL

This school is an offshoot of the Grammar School. The scheme of 1878 provided for its
institution within three years, but mainly on account of financial consideration the school was not
actually started till 1903. Its first location was the Municipal Technical School, whence in 1904
it was removed to a house in Westgate Street. Since the removal the number of girls has risen
from 28 to 50. The endowment consists of ;^iSo a year derived from the Louth Grammar
School.

STAMFORD UNIVERSITY

The claim of Stamford to have been at one time the seat of a university has been exaggerated
by the patriotism of the local historian. For two things are certain about this ' Third Academy of
England' as, in imitation of a similar claim on behalf of the Inns of Court in 1639, Peck in
1727 called Stamford,^ (i) that there never was a university there in the full sense of the
word, as an organized corporate body for the promotion of instruction and research in subjects
of the higher education and learning and conferring degrees or licence to teach ; (ii) that whatever
kind of general school of learning {studium generale), which is the real equivalent of the term
' University ' in the Middle Ages, existed there, it was confined within narrow limits of time.

Yet there are indubitable evidences of some organized teaching in the higher faculties at
Stamford in the first years of the fourteenth century. On 13 December, 1301, Edward P 'in
consideration of his kindly affection towards the order ' of the Gilbertines of Sempringham
(Sempingham), ' and because we have charged the Priory of Sempringham with Wenthliana,
daughter of Llewellyn, late Prince of Wales,' granted licence in mortmain ^ to Master Robert Luterel

' Tie Annais of Stamford (1727). ' Cal. Pat. 1301-7, p. 6. ^ Ibid.

468

SCHOOLS

to grant 4 messuages, 2 plough-lands {carucatas terre), and 12 marks rent in Ketene and
Cotesmere, and a messuage, i plough-land, and 10 marks rent with the appurtenances in Stamford
and Castreton to the prior and convent of Sempringham. Two years later, 3 November, 1303,
John Dalderby,^ bishop of Lincoln, in a letter addressed to the prior and convent, reciting

Whereas Mr. Robert Luterel has granted {contulerii) to you a manor which he had in the

parish of S. Peter's, Stamford, by way of charity, wishing that scholars, proportionate to the

augmented number of your convent, studying the scriptures and philosophy, may live in the same

manor together with a secular chaplain to celebrate in the chapel of Our Lady in the same manor,

commending this pious deed, though there has been a chantry founded in the said chapel for a

long time past, yet to confirm the wishes of the said Mr. Robert and for the solace and quit of the

students

granted special licence for them to hold the manor for the purposes aforesaid. Then follows a

copy of a deed undated in which, with the consent of Philip, master of the order, the prior and

convent bind themselves ' in the word of truth ' to Mr. Robert Luterel, rector of Irnham,^ that

in consideration of the grant they will maintain three chaplains for his soul's health, one of

the parish church of Irnham, one in the manor at Stamford, and one in the convent church of

Sempringham, 'and we grant also that the possessions given shall be for the maintenance of

scholars in proportion to the increased number of the convent, studying in the scriptures and

philosophy at Stamford at proper times.'

It can hardly be denied that this is nothing less than the foundation of a university hall at
Stamford, where members of the Gilbertine Order were to go and study theology and philosophy.
It is on precisely the same footing as Durham Hall, at Oxford,^ part of the buildings of which
are now incorporated in Trinity College, started in 1286 by the cathedral monastery of Durham
before its formal foundation and incorporation as a college by Bishop Hatfield in 1380. At Durham
Hall there were to be eight monks studying law and divinity, and eight secular clerks studying
grammar and philosophy. We may assume that the number at Sempringham Hall contributed
by the canons of Sempringham would certainly not exceed that contributed by the great convent
of Durham, and that half-a-dozen at the outside would represent the number of students in it.

The establishment of a university hall at Stamford in 1303, even though for regular canons
and not the secular clergy, in itself suggests that there was some sort of university teaching already
going on there. It is a question how far the Benedictine Priory of St. Leonard's at Stamford,
which, like Durham Hall at Oxford, a cell of Durham * Abbey,' as the cathedral priory was called,
was founded, or at all events used, as a university hall. In the Durham Bursar's Account Roll
for 1299,* under the heading ' Expenses of the brethren to cells,' while the expenses of one monk
going to Coldingham in Scotland were 5j., and of another going twice to Lindisfarne were 95.,
those of ' two fellows to Stamford ' were los. Under ' Prior's Gifts,' the fellows at Oxford were
paid 66f. 8^., and under ' Petty expenses,' ' a man carrying money to the fellows at Oxford ' was
paid \%d. The Oxford students were paid more because they were at this time wholly maintained
by the abbey, while the Stamford priory was separately endowed. Still, there is nothing distinc-
tively showing that the Stamford ' fellows ' (a word used alternatively with brethren, and not
necessarily meaning fellows of a college) were engaged in education until 135 1-2, when the
Almoner's Roll shows a payment of 43^. o\d. ' in pittances made to the fellows in cloister, money
given to some of them visiting their friends, and to scholars studying at Oxford and Stamford
{ac scolaribus Oxon et Stamford studentibus) with the expenses of the Almoner in divers places
belonging to his office.' In the next roll, 13S2-3,' appears 'To the scholars of Oxford and
Stamford by order of the Prior 20x.' But ' and Stamford ' is scratched out in the original. In the
Hostillar's Roll in 1347-8 a gift is made 'to students at Oxford and brethren at Stamford,' thus
suggesting that the brethren at Stamford were not students. It therefore would appear that the
solitary entry in 135 1-2 'to scholars studying at Oxford and Stamford,' followed by the scratching
out of Stamford next year, was only due to carelessness on the part of the scribe in mixing
up the two ; except that in 1368 the accounts of Jarrow, a cell of Durham, show a payment
of 20s. ^.d. studentibus Oxonie et Stamford. There are a fair number of account-rolls of
Stamford Priory itself preserved at Durham ; I looked through them all and found not a single
educational payment, whereas in the rolls relating to Oxford there are many. Still, the Oxford
payments are chiefly for taking degrees, and it is certain that Stamford did not affect (except
during the famous stampede to Stamford) to give degrees. The evidence therefore as to
St. Leonard's Priory, Stamford, being intended to be or being an educational college is somewhat

' Reg. Dalderby, fol. 8.

' He was the younger brother of Sir Geoffrey Lutterel or Louterel, knight, lord of Irnham, for whom
the famous Luttrell Psalter was made at about this date. Monumenta Vetusta.
' r.C.H. Durham, i, 'School,' 366.
• Ed. by Dr. William Fowler, Surtees Soc. Nos. 1 30, 497, 499. ' Ibid. i. 207.

469

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

inconclusive ; though, on the whole, being so frequently mentioned with Oxford, it rather
looks as if it were to some extent so used. It was, in any case, a very small establishment,
as its total endowment was under ;^30^ a year, and that of Durham College, Oxford, was ;^I22
a year ; Francis Peck in 1727, followed by Canon Hensley Henson in 1885,^ asserts that

the educational eminence of Stamford was mainly owing to the Carmelites who appear to have
settled there in 1263, at which time the eminent Henry de Henna presided over the order as
Provincial . . . These Carmelite schools formed the nucleus around which there soon gathered
a university in all but name.

This Dr. Rashdall ' pronounces ' essentially misleading. There is no evidence that there were
any but purely claustral schools at Stamford till 1344.' But a collection of claustral schools
might to all intents and purposes approximate to a university. Dr. Rashdall himself has shown how
at the beginning of the fourteenth century the friars dominated the University of Paris and nearly
captured the University of Oxford itself. At Oxford the Dominican Friars had actually established
a custom having the force of law that the vespers or evening disputations, which every bachelor
had to hold before he could become a master or doctor in theology, should and could only be held
in their church. When the university transferred them to St. Mary's the friars appealed to the
pope. Though the friars were defeated, yet in 1 314* the victorious university had to agree that
every bachelor of divinity, after completing his course on the sentences of Peter Lombard, should
preach a sermon in the Dominican church before proceeding to the degree of doctor, and the
Friars Preachers were allowed ' to have free schools in their house for lectures, disputations, and
determinations,' and to exercise scholastic acts in their schools. The Austin Friars' schools ' were
regularly used by the university for the disputations of bachelors of arts, which lasted for three
years, and masters of arts, and later bachelors, were appointed as ' collatores ' to preside over these
disputations. It is true that they were not presided over by the Friars themselves.* But the use
of the schools for the purpose is an indication of the important part played by the friars in
university life.'

It is quite possible that the feud which broke out between the secular clerks at Oxford and
the friars * might have led to some attempt to develop a studium generale at Stamford in which
the Carmelite Friars and the regular religious, the canons of Sempringham and the monks of
Durham and elsewhere, should be the predominant element instead of the secular clergy ; but,
though Sempringham Hall is evidence that there was some university movement going on at
Stamford, yet there is none that it was headed by the Carmelite Friars. The statement ' Stamford
now rose rapidly. , . . The names of Henry de Hanna and his successor Lidlington, of
Nicholas de Stamford and John Rodington, shed the lustre of their learning in the schools where
they taught,' if it means that they taught at Stamford, is an unsupported assertion. Henry de
Hanna was merely the provincial or head in England of the Carmelite or White Friars, the least
numerous of the four orders of friars, and a recent importation to England, he being only the
second provincial. All that is known about him is derived from Leland, who mentions nothing
but some sermons by him, and never suggests that he taught anywhere or acquired any eminence
whatever. His successor as provincial, in 1299 or 1 300, William Ludlington or LuUendun, as
Leland calls him, was a teacher, for he was a D.D. ; but it is expressly stated by Leland that he
taught and was a D.D. {decus theologi supremum accepit) at Oxford. His eminence consisted in
having quarrelled with the foreign head of his order, who wished to divide England into two
provinces, and in being suppressed by the pope and made to do penance for it. Nicholas of
Stanford (Stamford), who according to Leland was an Augustinian, and according to Bale a
Cistercian (certainly not a Carmelite), was also a doctor, but of Cambridge. Lastly, John
Rodington was also not a Carmelite at all, but a Franciscan, and is distinctly stated by a
contemporary historian, quoted by Bale, as having attained fame at Oxford. Besides, both these
last two are said to have flourished circa 1 3 50, a generation too late for the so-called Stamford
University.

Another piece of evidence has been alleged, namely, that a commentary on Boethius by
one Master William Wetelay is described as ' compiled by a master who taught school at Stamford,

' Valor. Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 305. » Oxf. Hist. Soc. Collect., i, 3.

' Universities of Europe, ii, 397. * Oxf. Hist. Soc. Collect., n, 270.

' Mun. Academica, 363, 411, 416, 749.

* Though Mr. Anstey interpreted the documents he edited to mean this. Ibid. Ixiii and 801.

'A writer in the Stamfordian, the Stamford School Magazine for 1889, gave a reference to a grant
from the Close Rolls of 10 June, 44 Henry III, of oaks from the forest of Cleve to the Friars Minors of
Stamford to build i school. There is no such grant in the year mentioned. Mr. J. G. Black, of the
Record Office, says it seems to be founded on a misreading of a grant given on the Close Roll of the year
before, 43 Henry III, m. 12, 21 Feb. of 6 oaks for timber for building their cloister ('ad claustrum
suum inde perficiendum ') — a very different thing.

° Oxf. Hist. Soc. Collect, ii, 195-273.

470

SCHOOLS

A.D, 1309." It is argued that the description rexit scolas means more than teaching a grammar
school, and that the book itself is a university, not a school, book. But this is a double error.
First, regere see/as is precisely the technical term used for teaching a grammar school, and that is
its primary meaning, afterwards transferred to university schools. Secondly, the book is a school,
and not a university, book. The book in question, De disciplina Scolarium, which is wrongly
ascribed to Boethius, its contents showing that it is many centuries later, is a book on the training
of children from their earliest years. It is among the books given by William of Wykeham to
Winchester College, and not among those given by him to New College, while the same
author's commentary on Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, which was a university book, was
given to New College and not to Winchester. Besides, we have already identified Mr. William
Weteley' as the master of Lincoln Grammar School in 1316. The inference is that Mr.
Frumentilege, as he calls himself by a pun on Wheatley had in the interval between 1309 and
13 1 6 been promoted from the mastership of Stamford to that of Lincoln Grammar School.'

At last, in 1334, we get on the firm basis of documents as to the historical 'stampede to
Stamford.' Dr. Rashdall doubts * whether the stampede was due to ' northern scholars worsted in
their battles with the southerners, or by masters beaten in an encounter with the scholars.' There
is no doubt that it was due to the former cause, as will be seen by the list of recalcitrant masters
who persisted in carrying on the Stamford schools, being entirely composed of northerners, headed
by William of Barnby, a fellow and bursar of Merton College,* who no doubt came from
Barnby-upon-Don, in Yorkshire.

The first mention of it is in a complaint by the chancellor and masters of Oxford in a letter '
written on Valentine's Day, probably 1334, to Queen Philippa, who was apparently acting as
regent in England while King Edward III was engaged in the war in Scotland. The matter
does not appear to have been regarded as of the first importance, as the complaint takes a quite
secondary place in the letter, the bulk of which is taken up with complaints against cardinal de la
Mota, an Italian living in Italy, who had been appointed by the pope archdeacon of Oxford, and
in respect of his office claimed jurisdiction over the students, in derogation of the chancellor's rights
and the university's independence. After discussing this matter at length, the letter concludes : —

And for that, lady, certain persons, who have received all their honours among us, in
destruction, as far as in them lies, of our university, have gone to Stamford, and daily attract
others there by their false pretences, be pleased, most noble lady, to counsel your humble daughter,
that she may not be idle, and may not by her false sons be deprived of work and honour, but
being maintained by you, may teach the sons of great men and others good manners and learning.
Have, if it please you, regard to good and wise persons who before now, to the great honour of
your kingdom, have been nourished with increase of virtue and understanding from youth to old
age ; and let not the town of Oxford (d'Oxenford), which belongs to my lord the king and to you,
be disinherited by the honour of another.

Another letter was written in Latin to Henry of Burwash, Lord High Treasurer, bishop of
Lincoln, in whose diocese both Oxford and Stamford were, to the same effect. After the same
complaint against cardinal de Mota, it proceeds : —

' Exeter Coll. MS. 28, 'compilatus per quendam magistrum qui rexit scolas Stamfordie a.d. 1309,
ipso incipiente diem hunc post festum S. Martini in yeme.' Oddly enough this MS. is described as being
at Merton by Peck, but it could not have been, as the book itself says it was ' bought for the scholars of
Stapledon Hall.'

' New College MS. No. 264, given by William Reed bishop of Chichester, a contemporary and friend
of Wykeham's. See under Lincoln Grammar School for Mr. Wheteley's hymn.

' IVilts Institutions, by Sir Thomas Phillips, shows that in 1 3 1 6 he was also rector of Yatesbuiy in Wiltshire,
to which he was appointed in 1 3 1 7, in succession to Hugh of Wheatley, no doubt a near relation, collated
in 1304. It is probable that he was non-resident and remained at Lincoln, and that the church of
Yatesbury was served by John Wheteley, appointed vicar by rector Hugh. A successor to William Wheteley
in the rectory was appointed in 1330, so no doubt he died in that year.

* Univ. of Europe, ii, 377, and App. xxii, 756. The authority he cites for the latter cause, a MS. in
Bryan Twyne's collection at Corpus, says the Master Scholars' riot took place 9 April, 1330, which is four
years too early. Dr. Rashdall himself points out that the year 1330 does not fit the day of the month and
week, Friday before Palm Sunday, and suggests 1338. But this is four years too late. It is extremely
improbable that people would secede from Stamford to Oxford because of a riot four years before, and it is
impossible they could secede on account of a riot which took place four years after the secession.

' This I discovered while this was going through the press, in a Merton College account roll for 1320,
while looking for the history of Merton College School.

' Oxf. Hist. Soc. Colled, i, 8, from B.M. Royal MSS. 12 D. xi, fol. 29. The letter is in French.
Women were not supposed to understand Latin. Nuns were always written to by bishops in French.
though monks were addressed in Latin. The Sempringham nuns were actually forbidden by the statutes of
the order to talk Latin, while it was enjoined on boys in schools and young men at Oxford and Cambridge.

471

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Besides, most reverend father and lord, of your benevolence, we add ampler prayers that,
whereas to the dissipation of our university certain degenerate sons ' whom the said university out of
dust made into men and decorated with many honours wickedly cut themselves off from their mother's
body, and, not content with that, entice and induce all they can indiscriminately to forbidden
places. Therefore with all devotion we beg you that for the restoration of the estate of your
university, and to defeat the effort of its enemies, you will deign to show your fatherly care for it
with the king and others, so that the strayed sheep, reunited to the flock, may find the sweetest
and most fertile pastures, rest in the accustomed fold, and bring forth the fruit of virtue, and spare
their fleeces the rod.
At the same time another letter was sent to the king asking him to write to the pope on
their behalf for papal letters to enable them to obtain ecclesiastical benefices, and for help against
cardinal de Mota. In the third place only they refer to the grievance of the rival university : —

But the last evil, which we think every way hurtful and pestilential, namely, the new assembly
of scholars at the town of Stamford for university instructions {pretextu scolastice discipline), which
as it is certain to result ^ in the loss of our school and in being a general seminary of discord
for the whole kingdom, we beseech and beg you to extirpate by your royal power, so that what was
begun by improvident rashness may be quickly put an end to by the royal wisdom, and be a warning
to future evil-doers.

These letters had the desired eflFect. On 2 August, 1334, the king having returned to
England, he and the council wrote from Windsor' to the sheriff of Lincoln : —

Whereas certain masters and scholars of our university of Oxford, under colour of certain recent
dissensions in the said University and other colorable pretexts, had withdrawn themselves to
Stamford, and there presumed to hold school and perform scholastic acts (studium tenere ac actus
scolasticos exercere) without licence, which if it was tolerated would redound, not only to the
king's contempt and disgrace, but also to the dispersion of the University ; not wishing, therefore, that
schools and studies {snlas seu studio) should be held in anywise elsewhere in the realm than in places
where universities now are

he directs the sheriff to go to Stamford and cause proclamation to be made there and elsewhere
throughout his bailiwick to inhibit everyone, on pain of forfeiture of all which they can forfeit,
not to presume to hold a school or do scholastic acts in any way. At the same time a letter was
sent to the mayor and bailiffs of Oxford to say that all scholars who had suffered injury were to
lay their complaints before a special commission of justices, and the mayor and bailiffs were to see
justice done.

How far the proclamation was effective we do not know. It was certainly not wholly obeyed,
as the king wrote again from Newcastle I November, 1334, to the sheriff saying that he understood
that in spite of the royal prohibition certain masters and scholars continued to keep school and per-
form scholastic acts, and directed him to go again and repeat the proclamation, and if any still disobeyed
to seize their books and goods and keep them until further order and certify to the king the names
of the disobedient. And the king willed that swift justice should be shown to those who laid any
complaint at Oxford of violence or injury before a special commission appointed for the purpose.
This time it was the sheriflF John of Trehampton who was disobedient. He did not go to Stamford
or carry out his orders. Consequently on 7 January, 1335, the king wrote peremptorily to the
sheriff and told him that he had appointed William Trussel, (who was escheator on this side Trent,
had served as a justice of assize, and was afterwards chief justice) to go with him and seize the goods
of the disobedient and certify their names to the king, and he wrote to Trussel to the same effect.
It was apparently after this (though it may have been in the August before) that the seceders wrote
to the king in French,* a letter preserved in a register of the abbot of Peterborough, a fact which
suggests that he was privy to it and perhaps abetted their resistance : —

The clerks living in the town of Stamford (les clercs demerantz dans la vile de Staunford) prayed
the king that whereas by reason of many controversies, contests, and fights which have for long been
and still are in Oxford by which great damages, dangers, deaths, murders, maimings, and robberies
have happened, they have withdrawn from Oxford to Stamford to study and become proficient in
greater quiet and peace by sufferance of the noble John earl of Warenne, the king would allow his

' Mr. Henson prints 'qui dicti filii degeneres,' which means nothing. 'Qui dicti ' is in the MS.
' quidam.' For ' ad loca vetita, quos sibi elegerant ' read ' que sibi elegerant.'

^ 'Quia tam in dispendium studii nostri quam in totius regni discordiarum seminarium generale
redundare presumiter.' The last word is for ' presumitur.'

^ Close R. 8 Edw. Ill, m. 1 7 <^. ; ' Per ipsum Regem et Concilium.'

* Cott. Vesp. E. xxi, fol. 62 ; Collect, i. Mr. Henson dates this letter in 1333 and makes it issue spon-
taneously from the Stamfordian clerks. But its place in the MS. is between a document of 1 5 January,
1334-5, and one apparently late in 8 Edward III, i.e. 1334-5. Besides, it is extremely unlikely the seceders
would have moved first. They had found a refuge, and until they had been attacked there was no reason for
their appealing to the king to let them stay there.

472

SCHOOLS

liegemen to remain there under his protection for God and for holy charity, seeing that men of all
crafts {mestiers) of whatsoever condition they be of his allegiance can live in any lordship by leave of
the king.
The king was, however, not to be softened. On 28 March he issued a commission to Trussel
to seize the goods of those who still stayed at Stamford. An inquisition was held on Wednesday
after St. James's Day, which is 25 July, by a united jury of town and country, and they found seven-
teen M.A's. {magiitri), one B.A. apparently, William Bacheler, five described as domini, who were
holders of livings in the neighbourhood, fifteen students — that is, their names are given without any
title except in the case of Sir Thomas, rector of Stanhope in Durham — and ' Philipus le maunciple
atte Brasenose.' The names of the masters show that they were all northerners. They were
headed by Mr. William of Barnby, next came Mr. Thomas of Kendale, then Mr. Thomas of
Hotoft, John of Whitwell, John of Barton, no doubt Barton-on-Humber, William of Raby
in Lancashire, William of Anlaby,^ and among the scholars Robert of Hesilbech and William
of York {Euerwyk). The last three were all Yorkshiremen. There were a few students
from Northamptonshire, Ralf of Acherche, John son of Gilbert of Foderynggaye, and John
son of Geoffrey of Barnake, and one Leicestershire man, John of Kyrkebie Beliers. With
these exceptions they were all from north of Trent. The Stamford clergy comprised Peter rector
of St. Peter's who was a master, Dominus Robert of Bourle (Burleigh no doubt) vicar of St. Andrew's,
Dominus Henry vicar of All Saints beyond the bridge, Dominus Richard rector of St. George's, and
Dominus John Blandolfe rector of Stokes ^ by Grantham. The most startling person undoubtedly
was ' Philip Manciple at the Brasenoze.' This certainly seems to show that there was a University
Hall of that name. The arched doorway of it of the late thirteenth or fourteenth century still
stands, though moved from its old position, in the wall of what is now a girls' school nearly
immediately opposite the grammar school which is the old St. Paul's Church. A few years ago
Brasenose' College at Oxford bought it and carried ofF its brazen nose to Oxford. The manciple
was the person who bought the provisions, and as we learn from Chaucer's manciple at the Temple,
generally made a good thing out of it. He would hardly be a student himself, but not only the
college servants but the book-binders and parchment sellers and other dependents at Oxford were
members of, and enjoyed the privileges of, the university. Anthony Wood says that there were a
great many other names of dependents returned. But the original return is preserved, and there are
no other names than those of the thirty-eight persons referred to above. The return of the inqui-
sition as to books and goods seized is most disappointing. The jury, ' asked about the books, goods,
and chattels of the delinquents,' ' say on their oath that they are wholly ignorant.'

And so the matter ends ; and so no doubt the Stamford University ended. For two years
later,* Robert of Stratford [on Avon], archdeacon of Canterbury, chancellor of England and also
of Oxford University, wrote ^ to the chancellor and masters of Cambridge assuring them that in
view of the good feeling which had always prevailed between the two universities he did not
doubt they would

Not bestow honours on those whom they knew to be perjured and wicked conspirators for the
subversion of the university. So, as Mr. William of Barnby, the principal instigator of the dangerous
schism which lately took place in the said university, though he had been exalted by it to the degree
of master, nourished, and promoted, yet ungratefully ignoring the wrong to gratitude he had endea-
voured with all his might to upset his promotrix, inducing or rather seducing many scholars to leave
it and go to Stamford, where he procured the erection of an adulterine school {adulterinum studium)
and urgently and pertinaciously laboured to establish it there to the destruction of this university, and,
as long as he could, lectured there, damnably incurring the guilt of perjury ; ° and now, it is said,
wishes to incept in decrees in your university. We warn your prudence of this, and remind you,
among other things, that, if the said university of Stamford had lasted, it would have been to the disad-
vantage and dishonour of both universities. We ask you, as the said William is a notorious perjurer,
to whom the door of dignity ought not to be open, not to admit him to the summit of honour or the
status of a master, for it would redound to your shame if such a sower of discord against his

' Anthony Wood in his history disguises Anlaby's name and origin by calling him Aulaby, Hesilbech by
calling him Hesibeth, and York by calling him Ewerwicks.

' Misprinted Scottes by Anthony Wood.

' This, by the way, is a conclusive answer to the too-clever-by-half etymology of Brasenose Oxford from
Brasinghouse = brewing-house. There is not the smallest evidence that it ever was a brewing-house, nor that
brasinghouse ever meant a brewing-house. There can be no doubt that the sign of a brazen nose gave its
name to the college.

* The date is fixed by Robert of Stratford's chancellorship.

' . Royal MSS. 1 2 D xi, 13 (B.M.) ' Univ. Cantebr. per Robertum de Stretford, ne ibidem inciperet W. de
Barneby.' This letter has been printed so as to be quite unintelligible in Collectanea, p. 15, with ' vobis ' for
'nobis' in the sixth line, and 'preveniens' for ' preveniatis ' in the seventh line.

' Because he had broken the oath of fealty to Oxford.

473

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

chief benefactress wholly given to wicked insolence should among you ascend the height oi

such a degree.'
Thus ended the Stamford schism. It is said by Camden and others that there were later
university teachers at Stamford, but not a particle of evidence to that effect has yet been produced.
The only permanent remembrance of this short-lived schism was the insertion in the oath taken at
Oxford on ' inception ' in any faculty. ' You shall swear that you will not resume lectures in such
and such a faculty solemnly as in a university elsewhere in England than here and at Cambridge
. . . Item you shall swear ^ that you will not lecture or attend lectures at Stamford, as in a uni-
versity or general school or college.'

STAMFORD GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Whatever may have been the position of Mr. William Whateley in 1309, and there is
little doubt that he was neither more nor less than the master of the grammar school there, it
is certain that a grammar school was flourishing in Stamford within twenty years of that date.
Though Stamford is not included in the batch of schools to which masters were appointed by the
Lincoln chapter during the vacancy of the chancellorship in 1329' and continued in 1330,
there must have been such an appointment, for it is recorded that when, on 30 May,
1 33 1, the appointments of the masters were renewed for a year, using these words, uti posseditis
ita possideatis, ' as you have so keep,' they decreed letters to issue to that effect, ' though the school-
masters of Stamford and Boston were absent without excuse.'*

On 18 December, 1389,^ the chancellorship of Lincoln again being vacant, the dean and
chapter of Lincoln, * in reverence to the lord duke of York, granted to John Langham, school- ^
master of the town of Stamford [magister scolarum ville de Stanfordia), leave of absence from
the school for a year as he is starting for a pilgrimage beyond seas, viz. to Rome, in the coming
year of jubilee, on condition however that a fit teacher be set over the same school,* able to supply
his place in this behalf.'

There is little doubt that at Stamford, as at Boston and Louth, the school was maintained by
some of the numerous gilds in the town, especially that of Corpus Christi. But its present
endowment dates from I June, 1532,^ when William Ratclif, a Stamfordian, who had made his
fortune as a merchant of the staple of Calais, by his last will directed his feoffees, Roger Ratclif,
Henry Lacye, and others, to stand seised of certain lands ' on condition that they should find and
maintain a fit secular chaplain, sufficiently learned, to celebrate and pray for the souls of the said
William and others, and freely teach and instruct the art of grammar in Stamford aforesaid as long
as the law allowed.' The Chantry Commissioners of 1547,* under the heading of 'Stipend of a
chaplain celebrating in the parish of the Blessed Mary in Stamford,' set out the foundation as above,
and found the incumbent to be ' Libeus Bayard, thirty-six years of age, who not only celebrates
and prays for the souls aforesaid, but also instructs boys of the said town in the art of grammar
according to the intention of the founder.' He received for his salary the issues and profits of the
lands amounting to ;^io 3^. id, a year gross, and £() 5j. 5^. net.

The Chantries Act, in spite of its preamble as to applying the chantry endowments to ' good
and godly uses as in erecting of grammar schools,' confiscated all the school endowments, which
were either chantries or annexed to colleges, except the Oxford and Cambridge colleges and
Winchester and Eton. In virtue of the directions to the chaplain-schoolmaster to pray for Ratclif s
soul Stamford Grammar School fell under the Act into the royal treasury. But Stamford had a
friend at court in William Cecil, otherwise Sisyll, then ' William Cicill, esquire,' ' afterwards Lord
Burghley, an old boy of Stamford Grammar School, who went thence to St. John's College,
Cambridge, in 1535, and was M.P. for Stamford in the Parliament begun at Westminster,
4 November, 1547, which passed the Chantries Act. Being in the employ of the Government

' Royal MSS. 12 D xi (B.M.). 'Inter eos ad honoris fastidium . . . nullatenus admittatis' should be
' fastigium.' But this is a mistake of the original MS. In lines 14, 15 ' insensum reprobum totus datus'
should be ' insolenciae resilium.' The MS. has * rexilium.'

' Mun. Acad, ii, 375. This oath was still preserved in the Laudian recension of the statutes in the
seventeenth century, and was taken down to 1854.

' See above under Boston and Grantham.

* Line. Chapter Act Book, A. 2, 24, fol. 20, ' absentibus tamen magistris scolarum de Staunford et de
S. Botolpho nee se excusantibus.' ' Ibid. A. 2, 28, fol. 25^

" ' Dum tamen ydoneus ipsis scolis preficiatur instructor, qui vices suas supplere poterit in hac parte.'

' The date has hitherto been given as 1530, but the date given above is that assigned in the chantry
certificate, evidently from the original document. P.R.O. Chan. Cert. 33, No. 119.

' A. F. Leach, English Schools at the Reformation (1896), 133, from Chan. Cert. 33, No. 119. The
original, unlike most of the certificates, is in Latin.

^ Acts of P.C. ii, 312.

474

SCHOOLS

he could not add his to the other ' fre voices ' which, led by those of the burgesses for Lynn and
Coventry, jeopardized the Act and wfrung a promise from the Protector that the chantry lands
of Lynn and of the Corpus Christi Gild of Coventry should be retained by them.' But he no
doubt manoeuvred quietly for the same purpose. In the second session of the Parliament, which
ended on 24 November, 1548, a private Act^ was passed refounding Stamford School.

Some 30 years later Lord Burghley, by deed in 1 58 1, increased the commons of the
24 Lady Margaret scholars of St. John's College, Cambridge, from "jd. to is. a week, in con-
sideration of which he and his heirs were to possess the privilege of appointing ' one mete
scoUer out of the scoole of Stamford.' The school has apparently ever since the date of this Act
been carried on in St. Paul's Church, Stamford ; appropriated for the purpose no doubt under the
private Act of 1547, which enabled the corporation to consolidate the parishes in Stamford and use
the disused churches to mend bridges, or for the benefit of the poor and the public.

By deed of 13 January, 1608-9, Nicholas Lambe conveyed to Thomas Bellot and eight
others, in consideration of ;^50, a house with garden and orchard by St. Paul's Church ' for the
benefit, behoof, abode, and dwelling-house of the then late and future schoolmasters.' A stone in
the wall inscribed —

DONUM THOME BELLOT

STAMFORDIE GYMNASIARCHIS

1609

recorded this gift. Bellot was Lord Burghley's secretary. The house has been thrice rebuilt, or so
extensively repaired and added to as to amount to rebuilding — in 1726, when the cost was defrayed
by public subscription, and in 1833 by the Rev. F. E. Gretton, who added studies and dormitories,
and in 1885.

Of Richard Swan, appointed in 161 1, all we know is from a letter' written in 1625 by
Samuel Hill, rector of Medbourne in Leicestershire, to Dr. Gwynn, master of St. John's, who says
that Swan had consulted ' a knight in Lincolnshire, very well sene in ancient records, to under-
stand the original donation of the schoole, thinking he had some wrong therein.' And this, according
to competent legal opinion,* he had. The school must have been of good standing under Swanne,
as in 1613 Thomas, Lord Burghley's eldest son, first earl of Exeter, gave a yearly rent-charge to
Clare Hall in Cambridge for three ' the earl of Exeter his fellows ' and eight scholars, six to be
called ' the earl of Exeter his scholars ' and two ' the Lady Dorothy countess of Exeter her
scholars.' It was provided that in election to the scholarships after the earl and countess's death,
the college ' shall principally prefer such persons of the said university as formerly have been
brought and instructed in the school of Stamford, if in respect of their learning and honest
conversation they shall be found as fit and able as others which shall be competitors with them for
the said scholarships.'

On 27 July, 1625, Mr. Lionell Lambe, M.A., was appointed head master by the alderman,
Henry Rostell. He became vicar of St. Martin's, Stamford, in 1637. The next master was a
noted personage in the scholastic world, William Dugard, who afterwards, when headmaster of the
Merchant Taylors' School, set up a printing press and produced a famous scholastic work on the
' Reformed School ' by John Dury, a Puritan minister. He was succeeded by Simon Humfrey
or Humfreys, who in 1639 obtained a Commission of Charitable Uses, under which an inquisition
was held at the 'Swanne' in Stamford on 22 August, before Sir Edward Hussey, Sir William
Armyn and others, the result of which was that by a decree of 1 5 January, 1 640, certain long
leases of the school property at low rates improperly granted by various aldermen in the reign of
Elizabeth were set aside and arrears ordered to be paid to the master. On his death in 1657,
after some intriguing to keep out a ' high Arminian,' Mr. Hix, who had been schoolmaster of
Oundle, Mr. Rayner Herman, M.A., of Pembroke, was approved on 27 October by the
master of St, John's. He stayed on at the Restoration, but in 1662 retired to the living of
Tinwell,where he was buried 18 October, i668.

In 1663 Mr. Shalcross came in, but in five years only contributed one boy to St. John's.
Mr. Geery came in 1668 and stayed for twenty-two years, then Mr. Smith for some eight
years and Mr. Turner for twenty-two years.

' Acts of P. C, ii, 195. The Council directed letters patent to issue regranting the lands to Lynn and
Coventry accordingly, 6 May, 1548.

" An original exemplification of this Act under the Great Seal, dated 16 May, 1549, is preserved at
St. John's College. Printed by Mr. R. F. Scott, bursar, in the college magazine, The Eagle (Dec. 1904), xxvi,
No. 135.

' The Eagle, xxvi, 136, p. 26.

* That of Serjeant Bantrie. Admitted Lincoln's Inn, 1575; called, 1584; treasurer, 1612;
Jerjeant, 16 14.

475

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

In 1723 William Hannes came from the ushership of Magdalen College School, Oxford,
at which college he had matriculated from Warwick, 13 July, 1697. After he had
been there six years the alderman, now called mayor, sent the master of St. John's a petition
signed by 83 persons for the removal of Hannes, 'whose great negligence hath reduced a
flourishing school almost to nothing.' The earl of Exeter supported the petition. George
Fothergill, however, an old Johnian and a barrister, wrote on his behalf. The attack on
Hannes was due to this :

It has alwayes time out of mind been constantly usuall att the inauguration of the Majors (Mayors)
of Stamford for the two Head Boyes of the school to make two Lattin speeches in prose or verse'
to the Major and community assembled. Some person telling the Major (who happens to be a rope-maker
and sells cheese and bacon and makes sacks and sacking and sailcloth) that he was most ignominiously
and scandalously abused in the copy of verses spoke . . . and Englishing them to him in a worse
sense . . . the Major grew so . . . outragiously provoked that nothing would serve him but that
the master must be turned out.

The verses are preserved and show a very pretty wit both in Latin and English, but we
can understand that the mayor did not like them. The charges of non-attendance were con-
fessed as unavoidable. They were due ' to some necessary avocations, for he has lately married,
and his courtship and addresses necessarily took up some time, and he lately having a living given
him in Leicestershire by Sir Cloberry Noel, one of his pupils at Oxford.' But he always left an
usher.

However, the law took its course. Hannes was summoned to come before the mayor on
19 May, but he refused to appear. A week afterwards evidence was taken. One boy, 'Anthony
son of John Wingfield esquire,' said that he was at the school four years and prayers were never read.
He spoke to the absences of Hannes even when at home and well, 'for this deponent has known him
to be walking in his garden at the same time.' The exercises for four months together were never
looked at, and he ' has often seen Mr. Hannes sleeping in his study in the school for an hour
or two together, and sometimes while this deponent and his seat-fellows have been repeating their
lessons.' Richard son of Charles Peale, rector of Edithweston, concurred. He had ' often said
the same lesson for a week together without the said Mr. Hannes taking any notice thereof.'
He was

ordered by his said master at one time to construe twelve chapters of Greek out of the New Testament
for part of his task ; that this examinant construed three of them, during which time his master was
asleep, and wakeing his said master told him he had construed the whole, who said it was very
well . . . Nor did Mr. Hannes give any directions to this examinant or any other boys ... to
converse in the Latin tongue either in the said school or without.

Hannes' only answer was that he was ' the most impudent boy that ever came into a school.'

The next mayor, Edward Holcott, came into office before the proceedings were complete.
He told the master of St. John's that Hannes had reduced the school from (between) seventy and
eighty to five. William Noel, M.P. for Stamford, and acting recorder (the marquis of Exeter
being recorder), afterwards chief justice, wrote that he 'thought it necessary, having done some
injury by recommending Mr. Hannes, to make some reparation by doing my utmost for his
removal.' Before he could be removed, in December, 1730, Hannes died.

Dodd, ' Hannes' idle lazie usher (who) brought all the ignominy upon Mr. Hannes,' tried to
get the place, and 'on offering Mrs. Mayoress 100 guineas the mayor has presented Dod,' though
he had previously been to Lord Exeter to ask him to name someone, and he had suggested John
Goodall, then head master of Lincoln. Goodall, however, could not make up his mind. ' If,' he
said, ' the corporation of Stamford would give up the fines and what of right belongs to the school,
that together with the prospect of having Lord Burghley for my scholar and the hopes of the
favour of that noble family would incline me to endeavour it.' The corporation, however, would
not undertake to give up the fines or renewal of leases which ' they pretend to keep for the
repairs of the school or the house and for their trouble.' So after much indecision Mr. Goodall
stayed at Lincoln, and Lord Burghley instead of going to Stamford School went to Winchester
College, where he paid ;^200 a year, and where his portrait as a chubby-faced boy may still
be seen.

Lord Exeter having asked the master of St. John's to examine Dod's fitness 'he thought fit
to fly from his intended bargain with our mayor, not dareing to stand the master's examination,'
so wrote the town clerk. But then came ' a fresh chapman,' Mr. Clendon, who ' struck a
bargain for lOO guineas; forty were put down and a note given for the other sixty; the mayor
signed his presentation that night.' Legal action against this was taken by Lord Exeter through
the deputy recorder, and a caveat put in to the bishop against his being given a licence. This

' Harrod, Hist, of Stamford, gives a copy of the verses delivered in 1686. They are turgid and tire-
some in their vague eulogy.

476

SCHOOLS

stopped Mr. Clendon's business. Eventually, on 23 May, Farringdon Reid, a fellow of St. John's,
spoken of as Dominus Reid and Sir Reid, was appointed and approved. He was son of the
succentor of Lincoln and had been a pupil of Goodall's at the grammar school there. He was
quite young, having entered St. John's in 1725, and became a fellow a few days before his
appointment. Three years afterwards he filed a bill in Chancery to recover the fines for which
Mr. Goodall had been anxious, and obtained judgement, and the corporation had to pay £(^2,'^ lOj.
costs, an enormous sum for those days.

In 1 8 1 8 a fierce attack on the school and its administration was made by Thomas Blore,i
who maintained that the school was only intended for the poor, meaning the pauper class, and
that a classical education was not intended, and that there were only sixteen boys in the
school and those of the upper class, by ' a strange perversion of the bounty of the liberal founder,'
and that he was sure no court of equity would directly authorize any master of St. John's ' who
would prescribe instruction useless to a great majority of the real objects of this charitable
foundation.' As a member of the Middle Temple and of the Society of Antiquaries, the author
no doubt knew better. A very slight acquaintance with history shows of course that grammar
schools were not intended for the poor in the sense in which the word was used by him as the
lowest poor, but for the class who wanted grammar-school education for their children, and that
in Henry VIII's reign was the same as now. It was no doubt a scandal that the then master
besides his mastership, which had been raised in 1809 ^7 increase of rents from ;^26o to
^^360 a year,^ was also vicar of St. Mary's and of St. Martin's, Stamford, and as a consequence
that there were only sixteen boys in the school, one of them his own son, and that ' the master's
attendance does not exceed 2^ hours each day.'

In 1828 a petition was presented to Chancery to make the school elementary and to declare
the mayor of Stamford sole trustee. But the petition was dismissed with costs, the court declaring
the school should be conducted as a grammar school, and that the master of St. John's College
was to prescribe the course of instruction.

Appointed in 1 781, Richard Atlay, who was the grandfather of the late bishop of Hereford,
held office for no less than fifty-one years, dying in 1832.

On his death a struggle over the power of appointment took place between Mr. Roden, the
mayor, and Dr. Woods, master of St. John's. The mayor on 23 May, 1833, signed an appoint-
ment of the Rev. J. R. Major. But on 8 June the master sent the mayor a formal letter advising
the appointment of the Rev. Frederic Edward Gretton of Oakham. History repeated itself.
As in 1733, the deadlock was ended by the mayor going out of office. His successor,
Mr. Thomas Mills, concurred in Mr. Gretton's appointment. No better man could have been
found. A scholar and fellow of St. John's, Cambridge, and seventh classic, he had become second
master in 1827 of Oakham Grammar School. One of his pupils there, Atlay, became bishop of
Hereford ; another, whom he brought with him to Stamford, was EUicott, afterwards bishop of
Gloucester, who appointed his former master rector of Oddington on his retirement in 1871.
While master at Stamford, Gretton held the curacy of Tickencote from 1833 to 1847, when he
became vicar of St. Mary's Stamford. On coming into office he spent 3^1,500 on adding to the
head master's house, dormitories, and dining-halls. In 1837 the annual income of the school was
^^578. The Rev. A. Gleadowe, nominated by the head master, was second master, receiving
j^ioo a year salary and board and lodging estimated at j^68 ; while there was a writing-master
who received ;^6o a year and two guineas from each boarder. There were seventy-five boys
in the school, of whom forty were boarders and thirty-five ' free ' day-boys. It was conducted
under rules made by Dr. Woods, master of St. John's, in 1833. Boys were only admitted
between eight and twelve years old, able to read, write, and say the Lord's prayer. Creed and
Ten Commandments, ' and in all respects qualified to enter upon Latin grammar.' The free
boys were to leave at fifteen, except the six head-boys who might be prepared for matricu-
lation at the universities. The course of instruction was to be ' similar to that pursued in
the best grammar schools in England,' and attention was to be paid to mathematics. The
commissioners said in terms of unusual warmth : ' The whole school appears to be not less
impartially than efficiently conducted.'

A complete time-table is appended for six classes, the first being the highest. That for the
iirst class was —

Monday. 7 a.m., Paley ; 10 a.m., Thucydides, Livy, Mathematics.

3 p.m.-5, Euripides, English into Latin and Greek. At night, Latin theme.
Tuesday. Virgil, Rep. Thuc, Hor., Math.

3 p.m., same as Monday. Night, Latin verses.

' An Account of the Public Schools, Hospitals, and other Charitable Foundations in Stamford, Printed by
T. Drakard, Stamford, 181 3.

' This is arrived at by Blore estimating the house as worth ^^30 a year.

477

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Wednesday. Soph., Rep. Thuc, Livy, Math.

3 p.m., Geography, and English into Latin.
Thursday. a.m., Virgil Rep. same as Tuesday.

p.m.. Hist., English into Latin, Alcaic verses or Greek Iambics.
Friday. Same as Wednesday.

Saturday. Virg. Rep. Herodotus, Livy, Math,
p.m., half-holiday.

In the lowest form Phaedrus's Fables were read five hours a week ; Latin grammar, five hours j
exercises, five hours ; geography, four ; history, four ; arithmetic, five hours ; Scripture history, one.

In 1838 Mr. Gretton published. yfn Introduction to Translation of English Poetry into Latin, and
in 1847 Classical Parallels. The school was very successful until, in 1850, in consequence of
several boarders being expelled for grave immorality, its repute was tarnished. After that the
school became mainly a day-school. When Mr. H. W. Eve visited it for the Schools Inquiry
Commission in 1866, he found 77 day-boys all free, and three boarders, private pupils,
paying 80 to 1 00 guineas a year. Mr. Eve pointed out that the town was rich in charities j
the revenues of Browne's Hospital,^ founded under a patent of Richard III in 1483, by William
Browne, merchant of the staple of Calais and alderman of Stamford, for a master, a compotur and
twelve poor, and endowed with ^^30 a year, were superfluously large.

On this hint the commissioners appointed under the Endowed Schools Act, 1869, acted. By
five schemes under the Act, approved by Queen Victoria in Council 26 June, 1873, the endowment
of the Grammar School and the Blue Coat School, with a number of small charities in the town,,
were consolidated with ^f 1,500 a year from Browne's Hospital, under the title of the Stamford
Endowed Schools, and three boys' schools, a Radcliffe High School, Browne's Middle School, and
an Elementary School, with a Girls' Grammar School, were contemplated.

Before the scheme came into operation in July, 1871, Mr. Gretton retired on a pension of
;^I70 a year, and enjoyed it till 27 March, 1890, when he died at the age of eighty-six. Under
this scheme the old grammar school became ' Browne's Middle School,' the master's house with
a ' hostel ' for fifty boys being rebuilt at a cost, including the purchase of a portion of the land,
which belonged to Lord Exeter, of ^^9, 356. In 1874 it was reopened, and the numbers had risen
in 1877 to 108, of whom thirty-seven were boarders. Then came a heavy fall, first to seventy-
three and then to sixty-three, attributed to the early age at which boys had to leave (sixteen),
and the want, therefore, of a sufiiciently high standard of education. Each school meanwhile was
spending more than its income.

Fortunately no attempt was made to establish a separate RadclifFe High School beyond the
purchase of a site. Hence in 1880 the Charity Commissioners were again called in, and recom-
mended an amending scheme.

Mr. Musson, the head master, retired in 1881, and Mr. A. W. Welch, an assistant master
at Harrow School, succeeded, but the numbers fell to forty-five. A new scheme was eventually
approved by Queen Victoria under the Endowed Schools Acts on 30 November, 1882, which
consolidated into one the High School, which had never been set up, and the Middle School of
the former scheme, at fees with the wide limit of ;^8 to ;^20 a year.

In 1884 the Rev. Dennis Jacob Johnson Barnard, LL.D., was appointed head master. He
was at King Edward VI's School, Norwich, and scholar of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he
was in the second class of the Classical Tripos, 1871. He had been five years a master at Lancaster
Grammar School and seven years head master of Kibworth, Leicestershire. In 1887 there were
sixty-three boys in the school, of whom sixteen were boarders. Later the school and boarding-
house were full. But an outbreak of typhoid fever in 1889, owing to the water from the conduit
which supplied the school being contaminated by flowing through an old graveyard, brought the
numbers down. Too late for him the town entered on a great drainage scheme in 1898. In
1 90 1 the numbers had fallen to forty-one. He retired at Easter, 1906.

Unfortunately for the schools the agricultural depression grievously affected the revenue
derived from Browne's Hospital. When the scheme of 1874 was made the hospital income
was ;£3,679. In 1884 it had fallen below ^^3,000, and Mr. Justice Chitty decided that the
schools were not entitled to ;^i,500 as a first charge, but only to the surplus income not exceeding
that sum after the hospital had been kept up. The result was that the schools in 1887 got only
;{|900, and in 1900 they got barely ;^6oo.

The Girls' School, which cost ;£3,524, was opened in May, 1877, under Miss L. M. Munro.
It steadily rose in numbers, until in 1894 it reached 116. But depression overtook this school,
too, and in 1902 it had fallen to 54. Miss Munro then retired, and in 1903 Miss G. Clement, B.A.,
was appointed. After four terms she resigned. The present head mistress, Miss E. Prestley, B.A.,
then came. She has a staff of eight mistresses, and there are now 85 girls in the school.

' In 1870 its income had risen to over ^£3,000 a year.
478

SCHOOLS

The endowment has meanwhile been relieved of the incubus ot the elementary school,
which is now supported by the county council, except for a contribution of ;^30 a year from the
grammar school. There is every hope that a new lease of prosperity is in store for both the boys'
and the girls' branches of this ancient school.

GRANTHAM GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Grantham Grammar School, alike from the antiquity of its origin, the fame of its refoundation,
the fact that it bred Isaac Newton, and its present position as the largest school in Lincolnshire,
deserves far more space than the exigencies of circumstances allow it. It was one of the galaxy of
grammar schools to which masters were appointed by the chapter of Lincoln in the vacancy of the
chancellorship on 15 June, 1322, Walter Pigot being the then master.

Richard Fox, bishop of Winchester, who may fairly be called the prime minister of
Henry VII, has been hitherto credited with its foundation. As a matter of fact, he not only did
not found it, as it existed two centuries before, but he did not even refound or give the bulk of its
endowment. The credit of that must be given to Henry Curteys, alderman of Grantham, mer-
chant, who died in 1479, and his son Richard. The father gave the property to charitable uses,
and Richard the son gave it its particular destination to educational purposes. By his testament,^
18 July, 1478, Henry Curteys willed that his wife Agnes should maintain out of his rents and
tenements assigned to her two fit chaplains for the term of her life, one to celebrate before the
image of the blessed Mary outside the west door of the parish church, and the other before the
image of St. Anne in the chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr. By his will of lands of the same
month, he directed the feoffees of all his lands and tenements to make and deliver at the discretion
of his son Richard sufficient estate and possessions to the alderman of the town for the time being
and his brethren to the value of ;^io a year, for the chaplains to be named by the said Richard and
his heirs, and if he died without heirs then by the alderman, or in default by the dean of Lincoln.
He also willed that his servant Thomas Wodcock should receive a competent exhibition for grammar
until he should be fit for the university of Oxford or Cambridge, and so be maintained until he
attained the dignity of the doctorate of sacred theology ; and if he died then the son of some poor
man in great need, at the discretion of his son, was to be maintained until that degree. Another
chaplain was to be kept at Littleport, where he was born. The will was proved 2 August, 1479.

What Richard Curteys did exactly about the chantry does not appear. But the chantry
certificate in 1546 gives among the six chantries in Grantham church 'Curteys Chauntrie founded
by Richard bishop of Winchester and Thomas Quadring, executors of the will of Richard Curteis,
with the intention that two chaplains should celebrate in the parish church there and pray for the
souls of Henry and Richard Curteis and others for ever ; one of whom should instruct boys both
in good manners and the art of grammar in a certain fine house {celehri domo) built near the church.'
The school had continued since its foundation according to the intention of the foundation. The
instructor, whose name is left blank, was of the age of forty years, and had a salary, besides his
mansion house, of ^5 6i. %d. The other incumbent, George Gibson, aged thirty-nine years,
received the like stipend, and discharged the office of usher {suh-pedagogus) of the school.

It is quite clear from this account that it was not Bishop Fox, but the two Curteys who were
the endowers of the chantry and school. The date is said to have been 1494, and the chantry to
have been otherwise called St. George's chantry. But neither the licence to found it nor the
foundation deed are forthcoming. Fox was, however, a benefactor of the school, for he built the
school-house " and master's house, and gave an additional endowment of £6 13J. 4^. a year to the
school through Corpus Christi College, Oxford, of which he was the indubitable founder. By
deed 2 October, 1528,^ he gave the college lands in Lincolnshire and Somerset on condition of
paying £(> 1 3^. ^d. to the schoolmaster for the time being actually teaching grammar in the school-
house which the said bishop hath built within the town of Grantham. The college was also to
keep the school-house and mansion place in repair. The school-house and master's house still
stand, the former scarcely altered, and the latter, though cut about and added to, yet preserving the
picturesque look of the original. The two are connected by a cloister, thus forming three sides of a
quadrangle. What looks like a contemporary picture of Bishop Fox is still preserved in the head-
master's house. Unfortunately, as Fox's endowment, though at the time it was more than a third
•of the whole income of the school, was worded as a fixed rent-charge, it now plays a very

' P. P. C. 37 Wattys.

' This is what he also did at Taunton, where also he has been credited with being the founder of a
-school of which he merely rebuilt the school-house, as it probably was his duty to do as lord of the castle and
town as bishop of Winchester.

' Not 1529, as in Sch. Inq. Rep.

479

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

unimportant part in the economy of the foundation. Perhaps the most important service it did was to
keep up the connection of the school with Corpus College, which has always furnished good masters
to the school.

The Curteys chantry, on the other hand, was confiscated under the Chantries Act, 1548, the
school being continued by warrant of 20 July, 1548,^ the'saide scole in Grantham shall contynewe
and that the scolemaster which heretofore hath contynewed and yet remaynith there shall enjoy
the rome of scolemaster there, and George Gyborn, ussher of the same scole shall have and enjoy the
rome of ussher there, and that the same scolemaster and ussher shall have for their wages yerely
^C) I2J.' the net value of the lands. On 10 March, 1 550-1,'' however, an order was made in the
Court of Augmentation for the re-foundation of the school. 'The Kinges Maeisties pleasour is
that the Aldermen and burgesses. . . . shall have the premysses assuryed to theym and to their
successors for ever to thentente a Free Gramer Scole shalbe with thissues and profFittes of the same
provided them of his maiesties ereccion. . . . Draw a graunt thereof accordinglye.' The premises
comprised were those of the late chantry of Holy Trinity, worth ^^6 I 8j. %d. a year, and the late
chantry of Blessed Mary worth ^1 ds. 5^. a year and some obit lands in Manthorpe, Grantham,
Hougheton and Spittlegate, worth 13J. 4^. a year, total ^^14 i8f. 5^. The letters patent, in
accordance with this order were not, however, passed till 28 March 1553, when the school was
erected under the name of the Free Grammar School of King Edward VI for the education of
boys in the Latin and Greek grammar, and the premises granted to the aldermen and burgesses, as
governors, paying a fee farm rent of i6f. %d. to the crown.

The school has always stood high in reputation and sent continuous streams of scholars to both
universities. But exigencies of space forbid more detail. In 1898 the number of boys fell below
fifty. But in the same year the Rev. William Rodgers Dawson, M.A. (Dublin), came as head master
to Grantham and revolutionized the school, making it the largest and most prosperous in the
county. By 1905 there were 300 boys, of whom 160 were day-boys, and the rest boarders, with
a staff of eight assistant masters. New science buildings and class-rooms were added in a stately
pile designed by Mr. John Bilson, architect of Hull, and the boarding accommodation of the head-
master's house improved and enlarged. Three new boarding houses have been started and new
cricket and football fields bought. Mr. Dawson removed at Easter to Brighton College, and is
succeeded by Mr. W. T. Keeling, a Bradford School boy, of St. John's College, Cambridge, and late
head master of the King's Grammar School, Warwick.

GREAT GRIMSBY GRAMMAR SCHOOL

The history of Grimsby School begins like that of Boston with the appointment of a master by
the dean and chapter of Lincoln on 13 June, 1329,^ owing to the chancellorship of the church
being vacant and in their hands, when they conferred the school of Grimsby [scolas de Grimesby)
on William of Coleston, clerk, to hold from Michaelmas, 1329, for a year. The appointments so
made were renewed yearly till May, 1334. A similar appointment was made 18 May, 1390,*
when the 'grammar school of the town or municipality of Grimsby' (' Scole gramaticales ville
sive municipii de Grymesby') was conferred {collate) on Mr. John Benet, B.A., by the dean and
chapter of Lincoln. Unfortunately for school history the chancellorship after this ceased to be
held by Italian or French nominees of the popes and was regularly filled up, and we hear no
more of the chapter's patronage of the school.

The school next appears in the reign of Edward VI in connexion with Rayner's chantry. For
this licences in mortmain were granted on 5 June, 1342, and 12 September, 1342, and on 18 March,,
i344-5> Edmund of Grymesby, clerk, granted to William of Shropshire of Waltham, chaplain, and
his successors seven shops [scopas), 12 acres of land and 5 acres of meadow with their appurtenances
in Grimsby, which land and meadow he had by the gift of Sir John of Grimsby, rector of Pynte-
worth, to hold to him and his successors according to the royal licence ; that they might celebrate
in St. James's church for the said Edmund and for Sir John Rayner and William Rayner his
brothers, their sons and daughters and kin, and for the mayor and all the burgesses of the com-
munity of the said town while living, and for their souls when dead. To this chantry he gave
the name of the Holy Trinity and ordered it to be called in the vulgar tongue, ' Rayners.
Chauntre.'

There is unfortunately nothing further known of this chantry, or whether the chantry priest was
the grammar schoolmaster, until we come to the reign of Edward VI. When the Act for the
dissolution of colleges and chantries was impending the burgesses of Grimsby by royal licence
definitely converted the chantry to educational purposes. By letters patent of 12 July, 1547, ^^^

' A. F. Leach, Engl. Schools at the Reformation, 139. » Ibid. 141.

' Line. Chap. Act. Bk. A 2, 24, fols. 14, 16, 20, 23^, 26, 29. » Ibid. 4, 2, 28, fol. 31.

480

SCHOOLS

king, ' at the petition of Sir Edward North, chancellor of the Court of Augmentations, and to the
intention that a Free Grammar School {Libera Scola Gramaticalis) may be established consisting of a
Master teacher or pedagogue and a Subpedagogue to instruct boys and youths in the science of
Grammar,' granted licence to John Bellowe, esquire, mayor, and the burgesses of the town of Grimsby
to acquire lands to the value of 40 marks {£26 ly. ^d.) for the school. Further, Thomas
Thomlynson, chaplain of the perpetual chantry ' called Raynard's Chauntrie,' was enabled to grant
to the mayor and corporation all the possessions of the chantry, which were worth £^ $s. bd., besides
gj. td., reserved by way of tenth to the crown, for the school. Accordingly, on 20 September
following, Thomas Thomlynson, the chaplain of the chantry, granted it and its possessions to the
mayor and burgesses, they paying him ;^8o for it. By this wise arrangement, when the Chantries
Act was passed in the Parliament opened in November, 1547, which gave all chantries to the
king from Easter, 1548, this foundation escaped confiscation. The Chantry Commissioners^ set out
what they called ' S. James Chantry in Great Grimmesby, founded by one Rayner,' as having
been granted to Thomlynson for the purposes specified in the letters patent.

Thomlyson apparently retired to enjoy his pension, for in the Account Roll of the borough for
the fourth year of Edward VI, 1550, Henry Lord, the chamberlain, sets out the ' Chauntre rent'
at £if iSj. "jd. and 'asketh allowance of ^^3 6j. 8^. to Edward Hartbourn, Schollmaster wages.' The
next account extant is for 1557-8 and shows Harry Fotherbye, ' Skolle master of Grymysbye,'
himself collecting the chantry rents and accounting for them, including ' for mendyng the Skole
howis walls 4^.' and 'to a wright for mendyng the said Schooll howis id.\ while there was spent on
' a leyd thaker ' (a man to mend the lead roof or thatch) and ' for free meate and waygis for two day
and a haulf, 3^.'

In the account of 1558 the chantry house is called the 'Head House.' In 1572—3 it was let for
8j. year to Henry Wilson. The school was always held in the Chantry Lane in a very ancient
building close to the chantry house. This looks as if the school had always been connected with
the chantry and continued to be used as such while the chantry priest's dwelling-house was let to
other people. In 1558—9 Henry Fotherbie pays himself 'for teachyng the skolers in the gramer
fre skolle, ;^4.' In 156 1—2 the chamberlain's account in Latin shows paid 'for repairs about le
skolhouse 17J. ^d.' and 'paid to William Calthorpe teacher of the grammar school [preceptori scale
gramatice) beside the rent belonging to the school, ^^I 13J. 8^.' So that the master's salary had been
increased to a more reasonable amount of ;^5 ly. 8d. Next year the chamberlain paid the
schoolmaster {ludimagistro) 25^. \d. out of the town rents, 'besides the chantry rent' and id. for
expenses about the play {circa ludum), unless indeed ludum here simply means the school.

In 1566-7 the schoolmaster was paid £(3 and 5^. ' beyond the receipts.' That year there was
a large outlay in respect of the school in consequence of legal proceedings against the corporation,
the occasion being a chancery suit about a rent-charge granted by Katherine Mason, widow, out of
the manor of Goulceby and lands there and at Asterby and Scamblesby, by a deed of 10 October,
1 55 1, for a schoolmaster to teach grammar and the Latin tongue at Grimsby. Among the
corporation records is a bond by John Bellow of Newstead, Notts, the former mayor of Grimsby,
when the chantry lands were granted to the corporation, dated 13 November, 1552, to deliver to
John Dean alias Lawrence, bastard son of Sir Robert Lawrence, clerk, ^^50 and some plate in
satisfaction of the goods of the late Robert Lawrence and Katherine Mayson alias Lawrence, his
sister, and to keep John Dean at school till sixteen years of age. In the first chamberlain's account
extant, that for 1550, ' mistreis Mason' was a tenant of the school, paying 8^^. rent. The title of
the corporation to the new gift was disputed by persons claiming as heirs-at-law of Mrs. Mason,
and depositions were taken before a commission out of Chancery on 4 August, 1567, before
Sir Richard Thimbleby, knight, Thomas St. Poll, and Edward Dighton, esquires. The result was
to confirm the title of Grimsby to this additional endowment and half a year's 'annuity of Golcebie,
;^3 lOJ.' accordingly appears in the chamberlain's accounts for 1568— g. The master changed this
year, ' Mr. Catshyn late Schoolmaster ' being paid ;^8 and ' Mr. Shottilworth now Scholmaster '
30J. id. The repair of the school-house {domus scholae) cost is. Shuttleworth was paid an enhanced
salary as he received ^5 4^. lid. as his wages {vadio) for one quarter of the year. There was still
outstanding a debt of 30/. of the wages of Nicholas Catshyn the late master.

For the next two hundred years the school seems to have been kept up to the satisfaction of
the townsmen of Grimsby, though the successive masters were poorly paid, while in spite of the
express words of the charter, giving the whole endowment of the chantry to the school, the corpora-
tion pocketed the fines which they received at the renewals of the leases. On 26 June, 1770, they
' ordered that the Town clerk insert our advertisements 3 times in the General Evening Post, for a
Schoolmaster in the room of Mr. John Proctor, deceased, and upon the same terms, ^^13 13^. i^d.'
It was, of course, quite impossible for a graduate of a university at this date to subsist on

' Leach, English Schools at the Reformation, 180, from Chan. Cert. 33, No. 58.
2 481 6l

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

£13 1 35. ^d. a year. No doubt they all held clerical preferments as well, as we know Fairweather
did in 1695, being also vicar of Grimsby. Probably they also had boarders. Thomas Wilkinson
came in answer to the advertisement, and remained till 1783, when Mr. Galland was paid for
teaching for a quarter till Mr. West came on 14 July. The salary was then raised to the
magnificent sum of ;^20, ' in consideration whereof the said James West is to teach the children of
all the free burgesses reading, writing, accounts, Grammar, and the Classics when required; those
who learn to read, write, and accompt to pay 2s. td. per quarter,' the classics of course being free.
' The school hours to be from 8 in the forenoon, and from 2 to 5 in the afternoon, from Lady Day
to Michaelmas,' and 9 to 12 and i to 4 in the winter. ' And none to be sent to the master but
such as shall be capable of reading the Psalter.' From ' the Classics when required ' it is pretty clear
that the school was becoming more of an elementary school than anything else. West had to give a
bond in ^£200 to resign when called on at three months' notice.

In 1800 the corporation perpetrated the astonishing feat of selling the chief part of the endow-
ment of the school, the chantry farm, and the lands in the common field belonging to the chantry,
to Mr. Tennyson, the pluralist vicar of Grimsby, the father of Alfred Tennyson, the poet. These
lands consisted of 36 acres and 4 poles. The purchase price was ;^525, invested in Grimsby Haven
Dock securities. After the purchase the common fields were enclosed, when Tennyson received an
allotment of 24a. 3r. 2ip. in respect of these lands. In 1 803 GeorgeOliver, in trying forthe post, sent
specimens of his handwriting, and offered himself to one of the aldermen for a clerk if he did not—
as he did not — get the mastership. Samuel Bucknell obtained it, and on 20 September, 1803, the
conditions of appointment were embodied in an agreement to much the same effect as on the last
appointment, viz., ' Latin Grammar to be taught to such as shall require it,' twenty boys to be free,
the rest to pay 2j. dd. a quarter, lOf. to be allowed for each of the free boys for pens, ink, and paper.
Salary, ;^33, in addition to the rent-charge of ^7, from Goulceby, and the house and window-tax
on the school-house to be paid by the corporation. George Oliver subsequently obtained the post
and illuminated his reign by writing a history of Grimsby.

In 1868, when the present Town Hall was built on a site then partly occupied by a preparatory
school, started by the old corporation in 1827, the present 'Corporation Schools,' as they were
called, were built at a cost of ^^1,392 13:. 8^. The cost was defrayed by using the purchase
moneys of the chantry farm, ^^525, and by the sale of the old school and master's house in Chantry
Lane, which produced ;£795 i2i. The balance, ^^72 ix. 8^., was found out of corporation funds.
The new schools, built one for boys and one for girls, were and are purely elementary, and are
confined to the children of freemen. The charter, it may be remembered, provided for a grammar
school open to all. Whether the rest of the chantry property, the seven shops, and the 12 acres
of land can be identified is a question for the local antiquary.

The place of the grammar school has to some extent been filled by the Wintringham Higher
Grade School, a higher elementary school started by the Grimsby School Board, and called after its
chairman. It is a mixed school for boys and girls, and now earns grants from the Board of Educa-
tion under the secondary school regulations, but it can hardly be considered a substitute for the
ancient grammar school.

HORNCASTLE GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Horncastle Grammar School was one of the batch to which the chapter of Lincoln assigned
masters in 1329— 1334, John of Beverley being the master at Horncastle. This school reappears'
on Thursday, 30 July, 1354, when the Grammar School [scale gramat'uales) of Horncastre (sic) was
conferred on John of Briggeswick, clerk, and he swore to do what was incumbent on that office and
to serve the school aforesaid as is proper, at the pleasure of the chapter. The school next reappears
in history nearly 220 years later. On 25 June, 1571, at the petition of Edward Fynes, K.G.,
Queen Elizabeth by letters patent granted that there should be a school called ' the Free Grammar
School of Queen Elizabeth in the town or soke of Horncastell in the county of Lincoln of the
foundation of Edward, Lord Clinton and Saye,' for the good education and instruction of boys
and youths dwelling and inhabiting there and in the neighbouring parts round about. The
school was to consist of a master and usher, and a body of ten governors, of whom the first
were two clerics, three gentlemen and five yeomen, was incorporated to manage the possessions,
a licence in mortmain for lands to the value of ^\o a year being given them. No property
was granted in the charter, and there is no evidence that Lord Clinton, who was named as
founder, gave any endowment, though he may probably have given the site of the school
on the south side of the church. The only evidence of the origin of the present endowment
seems to be a conveyance by John Neale, tanner, in 1574, of lands in Sutton and Huttoft and

' Line. Chap. Act Bks. A z, 26, fol. 40^.
482

SCHOOLS

Thornton, but whether he was the donor or a surviving trustee does not appear. The lands in
Thornton, then worth £^ 131. 4^., were granted to Charles Dymoke of Scrivelsby, 27 September,
1698, for a fixed rent-charge of jTia a year and a fine of ^^i 10, a very good bargain at the moment,
but as the land is now worth some j^300 a year, a very bad one for posterity. The whole income
from endowment is now about ;^2 5o a year.

In 1778 the school was rebuilt, being the present singularly plain and uninteresting building,
except a class-room added later. On 5 September, 1782, the Rev. Charles Liste, master, was
served with a notice to quit for neglect of duty, but after an action at law, which cost the foundation
;^200, he remained in office till his death, 10 April, 18 18, and was succeeded by Mr., afterwards
Dr., John Bainbridge Smith, who held office for nearly forty years, dying in 1854 from the effects
of a railway accident. Under him the school numbered fifty to eighty boys. On 27 November,
1854, a scheme was obtained from the Court of Chancery which enabled tuition fees to be charged,
with the result that in 1856 there were sixty-four boys and eleven boarders. The present head-
master, E. G. Madge, LL.D., a non-collegiate student at Cambridge, formerly a master at Watford
School, Hertfordshire, was appointed in January, 1892. The school is now a mixed school for
boys and girls.

ALFORD GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Alford School, at least in its Elizabethan development, seems to have been one of those hopeless
foundations intended to give at once elementary and secondary education.

Francis Spanning,' merchant, ' by the godly motion of Helen his wife,' by deed (18 March,
1565-6) gave £^0 to six governors and four auditors, one-fifth of the income of which was to go to
the poor and the rest for a schoolmaster and for the support of a free school for the teaching of
young children the ABC and also to read both Latin and English. William Gubbe by deed
(12 April, 1569) gave ^^35 more, ;^5 for the poor as a loan charity and the rest for the school.

By letters patent of Queen Elizabeth, 2 July, 1576, granted on Lord Burghley's petition, ' a
Free Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth in the town or parish of Alford of the foundation of
Lord Burghleigh and Thomas Cecil, knight, his son,' was erected for the education of boys and
youths there, and in the neighbouring parts dwelling and abiding, with ten governors incorporated
and licensed in mortmain up to ^^40 a year. It does not appear that either the queen or
Lord Burghley gave anything to the foundation beyond their names. Spanning's and Gubbe's gifts
were transferred to the incorporated governors by deed (14 December, 1585) ; while by will
(20 June, 1583) Richard Spendley gave 20s. a year rent-charge, and by will (12 April, 1585)
John Spendluffe gave lands in Strubby, Woodthorpe, Withern and Cumberworth after a life
interest to the governors. These lands came into possession in 1594 under a deed of John Bennacle,
Spendluffe's cousin and heir at law. Statutes made in 1598 followed the charter in making the
school a grammar school pure and simple, requiring that boys should before admission be able ' to
read perfectly and write legibly,' and it was not ' any part of the master's duty to teach his scholars
to write but of his goodwill and gentleness.'

The Commission of Inquiry in 1837 found that from 1820 j^20 a year was paid from the
grammar school to a national school then established ; but meanwhile the grammar school itself had
been since about 1790 practically two schools, a classical school, which in 1837 numbered fifteen
boys under the head master, and a sort of higher elementary school of twenty-three boys under the
usher, the latter charging 2 guineas a year tuition fees. The master, the Rev. Felix Laurent,
appointed in 1822, received the whole endowment, about £,110 a year, and his school was free.
In 1864 the Schools Inquiry Commission found thirty-five boys under the Rev. B. N. Dasent, of
whom thirty learnt Latin and eight Greek. A scheme was made under the Endowed Schools Acts,
23 October, 1877. There are now under the Rev. W. Horn, of Queen's College, Oxford,
appointed 1 885, thirty-two children, of whom five boys are boarders, while of the day scholars
seven are girls, as in 1901 girls had been granted the right of admission.

WAINFLEET GRAMMAR SCHOOL

The description of ' Waynflete ' as a ' praty market, stondynge on a creke nere to the se . . .
The schole that Waynflete bishop of Winchestre made and endowid with x//'. lande is the most
notable thing,' is even truer now than it was in the days of Henry VIII when Leland ^ penned it.
Already in his day ships had ceased to come up to it. Now they could not.

Bishop Waynflete had been head master of Winchester and is said to have become first
head master of Eton, and was certainly provost there in 1443, when he was made bishop of

' Char. Com. Rep. xxxii, pt. iv, 574. This gives the date as 1 565 and 1 568 apparently through miscalcu-
lation of the regnal years of the queen, by which the documents are dated.
^Itinerary (Hearne), vii, 38.

483

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Winchester and afterwards Lord Chancellor. He saved Eton from Edward IV, and founded
schools to feed Magdalen College, Oxford, at Magdalen itself and at Wainfleet. It is said that
Wainfleet school was founded in 1459.' But perhaps, like Magdalen College, it had to wait its full
establishment till the Wars of the Roses were over. The present building was not erected till
1484, when John Gygur, Warden of Merton College, and also of Tattershall College, Lincoln-
shire, wrote to Wayneflete * informing him that ' the house that was ordayned to have been bought
for your scole and chapel at Waynflete ys don a way.' He told him that he could not get a new
building 70 ft. long and 20 ft. broad for less than ;^30, and recommended the gateway tower of the
episcopal manor of Esher as a model. The advice was taken, and the contract with Henry Alsbroke,
of Tattershall, carpenter, for ' a flore with a rofe of tymberof good herte of ooke,' 70 ft. by 20 ft. ' with
dores, windowes, steyres, hynches, reredoses, deslK, and all other thyngs necessarye that longeth to
carpentry werk for a chapell and scolehouse ' of seven boys, was made 17 April, 1484, for
£zb 1 35. ifd., and a gown cloth or 6j. 8^. for its purchase. The building was of brick, with
windows on each side and a large one at the end flanked by two towers. The living rooms of
the master were below and the school above.'

It is clear from the statutes of Magdalen College that William of Waynflete intended
Wainfleet School to be on the same footing as Magdalen College School itself, using precisely
parallel phrases for one and the other.

As the master was to be appointed and, if necessary, removed by the president, barely any
entries remain of the appointments in the college records. William Richardson was admitted in
1555'* The bursar's rolls record from time to time repairs to the school buildings. Thus at
Bishop Cooper's visitation in 1585° he was informed that the grammar schools at Wainfleet,
Brackley, and Oxford, threatened ruin, and they were ordered to be repaired at once. In 1608,'
no less than ^^38 was spent 'on repair of the Founder's school at Wainfleet.'

In 1753 the rector held the mastership and no one was taught. From i August, 1755, to
1 8 1 1 , John Pickborn was master, and the school was a mixed elementary school for boys and girls.
He was retired on a pension at the age of eighty. After an interval of attempts at something
higher, the inhabitants asked for a commercial school, and William Holbrook, who had been
master of a workhouse school, was appointed. The Schools Inquiry Commissioners found it in
1865 practically an elementary school of a bad type. By a statute of the University Commissioners
of 16 June, 1881, the college was directed to spend not more than ;{^500 a year on Wainfleet and
Brackley schools, which sum was raised to ;^8oo a year by a statute of 2 September, 1902. It was
rather hard on Wainfleet, which was in effect part of the foundation of the college, thus to put it
on a par with Brackley, which was only a chantry converted in 1548. But while Brackley has
had some ;^500 a year spent on it and is flourishing, Wainfleet has never had more than ;^200 a
year, including the repairs of the buildings. The present head master, the Rev. William Gerrish,
was educated at St. Mark's Training College for Elementary Teachers, appointed in 1877, and
ordained in 1 891. As the school is still mixed, there are two assistant mistresses. The tuition fees
are £% to 0i a year. There are thirteen boys and five girls in the school, all under sixteen.

MOULTON SCHOOL

Moulton School was one of the earliest of Elizabethan ' schools, and owed its origin to the
munificence of a prosperous yeoman, John Horrocks, who by will (19 September, 1560) directed
that ' one Free Grammar School should be erected and kept for ever in the mansion-house in which
he was then dwelling,' and the income of certain lands applied for its endowment. If the school was
not established within three years after his death, the income was to go to St. John's College, Cam-
bridge, for exhibitions. The parish register records the death of the founder on 20 September, the
day following the execution of his will. The will was proved 31 May, 1 561, about nine days after
the death of John Horrocks's widow, but in the petition almost immediately presented by the town
for licence in mortmain for the school it is stated that the school was already established and a learned
man thereto appointed. In response to the petition letters patent were granted by the crown 2 1 June
1 561, for the establishment within the mansion of the 'late John Horrox of a free grammar school
for the good education and instruction of infants and boys of our kingdom of England both in good
manners and in the arts of grammar and literature.' The width of the reference is rather remarkable

' Richard Chandler, Life of Waynflete ( 1 8 1 1 ), 1 7 1 . » Ibid.

' A good view of it is given in Vetusta Monumenta, iii, p. vi, 1 790.

" Magdalen College Register (New Ser.), ii, 31. ' Ibid, iii, 18. « Ibid. 41.

' This school has been fortunate enough to preserve its muniments, copious extracts from which have been
printed by the Rev. J. Russell Jackson in his Hist, of the Moulton Endowed Schools, to which the reader is referred
for a more extensive account of this foundation.

484

SCHOOLS

for the foundation of a local man. Although the school had been opened for some time, it was not
until I August, 1562, that the feoffees formally appointed the master under the charter, 'Nicholas
Belson of Multon, within the parts of Holland, and within the county of Lincoln, gentleman.'

The first boy ^ admitted was John Jackson, son of William Jackson, one of the feoffees, and
from the first there were a number of boarders as well as day scholars. Unfortunately the feoffees did
not convey the property to the schoolmaster as they were directed, the result being that the school
spent the greater part of the first forty years of its existence in Chancery. James Assheton, B.D.,
who was vicar of Moulton in 1593, on I2 May, 1599, obtained a commission from Chancery under
the new Statute of Charitable Uses, and a decree of the commissioners, dated 4 October, directed
the transfer of the school estate to the master, while six overseers resident in EUowe wapentake, of
whom the first three were to be the three feoffees, were appointed, the vicar of Moulton after the
next avoidance being one ex officio. Assheton was confirmed in the mastership, and directions were
given that the master should be competent to teach Greek and Latin, and that no one should be
appointed who held any ecclesiastical living unless he relinquished the same. The orders for the
scholars show that great stress was laid on the religious instruction of the scholars and their training
in good manners and reverent behaviour, ' not onelye towards their maister, but allso towardes all
sortes of men ' ; for these purposes two monitors were appointed every week. This evidence of the

* prefect system ' in full force, with two prefects of chapel, as at Winchester, in a small place like
Moulton, is a curious proof of the solidarity of the school system and how entirely the country
grammar schools were regarded as precisely the same kind of schools as the greater foundations and
governed by similar regulations.

In the feoffees' book is a list of scholars at Christmas, 1608, one of the earliest school lists, as
distinct from admission registers, in existence. Forty-five boys are mentioned, both Christian and
surnames being given. They are divided into the usual six forms, but not under those names. In
the first class, the highest, were only three names, Gilbert Allen, Thomas Grimald, and Anthony
Worlsey. In the second class there were fourteen, and in the third eight boys, including two
Asshetons, evidently the master's sons. Then followed seven ' accidentarii,' boys beginning their
accidence ; eleven ' Anglice legentes,' two of whom bore the same names as boys in the first and
second forms, and were probably brothers, and therefore of no different rank ; and lastly five

* scribentes,' presumably learning to write. This was an excellent muster-roll for so small a place
as Moulton. On the burial of the master, James Smyth, M.A., 8 August, 1639, it is definitely
called a public school. During the Interregnum boys were sent from it to St. John's College, Cam-
bridge. In the next century, however, Moulton was no exception to the decadence into which a
large majority of the grammar schools of England at this time fell. In 1744 there were no scholars
at all, and the school-house was out of repair, so that John Chapman, whose tenure of the mastership
lasted from 1722 to 1763, was directed to advertise in the London and provincial newspapers for
pupils who would be ' well and carefully taught the learned languages free of all charge except 4^.
■entrance.' In 1765 a new master's house was built at a cost of ;^286. In 1777 there were over
60 scholars at the school, but it had sunk to practically elementary status, and the master was
given permission to officiate as vicar, on condition of keeping a proper assistant. In 1782 there
"were 30 scholars ' making regular progress in reading, English, writing, and accounts.'

After 1 8 14, under Samuel Elsdale, fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, the school revived,
and the classics were again taught. He had ^ 8 boarders at ^^35 to ^^40 a year and 60 day
scholars. In 1827 he died at the early age of 47, and was succeeded by the Rev. C. Moore,
-who maintained the number well. In 1854 the education had again become chiefly elementary.
Mr. Moore, who had been absent on sick leave since 1 85 1, resigned, and a new scheme was
sanctioned by the commissioners and embodied in an Act of Parliament (19 and 20 Vict. c. 53).
By this a governing body was appointed to manage the property, and the school was divided into a
grammar or classical and a lower or elementary division. A new school was built for the upper or
grammar scholars. The elementary pupils retained the old buildings. The Rev. Hector Nelson
was the first head master under the new scheme, and in i860 had 34 boys. He was succeeded
on his resignation in 1861 by the Rev. J. W. Johnson. Mr. Eve, who visited the school in
1864, found only 23 boys, of whom fifteen learnt Greek and twenty-two Latin, and twelve
of these were boarders. Two or three masters followed at short intervals, and a new scheme
{20 March, 1877) was promulgated under the Endowed Schools Acts, constituting a governing body
of eleven, and decreeing that the religious instruction given should be that of the Church of England.
The scheme was chiefly beneficial to elementary education, the grammar school endowment being
made to provide ^^1,250 for a new elementary school, and £2>o a year for its maintenance. Provision
■was made for scholarships and exhibitions, but owing to the fall of income from agricultural depres-
sion they are not given. The first head master under the new scheme was the Rev. F. Hatt, B.A.

* Dep. in Chanc. Suit, 1602. ' Carlisle, Endowed Grammar Schools (18 16), ii, 839.

485

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

(Cantab.), who in 1892 was succeeded by Mr. Alfred Stanley Hatt. There are now about 50 boys
at tuition fees of ^^4 to ^^5 a year.

Spilsby Free School, founded by Edward VI, by letters patent in November, 1550. Robert
Lord Willoughby d'Eresby, by charter (15 August, 161 1), after reciting that ' within Spilsby there had
been and then was founded by some of his progenitors a free grammar school, granted an estate called
'The Almeries,' on which to build a schoolhouse. In 1906 there were 22 boys under Mr. W. M.
Ellis and one assistant master. The endowment, consisting of 30 acres of land, produced £,<)iy
whilst a grant of ^^50 was received from the Lindsey County Council. Scholarships here are given
to boys from the national schools.

Wrangle Endowed School} Thomas Alenson, vicar, by will (l August, 1555) devised divers
messuages and lands for an almshouse, and the teaching of Latin and English. This was augmented
by the Rev. W. Erskine. Under a scheme (26 September, 1891) a public elementary school
for infants was to be maintained in Wrangle, and the residue of the income applied to scholarships
and exhibitions.

Bolingbroke Grammar School was founded at some date between 1548 and 1562, for in
that year John Bradley of Louth, by deed (i May, 1562), gave in pursuance of an agreement of 20
April, to Richard Goodricke the elder and younger, for the schoolmaster for teaching scholars and
youth in the free grammar school of Bolingbroke, of the foundation of John Goodricke deceased,
a rent-charge of ^^5 a year on certain lands in Bolingbroke, the Goodrickes covenanting to provide
a schoolhouse. The rent was afterwards charged in relief on other lands. It was found by in-
quisition in 15 James I, that William Morrell, the schoolmaster, since his house was in decay, 'doth
teach the grammer schoUers in the parish church of Bolingbroke.'^ The commissioners directed the
schoolhouse to be repaired according to the covenant. An additional endowment of ;^i6 a year
seems to have been given by John Chamberlaine in 1664. In 1822 the school was elementary,,
and a new school was built on the old site adjoining the churchyard. In 1840 a national school
was built on a new site, and the endowment of the grammar school is now applied to it.

Laughton Free School. Roger Dalyson, precentor of Lincoln Cathedral, by will (31 May,
1566) left his lands to William Dalyson on condition that a grammar school should be set up and
endowed at Laughton, and that W. Dalyson's house at the church stile should be the schoolhouse.
Licence to carry out these intentions was granted to W. Dalyson by letters patent (l June,
20 Elizabeth). The school has been elementary for over a hundred years.

Kirton-in-Lindsey Free School was founded by a decree of the Exchequer (15 June, 19 Elizabeth),
the endowment being provided from certain copyhold lands held long before for the benefit of the
township of Kirton. After an attempt in 1 8 16 to revive the school by making it an elementary
school, with one or two higher classes, the foundation was reconstituted by a scheme (14 September,
1878), by which the income was applied to exhibitions and scholarships tenable by elementary
scholars of Kirton-in-Lindsey and certain neighbouring parishes at some school or place of higher
education approved by the governors.

Gainsborough Free Grammar School, now called Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, was
established in pursuance of letters patent of 21 November, 1589, upon the petition of Robert
Somersgale. Rules were made in 1669 which show that a schoolhouse was then in existence. But
in the next century, for many years prior to 179S, the school had been discontinued. In that year
the vicar of Gainsborough (Rev. D. H. Urquhart) erected a schoolhouse to be on land allotted
to the treasurers under an inclosure award. Under the mastership of the Rev. James Cox, M.A.,
D.D., of Winchester, which followed the re-establishment of the school, it enjoyed a period of
much prosperity, and four old boys took high honours at Cambridge in one year. But a later vicar
quarrelled with the head master, and threw the school into Chancery. In 1867 there were only
nine day-scholars and seven boarders. The endowment is only some ^^60 a year. A scheme under
the Endowed Schools Acts was made. The Rev. John Robert Underwood Elliott, of Sidney
Sussex College, Cambridge, was appointed head master in 1874. He has had over 70 boys. In
1 901 there were 33. Thanks to new science buildings the school has now increased to 55 boys.

Spalding Grammar School. John Blank by will (27 May, 1568), and John Gamlyn
under a deed (10 December, 1587), gave lands for a grammar school, which was established by
letters patent (18 May, 1588). The celebrated Dr. Bentley was master in 1681. In 1837 there
were only two boys under the care of the vicar of Weston as master, assisted by another clergyman

' Those schools the names of which are printed in italics have either sunk into elementary schools or
been converted into exhibition funds. The information is derived from the Report of the Commissioners of
Inquiry concerning Charities in 1837, xxxii, pt. iv, and the Schools Inquiry Report, 1867, xvi, unless otherwise
stated.

' Petty Bag Inq. 15 Jas. I.

486

SCHOOLS

as under master. In 1865 there were twenty boys in attendance, and the instruction, in-
cluding Latin and Greek, was fairly satisfactory. A scheme was made under the Endowed Schools
Act (17 May, 1879) for this school and the Petit or Willesby School as a grammar school with
fees for day scholars of (b to j^io, and for boarders not more than ;{^5o a year. Under the
Rev. E. M. Tweed, of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, appointed in 1894, there are 52 boys
and 50 pupil teachers in the school.

Spalding, the Petit Schotl. Thomas Willsby by will (July 1682) gave fifty acres of land
for the foundation of a school and the support of a schoolmaster. Surplus funds were to be applied
in apprenticing poor children. In 1814 the school became a national school, and is still carried on
as a public elementary school, scholarships at the grammar school being available for its more pro-
mising scholars.

Sleaford, Carre's Free Grammar School. Robert Carre by a deed (i September, 1604)
gave a farm of 129 acres in Gedney for the maintenance and continuance of a free and common
school in New Sleaford in the place where it then was or in some other convenient place in the town.
The school appears to have shared in the general decadence of grammar schools during the eighteenth
century. In 1828 the trustees applied to the Court of Chancery for a scheme which was estab-
lished 7 April, 1830. Under an order of 4 February, 1834, the trustees were authorized to re-
build the school premises. A master was appointed by the marquis of Bristol as patron, and the
school formally reopened I August, 1835. In 1864 there were 13 scholars in attendance. The
«:hool was revised under a scheme of 20 March, 1877, since amended 7 November, 1902. With
new buildings it now has 82 boys of whom 22 were boarders under Mr. E. C. Watson, B.A.
London, appointed in 1900.

Heighington Grammar School. By an unexecuted deed of 16 James I (16 1 9) Thomas
Garrett proposed to convey divers lands for the teaching of grammar and Latin in the chapel of
Heighington and the reading of divine service therein. The deed was confirmed with certain
variations by decree of Commissioners of Charitable Uses (7 September 1721). Teaching took
place in Heighington Chapel till shortly before 1864, when a new schoolhouse was built.
In 1865 the school was mainly elementary, though twenty boys were learning Latin and one
Greek. By a scheme of 30 November, 1882, the school was made elementary. In 1904 the
endowment produced about ;^I50 a year, but most of this goes in poor relief; only ^^48 per
annum being expended in scholarships, and about ^^54 in exhibitions.

KiRTON-iN-HoLLAND, Middlecott's Free School. In 1624 Thomas Middlecott was
empowered by Act of Parliament to establish a grammar school in Kirton. In 1773 the Rev. Charles
Wildbore obtained the mastership on his own nomination, being succeeded by his son, also a
Rev. C. Wildbore, in 1802. Appointing deputies to teach the school, they applied the greater part
■of the income to their personal use. In 1790 the pretence of teaching Latin had been dropped.
The second C. Wildbore, at one time a parish pauper, and at another an inmate of a lunatic
asylum, sold his life interests in the school estates, and in 1832 appointed as deputy master his own
son, who was also vestry clerk, and against whom most serious complaints were made, both
as regards moral and educational sufficiency. By a Chancery scheme of 1851 the school was again
made a grammar school, while a second scheme ten years later was intended to make it fulfil the
purposes of both a grammar and an elementary school. Under a scheme under the Endowed
Schools Acts (4 February, 1879), amended 3 February, 1898, the school is a second-grade grammar
school. Mr. T. L. Hutchins, a non-collegiate student at Oxford and B.Sc. London, was appointed
head master in May, 1904. There are about 40 boys.

Caistor Free School was founded as a grammar school by William Hansard by will
{i8 March, 1627), and the Rev. Francis Rawlinson by will (20 December, 1630). There being
no master's house the school was usually held by the vicar, with the result that with an endowment
of / 1 90 a year it had by 1818 become an elementary school for boys and girls. The commis-
sioners in 1837 found great dissatisfaction aroused by the patron's insistence on church attendance
and strict conformity to the doctrines of the Establishment. In 1837 the school building was
repaired, and the school was divided into an upper school, offering a mainly classical education
and a lower, from which the classics were not entirely excluded, although the teaching was
more general and commercial. A scheme under the Endowed Schools Act of 19 May, 1885,
amended in 1893, established a representative governing body. The present master is Mr. Arthur
Brooke, B.A., of St. John's College, Cambridge, appointed 1905. In 1904 there were 7 boys in
the school. Now there are over 30, of whom 10 are boarders.

• Wragby, Hansard's Grammar School, was founded by William Hansard, who by will
{18 March, 1627) gave yearly stipends of ;^30 for a master and ;^I5 for an usher for the instruction
of youth in good literature and religion, within or near the town of Wragby. Long before 1 8 1 8
the school had become, in practice, elementary. In 1842 the offices of the grammar and
national schoolmaster were united. In 1865 the national schoolroom was used for the boys'

487

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

grammar and primary schools, and the old grammar school for the girls. There were then about
twenty boarders, and only four of the boys were learning Latin. The school is now styled
a national school.

Bourn Grammar School, founded by William Trollope by will (i6 November, 1636).
In 1865 the vicar of the parish was head master, but he left the working of the school to the
usher. The school was in good repute, and of the thirty-five day scholars twenty- six learnt
Latin, and one Greek. The school is a tumble down building at the corner of the churchyard, and
the master a non-resident curate. There are no boys.

Butterwick, Pinchbeck's Free Grammar School. Anthony Pinchbeck by deed (2 November,
1665) conveyed lands as an endowment of a grammar school for Butterwick and the hundred of
the same under a graduate master well able to teach Latin and Greek. In 1837 the master was
a graduate of Cambridge, who taught the older boys algebra, euclid, and the oriental languages,
and if their parents desired prepared them for the universities. By 1865 the master, receiving
more than ;^200 a year and a house, delegated most of the work to an assistant at ;^50 a year.
The only survival of a classical curriculum lay in the first elements of Latin taught to two boys.
By a scheme, 23 October, 1876, under the Endowed Schools Acts, the endowment, 126 acres
I rood 21 poles of land, producing in 1904 ;^28o a year, was applied to elementary education.

Brigg Grammar School owes its foundation to Sir John Nelthorpe (bart.) by will
(11 September, 1669), who wished Latin, Greek, and Hebrew to be taught in his grammar school,
besides elementary subjects. There was a special provision for free boarders or 'charity boys' from
Legsby and Hulsby, with a direction that the master should be removed on reaching the age of
forty-five. In 18 18 the school was still flourishing and preparing boys for the universities. In
1837 it was divided into two departments, an upper school for classics and a lower or commercial
school. In 1865 there were 50 boys in the lower school, while ten were learning Latin and one
Greek in the upper division. There were four free boarders who lived with the servants, waited
at table, and performed other household duties. A new scheme was established 23 October, 1877,
and a governing body of eleven persons constituted, including the lord of the manor of
Scawby ex officio. New buildings were erected and spacious playing fields provided. Under
Mr. Richmond Flowers, of Lincoln College, Oxford, the school rose to about 70 boys, of whom
30 were boarders. Afterwards the boarders fell oiF. In 1900, there being only 30 boys, the experi-
ment of admitting girls was tried. In 1904 Mr. Flowers retired. In 1905 there were only
16 scholars, 10 boys and 6 girls. A new scheme for boys only is now in progress.

HoLBEACH, Farmer's Free School. Although it has been stated that a grammar school
was founded here in the reign of Edward III, the existing school originated in a grant of lands for
educational purposes by George Farmer by deed 20 February, 22 Charles II (1670). By will
(8 July, 1682), John Warsdale, yeoman, bequeathed ;^440 to the free school, and James
Thompson by will (i November, 17 19) gave a further endowment, for some time paid to a separate
schoolmaster, but before 1790 treated as an augmentation of the salary of the master of Farmer's
school. By 1837 the school had become merely elementary. Under a Chancery scheme of 1845
a head master was appointed who taught classics and mathematics, the elementary school being left
to an usher. In 1856 the head master resigned, and the school again became wholly elementary.
The grammar school was, however, re-established by a scheme (12 May, 1874) under the Endowed
Schools Acts. Latterly the number of scholars dwindled, and the school was closed in May, 1904.
At this time the endowment produced about ;^200 a year, which is now accumulating pending a
new scheme.

Corby, Read's Free Grammar School. Charles Read by will (proved at Canterbury,
27 June, 1671) left a rent-charge for the endowment of a school at Corby to teach Latin 'as
occasion should require,' provision being also made for four free scholars as boarders. In 181 5,
owing to the inadequacy of the income, a fixed rent-charge, the trustees ceased to make the pay-
ments to the four boy pensioners. By rules drawn up in 1674 the 'head master must be M.A. of
Oxford or Cambridge, or at the least an orthodox minister.' In 1837 the Rev. J. H. Willan,
of St. John's College, Cambridge, taught 17 free scholars in reading, writing, arithmetic, and
occasionally Latin. Under new rules in 1840 the master was no longer required to be a M.A.
or in orders, and the school was conducted as a secondary school of a commercial type. In 1865
there were 39 day-scholars and 16 boarders. The school is now carried on under a scheme of
6 September, 1880, as amended 16 November, 1900, when it was directed that girls might be
admitted to the school.

Stickney, Lovell's Free School. Founded by William Lovell who by will (proved 19- De-
cember, 1678) gave divers lands upon trust for a school and for a schoolmaster 'to teach and
instruct youth fit for the university.' By an inquisition of Commissioners of Charitable Uses,
29 July, 1767, it was found that the 'school had for a long time past been greatly neglected,' and
in giving directions for the future they assumed that secondary as well as primary instruction would

488

SCHOOLS

be given. In 1837 the commissioners found that the school was an elementary one, and such it
remains.

Donington, Cowley's Endowed Schools. Thomas Cowley, by deed 11 November, 1 701, and
will and codicil of 171 1 and 17 18, gave land to build a schoolhouse and pay ^Tao yearly to a
master to teach twenty poor children in Donington to read English and write. A decree of
Commissioners of Charitable Uses, 22 April, 1726, directed that the master should be in orders,
educated at Cambridge or Oxford, and ready to teach Latin and Greek. Another master was to
teach English, and a mistress was to instruct twenty inhabitants of Donington to read and to spin
woollen or linen. About 1780 the trustees abolished the classical school, and the spinning-school
was also discontinued. In 1837 two elementary schools existed. The classical side of the foun-
dation was restored by a scheme of the Court of Chancery, 10 December, 1858, and a period
of prosperity followed under the mastership of the Rev. W. J. R. Constable, who in addition to
conducting the grammar school supervised elementary schools for boys, girls, and infants. A scheme
(29 June, 1896), under the Endowed Schools Acts, contained provisions for a secondary school,
but these were deleted in the House of Commons on the motion of the Right Hon. H. Chaplin,
the squire of Blankney. The endowment consists of about 700 acres of land, producing over
;/^i,200 yearly, and of this the greater part is now unused ; while ;^350 a year is applied to
elementary education.

HuMBERSTONE Free School. For the first 114 years of its existence this foundation lived in
Chancery, and its story is only one of interminable proceedings. By will (14 March, 1708),
Matthew Humberstone provided for the maintenance of a curate of Humberstone, who was also
to teach Latin, English, writing, and arithmetic. The boys were to be taught freely until they
were fourteen, and were then only to remain on payment for further teaching in Latin and Greek
to fit them for the university. The Drapers' Company of London were appointed trustees, but
immediately after Humberstone's death his heir filed a bill in Chancery contesting the will, the
company refused to accept the trusts, and in spite of decrees of the court the charity remained in
abeyance, till at last on 23 July, 1823, a scheme was approved under which the school was opened
for the first time with the Rev. Joseph Gedge, vicar of Humberstone, as master. During the
period of abeyance, in spite of costs, the original endowment of ^^2,500 stock had grown
to more than ^20,000. As the outcome of a dispute as to the master's salary a further scheme was
issued, 12 March, 1842. The first mastership lasted until 1849, ^^^ appears to have been regarded
as almost a sinecure, and an attempt to remove the master for neglect of duty was defeated. The
next master, who was also vicar, took some part in the teaching of Latin, but left the bulk of the
work to two assistants. Two schemes (26 March, 1878) under the Endowed Schools Acts
provided for a public elementary school at Humberstone, and a grammar school known as Hum-
berstone's New Foundation at Clee, just outside Grimsby. The endowment, in addition to the
buildings and site, consisted of ;^I0,003 ioj. /\.d. consols. At the present time there are 66 boys
in the school, of whom 16 are boarders, under E. W. Lovegrove, M.A., who was a scholar
of New College, Oxford, and took a first-class in mathematics.

Burgh, Palmer's Free School. By a deed of release (10 May, 1726) Jane Palmer con-
veyed the Plum Tree Farm for the maintenance of a schoolmaster, who was to be a Protestant of
the Church of England as well as ' unmarried, virtuous, honest, and well learned in Latin literature.'
No schoolhouse was built, and the commissioners in 1837 stated that for some seventeen years the
income of the foundation had been paid to the master of a private school who undertook to teach
any children sent him by the trustees free of charge. Some time before 1865 Dr. Tozer, vicar of
Burgh, built a good school for boys and girls on condition that it should be a National School and
at the disposal of the trustees of Palmer's Foundation. In 1869 a sum of rather more than ^^40
was applied to educating six boys at the Burgh middle private school, and the residue of the income
went to the National School. On 25 August, 1904, by a scheme of the Board of Education under
the Charitable Trusts Acts, the income of the foundation (about ,^50 a year) was directed to be
applied for the higher education of children from Burgh at Wainfleet Grammar School or other
public secondary or technical schools.

Market Rasen, The De Aston School. This school was created out of ancient endow-
ments of the ancient hospital at Spittle-in-the-Street, by scheme of the Court of Chancery,
16 January, 1858, to be called the De Aston School, after an early benefactor of the hospital. The
school was first opened in 1864, and was intended to be of a commercial type, though the curriculum
included Greek. In 1866 it had 39 boarders and 31 day scholars. On 3 May, 1882, a further
scheme was made under the Endowed Schools Acts for the regulation of the Spital-in-the-Street
Hospital, and the governing body of the De Aston Foundation was constituted of fifteen persons,
including the dean and four canons of Lincoln ex officio, to whom an amending scheme
(26 August, 1893) added two representatives of the Lindsey County Council. ^50 a year is paid
to Skellingthorpe Public Elementary School, and the residue of the income from the hospital

2 489 62

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

endowments is about ;^26o. The school has increased considerably since the appointment of
Mr. C. Elliott as head master in 1 901, and now numbers 72 boys, of whom 50 are boarders.

ELEMENT ART SCHOOLS^

Gedney, Gedney Hill Charity. — Founded for the support of the Holy Trinity Church at
least as early as 1 44 1 . Endowment now applied to the National School.

Long Sutton, Phillipp's School. — Chantry founded by will (21 April 1492) of Robert
Phillipps. In the reign of Elizabeth the confiscated lands were granted to feoffees for ' godly
necessary and charitable uses.' Under a scheme of 1890 the fund (;^i,278 17^. 7^. consols) was to
be applied by the Long Sutton Schoolboard for scholarships and the teaching of agriculture and
horticulture.

WiTHAM-ON-THE-HiLL ScHOOL. — ' The Church and School Estate ' belonged to the parish as
far back as 1548. Tlie school is elementary.

AisTERBY, Acham's Free School, founded by will of Anthony Acham of Holborn (dated
27 June, 1638, proved 9 June, 1691), is elementary.

Market Deeping School. — A deed of 1649 recites that divers rents had been applied for
teaching time out of mind. The school is elementary.

Haxey Free School. — On 9 July, 1654, Thomas Tankersley gave lands for the teaching of
poor children, the maintenance of a schoolmaster, and the repair of a schoolhouse already built.
Other benefactions followed in 1722, 1723, and 1752. The school is now elementary and called
' National ' in spite of the evidence of its date of foundation.

EwERBY, Pell's School. — Henry Pell, in 1667, devised a cottage and rent-charge to support a
school, which is and has been elementary.

Billingborough, John Toller's School. — Founded before 1671 by John Toller. Endow-
ment increased in October of the same year by Mary Toller.

North Thoresby Free School. — Dr. Robert Mapletoft, dean of Ely, devised lands in 1676
for the maintenance of a fit person ' to teach scholars to read and to make them fit for the grammar
school.' The income of the fund was by scheme, 21 October, 1890, applied to scholarships and
exhibitions.

South Carlton, Monson's Free School. — ^John Monson, who had built a free school, left
by will of 24 June, 1678, ;f 10 yearly as an endowment. The school is elementary.

GosBERTON, Robert Marjorum's Free School. — Owes its origin to the will of Robert
Marjorum, 23 February, 168 1-2. It is now the Risegate Elementary School.

Raithby, Lawford's Free School. — Founded under will (30 December, 1683) of Thomas
Lawford.

HoRBLiNG, Brown's School. — Founded under will (7 February, 1691) of Edward Brown.

QuADRiNG, Cowley's School, is an elementary school endowed by deed (11 November, 1701)
of Thomas Cowley; Edward Brown, by deed of release (26 March, 1739), providing a schoolhouse.
A new school was built in 1804.

Bennington Free School. — Richard Cowell by will (20 February, 1704) devised a house
and land for teaching six poor children, and again by will (31 July, 1725) William Porrill endowed
a schoolmaster for Bennington and Leverton. The two charities were amalgamated in 1728.

Hagworthingham Free School. — The Rev. William Dale, in 1667, bequeathed los. yearly
'■ to the school ' ; this sum, with another endowment, was afterwards used to support the school
built or refounded by the subscriptions of certain inhabitants in 1704, which has received further
benefactions and is now elementary under a scheme of 9 August, 1872.

Whaplode School. — Income derived from endowment devised by Elias Wilson by will
{i November, 1704), now applied to the National School.

Scawby Free School. — A public elementary school founded under the will of Richard Nel-
thorpe (19 February, 1705), who devised divers lands for teaching poor children of Scawby.

OwERSBY School. — An elementary school founded under the will (13 August, 1705) of
Alexander Wrawly.

Maltby le Marsh, Mrs. Bolle's Free School.^ — A public elementary school which owes
its origin to the endowment of a farm devised by Mrs. Anne Bolle, spinster, in 1705.

Epworth Free School. — Founded by subscriptions from the inhabitants in 1711.

Bicker, Cowley's Charity School. — Founded under the will (20 August, 171 1) of Thomas
Cowley of Donington.

' Authority for the statements in this list and further details will be found in the Reports of the Charity
Commissioners and Schools Inquiry Commissioners.
' Sic in Re/>. Char. Com. xxxii, pt. iv, 587.

490

SCHOOLS

Bardnev, Kitching's Free School. — Founded under the will (lo October, 171 1) of
Thomas Kitching.

CowBiT Free School. — Founded under the will (25 February, 17 12) of Thomas Andrew.

Laceby, Stanford's School. — Sarah Stanford, by deed (7 October, 1720) in pursuance of a
power given by will (20 June, 1712) of Philip Stanford, directed the building of a school and the
endowment of a master and a mistress.

Folkingham School. — Founded by the will (3 August, 17 13) of the Rev. Richard
Brocklesby. The endowment is now applied to the National School.

Kirkby-on-Bain, Brockxesby's School. — An elementary school founded under the will
(3 August, 17 13) of the Rev. Richard Brocklesby.

Tetford, Richardson's School. — Edward Richardson by will (proved 16 July, 17 14)
devised a cottage and 7 acres of land for teaching poor children. The income is now applied partly
to the repair of the schoolmaster's house, partly to the church Sunday school.

WiGTOFT, Blisbury's School. — Founded under the will (17 February, 1714-15) of William
Blisbury.

Morton-cum-Hanthorpe Free School. — Now called the National School ; owed its founda-
tion to Rebekah Leaband, who in 1716 gave land for the education of poor children in Hanthorpe.

Great Carlton Free School. — Now called the National School ; founded by Sir Edward
Smith by release (20 March, 17 16). There was in the original rules a provision that Latin should
be taught if the parents desired it.

Great Ponton, Archer's School. — Founded by deed (27 November, 1 7 1 7) of William Archer.

Barkston, Tower's School. — Mrs. Celina Towers by deed in 17 18 gave land for teaching
and apprenticing poor children.

Sedgebrooke School. — Dame Margaret Thorold, by a release (24 May, 17 18) to complete
the intention of her husband, Sir John Thorold, conveyed certain property to trustees for educational
and other purposes. Out of the income of the trust in 1 901 sums of ^^65 each were paid to the
Sedgebrooke and Syston Schools, and £80 to Marston School, and these are also public and
elementary.

Eagle, Onion's School. — Thomas Onion by will in 17 19 gave a rent-charge of ;^5 yearly
for teaching six poor children.

RusKiNGTON, Hodgson's School. — Educational endowments given by Lady Anne Hodgson
(will 22 April, 1 7 19) and Mrs. Martha Chamberlain before 1709 are now applied to the
Ruskington and Rowston Elementary Schools.

East Kirkby, Croft's Free School. — This school, founded by a release (16 May, 1719)
of Gregory Croft, yeoman, is conducted as a public elementary school under a scheme of
24 March, 1873.

Waddington School. — Founded under the will (11 November, 1 7 19) of James Thompson.

Ropsley, Thompson's School. — James Thompson by will 1 7 1 9 gave a rent-charge of £6 to
teach poor children in a school which he appears to have built in 17 17. The present school was
built in 1874, and is a National elementary school.

Middle Rasen, Wilkinson's School. — John Wilkinson by will (13 February, 1720)
devised estates for educational purposes. The fund thence derived is now under a scheme
(9 August, 1872).

Lavington, Parnham's School. — Mary Parnham left by will (9 September, 1721) one-
third of ^£300 for elementary education. A school was built by subscription in 1790. It now
seems to be merged in the Ingoldsby Council School.

Barton School. — William Long by will (18 February, 1722) left ;^200 for teaching poor
children reading, writing, and arithmetic. Other benefactions by Richard Beck (1728) and Nicholas
Fountain (about 1735) followed. The income is now applied in scholarships for Barton children
at Hull Grammar School.

Ulceby School. — Thomas Richard devised by will in 1722 messuages and lands for a school,
which was in 1847 converted into a National School.

Freiston Free School. — John Holden by will (25 June, 1723) left 2 acres of land for
establishing a charity school ; and Benjamin Morfoot by will (21 November, 1727) left land for the
schoolmaster.

SiBSEY Charity School. — This school was founded by the inhabitants in 1723 to teach
reading. Additional schools were subsequently opened, and in 1837 there were four schools
belonging to the foundation. In 1867 Latin and mathematics were taught. They are now
elementary.

FisHTOFT School. — Founded and endowed as a charity school prior to 1724.
Fleet Free School. — Founded by Mary Deacon, who gave lands by a release (30 September,
1727).

491

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

WooTTON School. — Endowed by John Faulding by will {30 September, 1727) and later
benefactors.

SwiNDERBY, Disney's School. — Founded by Daniel Disney by codicil (6 April, 1732); now
called the National School.

BuRTON-CoGGLEs, Speight's School. — Founded by John Speight by will (20 July, 1734).
The schoolhouse was rebuilt by Sir M. J. Cholmeley, bart., about 1800.

Hemingby, Lady Dymoke's Free School. — Now the Hemingby Hospital Public Elementary
School, owes its foundation and endowment to Mrs. Jane Dymoke by deed of release (16 June,
1736).

Martin-in-Timberland, King's School. — Founded by Mary King, who conveyed lands for
the purpose by deed (16 March, 1753) ; is now called the National School.

Surfleet School. — An elementary school founded and endowed by Lady Ann Eraser by
deed (13 October, 1764), but closed in 1877.

492

SPORT ANCIENT AND

MODERN

FOX-HUNTING

LINCOLNSHIRE is well provided
with packs of foxhounds ; except
in the north-west, which is given
J over very largely to the preserva-
tion of game, and in the south-east,
where the unjumpable drains forbid the chase,
very little of the county is unhunted. The
territory of the Earl of Yarborough stretches
from the Humber to a line drawn from Gains-
borough to Louth, and up the canal to the
North Sea, while the River Trent forms its
western limit. The eastern side of the county
is hunted by the Southwold, whose boundaries
extend from those of Lord Yarborough's country
to an imaginary line drawn from Wainfleet to
Billinghay and thence northward till the
Brocklesby country is reached again. The old
Burton country used to extend from Lord Yar-
borough's boundary to Newark, and so across
to meet the Southwold at Billinghay ; but that
portion below an imaginary line drawn across
the country just below Lincoln has been
hunted by the Blankney since the year 1871.
Below the Blankney comes the Belvoir, whose
eastern limits extend to the sea, though they
practically go no further than the Forty-foot
drain, beyond which lie the unhuntable Fens.
The Cottesmore hunt the extreme south-
westerly corner. In 1904 a small area on the
east coast was lent to Mr. W. A. Ewbank, of
Fulstow Hall, by the respective masters of the
Brocklesby and the Southwold. There are few
coverts in Mr. Ewbank's country, but a great
many foxes lie out in hedgerows and stick-heaps
and provide sport for the marsh farmers. The
Marquess of Exeter hunts two days a week in the
neighbourhood of Burghley House, Stamford, by
permission of the Hon. G. C. W. Fitzwilliam, and
has occasional invitation meets in the Cottesmore
and Belvoir territories.

THE BROCKLESBY HUNT

The Brocklesby is one of the last of the old
family packs to maintain its ancient dignity and
traditions. No pack traces its history without dis-
persal to an earlier date than Lord Yarborough's,

and from the outset to the present day a Pelham
has been master. There formerly existed at
Brocklesby a record which showed that in 1 7 13
the packs of Mr. Charles Pelham, Mr. Robert
Vyner, and Sir John Tyrwhitt were united,
and that a year or two later Mr. Pelham assumed
sole control. The pack thus established has been
in the possession of the Pelham and Anderson
families ever since. The hound lists go back to
1746 without a break, and no other pack, with
perhaps the exception of the Belvoir, has been
so influential in the building up of the modern
foxhound. There is reason to believe that
Mr. Charles Pelham possessed foxhounds
somewhere about 1700, and there was probably
a pack in existence many years prior to that
date, as the third Sir William Pelham of
Brocklesby makes mention of 'horse-flesh for
hounds ' when referring to the distress in
Lincolnshire in a letter to his brother-in-law.
Sir Edward Conway, in 1623. Since 1 7 13,
the date of the union of the packs mentioned
above, there have been but seven masters
of the Brocklesby. The first of these, Mr.
Charles Pelham, who became sole master soon
after 17 13, was born in 1679 ; he was twice
married, but had no son, and the family became
extinct in the male line. His sister Mary had
married Francis Anderson of Manby Hall, and
their grandson succeeded to the family estates
and the mastership of the hounds on the death
of his great-uncle in 1763. He was created
Baron Yarborough in 1794. Arthur Young,
who was no lover of hounds and hunting, wrote
of him : 'Lord Yarborough has a pack of hounds.
If he has a fall, I hope it will be into a furze
bush. He is too good to hurt.' Lord Yar-
borough began to plant the vast and beautiful
Pillar Woods, but the work was not completed
till 1823. Some twelve and a half million trees
were planted, as recorded on the monument
called Pelham Pillar, a landmark on the wolds
visible from any portion of Lord Yarborough's
country. Before that time the greater part of
the country was unenclosed, there being vast tracts
of gorse round Brocklesby. Gradually the land was
enclosed and brought to a high state of cultivation ;

493

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

the farmers became prosperous, and in many
cases made considerable fortunes ; the number
of smartly turned-out tenant farmers who hunted
with the Brocklesby exceeded that in any other
country. At one time as many as sixty or
seventy farmers followed hounds in scarlet, all
beautifully mounted. Though the old type of
fox-hunting farmer has disappeared altogether,
the occupiers of the land still cordially co-operate
with the owner of the pack, and there are no
better puppy-walkers or keener fox-preservers
than those of North Lincolnshire at the present
time. The best runs enjoyed by the hunt are
fully described in The History of the Brocklesby
Hounds by George E. Collins. The first record
of a good run is of one from Burnham on
26 October, 18 14, hounds eventually marking
their fox to ground at Elsham, the second
Tom Smith writing in his diary to the effect
that he ' never saw a fox so well recovered
and hunted in his life.' The first Baron
Yarborough lived seven years after handing over
the pack to his son in i8i6, and the latter,
generally known as ' the Commodore ' (he was
first to hold that position in the Royal Yacht
Squadron) was created Baron Worsley and earl
of Yarborough in 1837. He died in 1846 on
his celebrated yacht the Kestrel in Vigo Bay.

One of the best runs during the first earl's
time was from Grainsby Healing on 2 February,
1 821, the fox going away first to North
Thoresby and then round to Hell Furze, whence
he ran back to North Thoresby, travelling thence
over the lordships of Ludborough,Fulstow,Coven-
liam, and Yarborough towards Little Grimsby
covert. Then he made a point for the sea,
but bearing left-handed, was headed when leaving
Covenham village on the left. Once more he
was headed, and hounds checked ; Smith, the
huntsman, lifted them to a holloa in the village
without success, but a wide cast recovered the
line and hounds ran a zigzag course to Covenham
Grange, where the huntsman found his horse
so exhausted that he bled and left him, going on
with a borrowed mount. At Fire Beacon the fox
was viewed and headed not five minutes in
front of hounds ; but it was soon too dark to
jump, and at a quarter to six Smith's borrowed
horse fell and remained fast in the ditch. He
then called to the few remaining- members of
the field to stop the hounds, who were now
twenty-three miles from kennels, having covered
over twenty miles of very strongly fenced
country.

A memorable run took place on 22 February,
1 834, when hounds got on the line of a travel-
ling fox between Redbourne and Waddingham
and killed him at Torksey, between 1 6 and 1 7
miles as the crow flies. The pack must have
made a very straight point, and most of the
country must have been unenclosed, as they did
it in an hour and forty minutes. As hounds
ran it would have been from 19 to 20 miles.

There was a good scent, and hounds carried a
beautiful head. The line was over the Roman
road by the toll-bar, and with Blyborough on
the right nearly to Yawthorpe. Then they
crossed the Gainsborough road, and, with Harps-
well covert on the left, turned first to the right
as if for Tiger Holt, and then to the left, with
Willingham on the right, to Normanby. Thence
the fox turned left-handed along the brook to
Stow village, which he skirted on his left and
ran by Stow Park nearly to Ingoldsby. Next
came a right-handed turn towards Torksey,
another short to the right along the brook, and
then over it towards Marton, where the pack,
running for blood, caused him to make several
very short turns in order to shake them off, his
last effort being to turn back through Brampton
village to Torksey, where they rolled him over
in the open. They killed in the Burton country
29 miles from kennels.

On 3 March, 1838, they brought off a fifty
minutes' gallop without a check, and covered at
least eleven miles, beating horses all the way.
This was from Bradley Wood, the starting-point
of so many fine runs. The line was straight
across the vale and over the brook, with Irby
Holme and Bowlands on the left and Swallow
Vale on the right, by Beech Holt to Rothwell ;
thus far a six-and-a-half-mile point. The pace
increased as hounds drew up to their fox, and
the field had some difficulty in seeing which
way they went as they turned left-handed from
Rothwell towards Croxby Pond, bearing still to
the left by Cuxwold Asholt and Bowlands to near
Irby Holme, where hounds ran from scent to
view and killed.

The second earl was master for sixteen years
(1846-62). He was known as 'Yarborough
the Good,' and at his death his tenants and
friends erected, at a cost of over ;^2,ooo, the
handsome memorial arch at the Kirmington
entrance to Brocklesby Park. The third
earl was a keen sportsman, and a most
popular and generous landlord. During his
mastership, 1862-75, with Nimrod Long as
huntsman, the hunt ranked second to none in
the kingdom. No expense was spared ; there
was a magnificent pack of hounds, as good in
the field as they were handsome on the flags ;
and never were hunt servants better mounted.
The best run during the third earl's mastership
was that of 6 March, 1869. The meet was
at Stainton Plantations, and proceedings opened
with a twenty minutes' run from Stainton
to Normanby Dales, where hounds were over-
ridden and stopped. Both Claxby Wood and
the Plats being tenantless, Usselby Plantations
were drawn and provided the run that Nimrod
Long considered the best he ever saw. There
were only two checks in a run of two hours and
five minutes, and hounds ran through fifteen
parishes, covering not less than 24 miles.
Briefly the line was : — Over the Market Rasen

494

SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN

and Caistor road to the Osgodby Plantations,
left-handed very fast to Middle Rasen, where a
sheep-dog coursed the fox and hounds checked ;
on, after a little delay, with West Rasen on the
right, and Toft and Toft Newton on the left,
and Pilford Bridge on the right, over the
Ancholme as if for Fen Wood. A turn to the
left through the parishes of Norman by, Owmby,
and Saxby, and the Ancholme was recrossed
with a point for Doglands Covert, before another
turn took hounds, with Spridlington village on
the right, nearly to Hackthorn Mill. Here a
man in a gig turned the fox to the left, and he
went on with Welton on the right, towards
Dunholme Gorse, and by Cold Hanworth
(Spridlington Thorns being close on the left)
across the drain towards Faldingworth. Here he
was again coursed by a sheep-dog, and turned
back to the drain, hounds checking for the
second time. However, he succeeded in making
his point, and, with Snarford church on the
right, the pack hustled him along to Falding-
worth Ings, and then, leaving Shaft Wood and
Wickenby Wood on the left, they ran straight for
Snelland. The fox was again headed beyond
the railway, and turned back to Wickenby Wood,
and after being driven round the covert for a
while he broke as if for Holton. But his bolt
was shot, and a valiant effort to reach the covert
again failed, for he never got as far as the railway.
Long, riding a horse named Monarch, claims to
have had the best of it all the way, and as both
his whippers-in were beaten forty minutes before
the finish, he killed his fox single-handed. Lord
Heneage and Mr. Robert Allwood, who after-
wards wrote Long letters confirming the above
description, and a few others went through the
run. Among the noteworthy runs at this
period may be mentioned one on 4 February,
1 87 1, of three hours and five minutes, from
Wootton Gorse ; two hours and twenty minutes
from the New Holland osiers on 7 February
1872 ; an eleven-mile point from Hungerhill
to Lambcroft on 20 November, 1874 ; and a fine
run of an hour and three-quarters from Chase
Hill to Barrow osiers, when Long killed his fox
single-handed with eight and a half couples of
hounds, the other half having run through
Houlton's Covert and Roxton Wood to News-
ham. When the third earl died in 1875, the
management of the hunt was undertaken by
his widow, Victoria, countess of Yarborough,
assisted by J. Maunsell Richardson,^ the heir to
the title being then a minor. A subscription
was suggested, but the countess preferred to
carry on the hunt in accord with the family
traditions, at her own charge, till her son
came of age. Lady Yarborough was a most
brilliant horsewoman, had a thorough know-
ledge of hunting and all that pertained to it,
and while able to hold her own with the boldest

' The countess married Mr. Richardson in 1887.

of riders, displayed the greatest skill and tact in
controlling her field. In the annals of fox-
hunting no one is more worthy of a place beside
• the lady of Hatfield ' than the wife of the third
earl of Yarborough.

The present earl, who succeeded to the
mastership in i88o, is as keen as any of his
ancestors, while his tact and courtesy in the
field are the admiration of all. Both in work
and looks he has fully maintained the great
reputation of the pack. During this master-
ship the hunting days were reduced from four
days a week to two, but this arrangement only
continued for three seasons 1895-8, and in 1898
the usual practice of hunting four days was
resumed.

One of the best runs during his reign
was that from Sedge Cop Gorse to Holton
Beckering, on 13 February, 1892, an eight-mile
point in exactly fifty minutes, ending with a kill
in the open. Another fine gallop occurred on
5 March, 1894, when, late in the afternoon,
hounds ran from Milner Wood to Cleethorpes
sands in an hour and three-quarters, having
traversed some 17 or 18 miles. The huntsman
and the first whipper-in, Pittaway, and Messrs.
J. Maunsell Richardson, T. Kirkby, F. Brooks,
F. Hookham, T. Spencer, C. Wilson, T.
Sutcliffe, J. Brooks Wood, and the writer were
left at the finish. The fastest thing ever seen
by Will Dale, huntsman from 1884 to 1896,
was an eight-mile point (eleven as hounds ran)
on 12 November, 1894, in forty minutes. This
was from Kirton Covert to the Trent below
Wildsworth. Only Dale and Smith, the first
wiiipper-in, rode right through it ; and when
they got to the pack, every hound was up, and
they had killed and eaten their fox. This was
vouched for by a terrified native, who had
climbed into a tree fearful lest a like fate
should befall him. Another memorable run was
that of two hours and twenty minutes on
4 February, 1886, from Bradley Wood, with a
kill. The 24th of January, 1887, saw a glorious
half-hour's burst from Chase Hill to Great
Coates Stick Heap ; the same day providing a
twisting run of two hours twenty minutes from
Healing Wells, all over good country with an
orthodox kill at Foxhole Close. On 5 February
of the same year from Aylesby Mill hounds
twice made an eight-mile point. On 25 Octo-
ber, 1899, they killed four brace of foxes in and
around Battery Marsh and Reeds Mere.

The 6th of March, 1892, is famous for a four
hours' run from Battery Marsh ; the pack was
stopped at Rothwell village because the horses
could scarcely raise a trot. The 19th of Nov-
ember, 1894, saw a fine run of an hour and forty
minutes from Usselby Fish Pond to Neville's Gorse
in the Burton country. In 1894-5 a hundred
foxes were killed before Christmas, and the season
closed with a record of seventy-four brace in a
hundred and ten days.

495

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

Lord Willoughby de Broke brought the
Warwickshire hounds down for two days' hunt-
ing in the Brocklesby country at the end of
season 1896, and thanks to a week's rain pro-
vided the very best of sport. Among the best
performances since may be mentioned a nine-
^ mile point from Drake's Gorse to Rothwell
Gorse in fifty minutes, and a six-mile point from
Irby Dale to Ravendale, both on 16 March,
1898.

Mr. J. M. Richardson also brought off a fine
hunt during Jim Smith's illness, handling the
young dog-pack in admirable style from Grasby
Bottom to Halton Skitter. The fastest hour
and fifty minutes Smith ever saw was from
Pelham Pillar on 5 March, 1900. There was
but one check from first to last, the fox beating
hounds to ground. Only the huntsman and his
first whipper-in saw the finish of the run from
Normanby Dales to Spridlington on 30 Novem-
ber, 1900, an eleven-mile point in an hour
and fifty minutes, all but the last twenty minutes
being very fast.

The best thing of the season 1901-2, a very
good one, was the great Bradley Wood run on
II January, 1902. Finding in Scartho Wood
hounds ran through Bradley Gears nearly to
Waltham, thence close up to the Becklands and
below Barnoldby to Welbeck Hill, where the
fox was headed on the road ; then running
nearly a straight point past Laceby Cemetery
close up to Aylesby, he turned right-handed
nearly to Aylesby Mill, and then to the
left skirting Maud Hole, through Drake's
Gorse, and over the railway close to Great
Coates, pointing for Sutton Thorns. Being
headed by a labourer he turned parallel to the
railway, and ran to Stallingborough station,
where he recrossed the line, and with Stalling-
borough Mill on the right ran through Healing
Wells, Healing Gorse, and Maud Hole to
Drake's Gorse. There were several foxes in
front of hounds from Healing Wells to Drake's
Gorse, where the run practically terminated.
It was fully fourteen miles as hounds ran ; they
had been going exactly an hour and a quarter,
and there was never a check from first to last.
Jim Smith was always nearest to his hounds,
and Miss Darley was the only lady who really
rode through the run ; others who saw anything
of it were Messrs. Percy Wormald, J. Tonge,
T. Coates, C. R. Stephen, T. SutclifFe, and
C. Darley. There were two good runs during
the season 1902— 3, one being from Bradley
Wood by way of Laceby village to Healing
Gorse and back to Bradley, hounds pulling down
a beaten fox in the open, near the village, after
a forty minutes' race. This took place on
Christmas Eve, and the other was on New
Year's Eve. Hounds began by running at
moderate pace from Beelsby to HatclifFe Mill,
and then they went as hard as they could for
thirty-five minutes, running by HatclifFe and

Beelsby past Irby Holme, into the vale and over
the brook as if for Bradley Wood. Then they
turned up past Laceby village to Maud Hole,
and were in the same field with the fox as they
passed that covert and ran into Drake's Gorse.
After a pause there, and a run out over Healing
with a fresh one. Jack Bell returned to his post
in time to view the beaten fox away, and
running from scent to view, hounds rolled him
over near Laceby Cottagers Platts, an hour and
twenty minutes from first finding. Another fox
from Bradley Wood gave a fast fifty minutes to
ground, to be bolted and killed after another
hard chase close to Waltham village. The
season 1 903-4 was full of good things, the best
without doubt being the Christmas Eve run
from Newsham Lodge. After forty minutes'
fast galloping round the woodlands, the bitches
went away with one of three foxes from the
Nurseries, running nearly a straight point to
Welbeck Hill, thence a more irregular course
over the vale to Bradley Gears, and away to
Waltham, where he went to ground in a rabbit
hole and was poked out with a stick. Time
one hour and forty-seven minutes from finding,
and an hour and five minutes from the Nurseries
to the kill : eight miles without touching a
covert, and a ten-mile point in all, with only
two very brief checks, and the pace a cracker
throughout. Lord Powis, Messrs. Newman,
Stephen, Johnson, Cliff, and Topham, Mrs.
Hankey, Lord Yarborough, Captains Buxton and
Ponsonby, and Messrs. Webb and Bygott saw
the best of it. A twisting run from Bradley to
Ludborough on 7 December was the best thing
in 1904-5, and very moderate sport marked the
beginning of the season 1905-6, though it im-
proved very much after Christmas.

Having regard to the great number of years
the Brocklesby Hunt has been in existence there
have been very few huntsmen. For nearly a
hundred and fifty years the horn descended from
father to son in the Smith family. The Smiths
were tenants on the estate before the first
Tom Smith took service and began the connexion
of the family with the hunt. The precise date
at which he began to carry the horn is
doubtful, but it is probable that he did so at the
time Mr. Pelham assumed sole control of the
united packs, or soon afterwards. He resigned
in 1 76 1.

In the famous picture of the first and second
Tom Smiths and the hound Wonder, which
was painted by Geo. Stubbs, R.A., in 1776, and
hangs at Brocklesby, he appears to be about
fourscore years of age. At that time he had
surrendered office to his son, who was whipper-
in and huntsman for fifty-nine years, and
occupied the latter post from 1761 till 18 16,
when he retired in favour of his son. Will Smith.
Little is known of the first Tom Smith. His
portrait on horseback is that of an ideal old-time
huntsman with a cheery red face and white

496

SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN

curly -hair. The first Lord Yarborough con-
sidered him a very fine horseman, but the first
Will Smith always said his own father was the
better of the two. In Stubbs's picture the old
man is seated on his favourite horse, Gigg, while
his son is on Brilliant, a thoroughbred bought of
the Duke of Grafton to carry Mrs. Pelham.
The hound Wonder was bred in 1770. The
second Tom Smith was but fourteen years
of age when he began to whip-in to his father,
and at seventy-two he was hard to beat over a
country. When, on Lord Yarborough's resig-
nation as master in 1816, he also retired, he
was presented with a silver cup, on which was
inscribed : —

The gift of Lord yarborough to his huntsman,
Mr. Thomas Smith, after having been more than
fifty years in his service, as an acknowledgement of
the indefatigable and unremitting attention to the
business of his vocation, which may be recommended
for a pattern to those who succeed him, and can never
be surpassed, 1 8 16.

Hound-breeding was the hobby of the second
Tom Smith, and during his service at Brocklesby
the pack secured a reputation second to none in
the kingdom. Most of the great hound men of
the day went to Brocklesby for crosses of the
blood of the many celebrated hounds bred by
him. Of these Ranter, of 1790, was the most
noted. The earliest hunting diary in existence
is in the handwriting of the first Will Smith ;
it gives an account of the season 18 14— 5, the
last but one during which his father carried
the horn. For twenty-nine years (1816—45)
Will Smith was huntsman at Brocklesby, and
he died in harness, sustaining fatal injuries in a
fall over a simple fence at Barnoldby. He had
the most perfect hands, and no horse was ever
known to pull with him, while as a hound-
breeder he easily held the foremost position
among the huntsmen of his time. It was the
mutual admiration which Smith of Brocklesby
and Goosey of Belvoir had for each other's pack
that raised their kennels to be the two best in
England. Will Smith was a man of superior
education, of gentlemanly manners, a first-rate
sportsman, and a fine judge of hounds. An
obelisk was erected to his memory at Barnoldby
le Beck, on the spot where his fatal accident
took place. There are few records of the
second Will Smith (1845-56) and the third
Tom Smith (1856-62). Philip Tocock
(1862—3) '^^ ^^^ ^''^^ '•^ break the long
succession of Smiths. He came from the
Surrey Union, and for many years was whipper-
in at Brocklesby, in which capacity he was more
successful than as a huntsman. He was followed
by the second Will Smith, who served again for
but one season, 1863-4. The pack had fallen
off somewhat in looks and reputation when
Nimrod Long was appointed huntsman in 1864,
but he soon restored it. Those were, indeed,
the brightest and happiest days of fox-hunting ;

no expense was spared, the hounds always held
their own at the Yorkshire hound-shows ; the
stallion hounds were in the greatest request,
and no pack showed better sport in the field.
Nimrod was the son of the Duke of Beaufort's
famous huntsman, old Will Long, and before
coming to Brocklesby he had had much ex-
perience with the Essex Union, then under the
mastership of Mr. D. R. Scratton ; he was a
bold and fearless horseman and a fine judge
of hounds. During his thirteen seasons at
Brocklesby he killed 1,026 foxes in 1,322 days.
When Nimrod Long first carried the horn Tom
Smith, the last of the Smiths to take service at
Brocklesby, and now huntsman to the Bramham
Moor, was his second whipper-in. After he
left, the pack again fell somewhat from its high
estate, till Will Dale became huntsman in 1884,
and restored it to its place in the foxhound
world. The very best of sport marked Dale's
career (1884-96) at Brocklesby; frequent suc-
cesses were gained at Peterborough, while there
was the greatest demand for Brocklesby blood
from all over the kingdom. Dale was a splendid
horseman ; he carried the Brocklesby horn twelve
seasons, hunting 1,282 days and killing 1,351
foxes, a wonderful record when the high quality
of the sport is taken into consideration. Jim
Smith, who succeeded Dale in 1896, had been
whipping-in at Brocklesby for several years ; he
was no relation to the old Brocklesby Smiths,
and did not come of a fox-hunting family ; but
he has been a great success, and has once again
built up the dog-pack, which was sold to Lord
Lonsdale in 1895.

It was in 1898, as already said, that Lord
Yarborough resumed hunting four days a week
with two packs of hounds. Good-looking and
extremely uniform in size, make, and colour, the
chief characteristics of the kennel, as recognized
by other huntsmen, are nose and tongue, drive
and close hunting qualities, stoutness and
boldness. Mr. Robert Vyner, in Notitia
Venatica, published in 1849, testifies to the
important part that the Brocklesby has played
in foxhound history. ' Hound-breeding,' he
says, ' was at that period as scientifically pursued
as sheep-breeding, and the successful perseverance
of Mr. Meynell and the first Lord Yarborough
will ever be deserving of the warmest gratitude
from all true sportsmen, lighting up as they did
what might justly be termed the dawn of science
in the chase.' Elsewhere he remarks : ' The
original stocks, from which the most fashionable
sorts are descended, are from the pack of the
Earl of Yarborough (the family of Pelham having
possessed hounds of the same breed for nearly
two centuries).' The hound lists have been
published.^ The duke of Richmond's Ringwood
was used in 1746 and two following years, after
which, with the exception of an occasional dash

' The Brocklesby Hound Lists (1746— 1903). By
Geo. E. Collins. (Horace Cox.)

497

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

of Grafton blood, nothing but home-bred sires
were used for many years. The first hound of
note was Rattler, bred in 1752. Mr. Noel's
Cottesmore blood was introduced through
Tippler in 1754, and the first mention of
Bel voir blood occurs in 1756, when Lord
Granby's Dexter was responsible for two strong
litters. Distemper first broke out in the
Brocklesby kennels in 1764, when it carried
off thirteen couples. The malady is supposed
to have come from Russia. Mr. Meynell's
Ruler, who sired several litters in 1768, was
the first to introduce that famous blood. The
first introduction of Milton blood came with
Lord Fitzwilliam's Boxer in 1776. The great
Ringwood of 1788, who combines the blood of
Mr. Meynell's Grappler and Glider with that
of Mr. Noel's Collier, was by Neptune from
Vestal. His portrait, painted by Stubbs in 1792,
is in the possession of the Earl of Yarborough.
Red rose, sister to Ringwood, was the dam of
Ranter (1790), who was largely used in Lord
Monson's kennels and elsewhere, and proved a
wonderful sire at Brocklesby till twelve years
of age. Lord Monson's, Lord Fitzwilliam's,
Mr. Meynell's, Sir W. Lowther's, and the Duke
of Grafton's were the chief strains from outside
packs till 1797, when Mr. Foljambe's blood was
introduced for the first time, and practically none
but these kennels were visited till the dawn
of the nineteenth century. Mr. Osbaldeston's
name first appears in the Kennel List in 1809,
as owner of a sire called Wonder. Mr. Robert
Vyner remarks in Notltta Venat'ica that there was a
lot of Brocklesby blood in Mr. Osbaldeston's pack.
Will Smith dipped much more freely into
Belvoir blood than his predecessors ; and one of
the most valuable strains in the Brocklesby pack
came with Mr. Osbaldeston's Furrier (1820),
who was given to Lord Yarborough in 1829.
He was bred at Belvoir, and was by Saladin
from Fallacy, a descendant of Lord Yarborough 's
Doxey, and was drafted on account of his
crooked legs. He stood twenty-four inches.
The two great hounds associated with the first
Will Smith were Ranter of 1842, by Prodigal
from Rosebud, and Rallywood of 1843, ^1
Basilisk from the same dam. Will Smith
thought a very great deal of the former, and
almost his last words on his deathbed at
Barnoldby were to enjoin the use of ' Ranter
or his blood.' All the best strains in the
Brocklesby pack go back to Ranter and Rally-
wood, and some of the best blood in the
Duke of Rutland's, the Duke of Beaufort's, Lord
Fitzhardinge's, and Lord Galway's packs may
also be traced back to these two hounds.
Rallywood was perhaps the most famous hound
ever bred. His dam Rosebud was worked till
she was ten years old, and never did wrong in
her life. * The Druid ' said that Rallywood
virtually made the fame of the Belvoir. He
-went there when nine years old, and fifty-three

498

couples of his puppies were sent out to walk in
the second season.

Nimrod Long was a great believer in Belvoir
blood, and used it freely. Belvoir Senator (1861)
did much good in the kennel. The Rev. Cecil
Legard classed Ambrose (a son of Belvoir Senator)
with Belvoir Gambler and Dexter as the three
best sires in his experience. Lord Coventry's
Rambler (1873) and Belvoir Weathergage (1876)
also made their mark in the Brocklesby kennels.
The mating of Milton Solomon (1881) with
Winifred (i88i) resulted in a grand litter of
working hounds, two of whom. Smoker and
Spangle (1887), won at Peterborough. Belvoir
Grappler (1885) was the sire of Acrobat (1890),
and Lord Galway's Harkaway (1885) of Harle-
quin (1890), two of the most famous hounds
bred by Will Dale, while Streamer (1891), by
Smoker (1887), was another. Will Dale used
Lord Willoughby de Broke's Wildboy (1889)
with success, and Warwickshire sires were chiefly
requisitioned by Jim Smith when he took service
in 1896, Acrobat and Harlequin, both put forward
in 1890, and Random (1898) being the home-
bred dogs most in favour. Belvoir Dexter (1895)
and Stormer (1899) have been the most success-
ful of the sires from other kennels in recent years,
but Smith has chiefly relied on hounds of his own
breeding. Among thei-e Wrangler (1899) stands
pre-eminent.

The first Lord Yarborough hunted the whole
of the present Brocklesby and Southwold coun-
tries, part of the Burton and part of North Notting-
hamshire. He used to visit both these latter
districts for a month at a time to hunt the wood-
lands. The country now extends some fifty-
five miles from east to west, and forty-five miles
from north to south. It varies considerably ;
pasture, marshes and open drains being found
near the Humber and the North Sea, while farther
inland, running up to the foot of the Wolds, is a
fine-scenting arable country, strongly fenced and
widely ditched, requiring a bold horse and a bold
rider to negotiate it. The woodlands extend
round Brocklesby, nearly in the centre of the
hunt, and it is only here and in the marshes that
there is any extent of grass. The Wolds, with
their big fields and trim plashed fences, require a
stout galloping horse ; and a bold jumper, one
that extends himself at the wide ditches, is neces-
sary for the low country. Wire is on the increase,
but arrangements are made to take most of it
down when the stock comes up into the yards.
With the increase of non-hunting tenants, more
difficulty is experienced in procuring the removal
of wire than was formerly the case. Grimsby,
Caistor, and Brigg are the best centres to hunt
from, and many of the meets can be reached from
Louth. There is no subscription, and capping is
not practised ; but subscriptions to the wire fund
are expected from others than farmers and covert
owners. The pack, which averages fifty couples,
is kennelled at Brocklesby Park. The days of

SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN

meeting are Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
Saturday.

The Brocklesby country has always been rich
in good sportsmen and famous riders to hounds ;
the farmers are generally friendly to the chase,
though compared with the past but few take
active part in it. Mr. Thomas Brooks ('Old Tom
Brooks of Croxby *) was one of the best horsemen
of his day ; it was he who rode the famous
steeplechase against Mr. Field Nicholson on
30 March, 1 82 1. He was a fine judge of
hunter or thoroughbred. He and Mr. Nichol-
son used to pay periodical visits to Melton, stop-
ping at the * George.' Another celebrity at the
beginning of the nineteenth century was Captain
John Henry Skipworth, one of the best men to
hounds and best steeplechase riders of the day
and a crack shot. He saw service in the Portu-
guese and Spanish Wars of Succession as a cavalry
officer, and on one occasion fought a duel for the
honour of his regiment.

In the old days most of the clergy were hunt-
ing men. The Rev. G. Uppleby of Barrow, the
Rev. J. Allington of Croxby, and the Rev. G.
Robinson of Irby were all good men to hounds.
The Rev. Charles Cary Barnard, vicar of Bigby,
was a very prominent member of the hunt be-
tween 1853 and 1870, and the Rev. Cecil
Legard, vicar of Healing for ten years, was also
very difficult to beat over a country ; Mr. Le-
gard is widely known as compiler of the Fox-
hound Kennel Stud Book till 1905. Colonel
Tufnell, of Horkstow Hall, was another hard
rider during the second quarter of the nineteenth
century; he died on 18 March, 1838, having
been at the Hunt Steeple Race on the 13th.
Mr. C. Coates of Great Coates, who won
the Hunt Steeple Race on Cannon Ball in 1836,
and was at one time a great man to hounds, died
two days before Colonel Tufnell. Messrs. Philip
Skipworth of Aylesby and C. Uppleby of
Barrow Hall, the always beautifully groomed
' Kit ' Robson of Wyham, and J. Thistlewood
of Lambcroft, were great fox-hunters about that
time. The last-named, who was always beauti-
fully mounted, was a very hard rider, but rather
given to pressing hounds. The Nainby family of
Barnoldby were always great sportsmen ; perhaps
the most notable was Mr. Charles Manby Nainby,
who died in 1890 in his eighty-fourth year. A
famous agriculturist, who farmed his own estate,
a fine horseman, and a lover of every kind of field
sport, there was no better representative of the
British yeoman.

The late Sir John Astley was more partial to
silk than scarlet, but he was a good fox-preserver
and friend of hunting, a remark equally applica-
ble to his son, the present baronet. Sir F. E.
Astley-Corbett. Sir John's father-in-law, Squire
Corbett, was a great fox-hunter, albeit somewhat
short-sighted, and ' a bit of a character.' Other
good men in the fifties and sixties were Messrs.
G. Skipworth of Thorganby Hall, J. King of

North Ormsby, and Theophilus Harneise of
Hawerby Hall. Mr. William Philipson of
Bradley was fond of riding young horses, which
were frequently very unfit, and invariably gave
him a fall sooner or later. An inseparable trio
in the sixties and seventies were Messrs E. Dow-
son of Wootton, W. Wright of Wold Newton,
and F. E. Epworth of Great Coates, the wits of
the hunt.

Messrs. W. Richardson, G. Nelson, and G.
Marris (' the little man '), all of Limber, W. M.
Casswell of North Ormsby, and J. Swallow of
Horkstow, were distinguished members of the
hunt at about the same period. The brothers
Robert and George Walker were two of the most
famous horsemen of their time, and had few if
any superiors over a steeplechase course. Mr. J.
Maunsell Richardson of Healing Manor was con-
nected with the Brocklesby Hunt from his boy-
hood, and remained one of its shining lights till
he left to reside in Rutlandshire in 1902. His
great knowledge of fox-hunting and hound-breed-
ing has been of the greatest assistance to the
Brocklesby pack, while both Mr. E. P. Rawnsley
and the late Lord Willoughby de Broke were
greatly assisted by his advice in building up their
packs. Mr. Richardson hunted the dog-hounds
from 1882 to 1885, and was ever ready to carry
the horn when accident or illness kept the hunts-
man out of the saddle. He was one of the best
gentlemen riders that ever donned silk, and rode
the winner of the Grand National Steeplechase in
1873 and 1874.

Messrs. H.Brooks of Keelby Grange, Neil Mac-
vicar of Limber Hill, and G. E. Davy of Thores-
way, were first flighters during the latter part of
the past century, and both won innumerable races
between the flags. The Marquess and Marchioness
of Waterford, the present Earl of Minto, and
Mr. Ernest Beltazzi were regular visitors during
the sixties and seventies. Of the covert owners,
Mr. R. N. Sutton-Nelthorpe of Scawby Hall (a
very hard man to hounds in his day) owns the
famous Bradley Wood, one of the best fox-coverts
in England ; while Mr. E. G. Pretyman of Riby
Hall, one of the best welter weights in the hunt,
owns some of the surest finds. Mr. W. Tyr-
whitt Drake of Shardiloes, Mr. W. M. Wright
of Wold Newton, Mr. T. Hewitt of Weelsby
Hall, and Mr. Caton Haigh, are owners of impor-
tant coverts, and no one loves fox-hunting more
than the last-named, although he prefers to follow
on foot.

THE BURTON HUNT

Though it is not possible to specify the actual
date when the Burton Hunt was originally
organized, there is sufficient documentary evi-
dence amongst the family letters at Burton Hall
to prove that the first Lord Monson had a pack
of hounds in the old kennels at Burton in
the year 1731, and that from that date these

499

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

hounds were regularly hunted for nearly eighty
years by the Monson family. Unfortunately no
great care seems to have been taken to preserve
the early records of the hunt. A cursory exami-
nation of the papers, however, has disclosed some
points of interest. The huntsman from 1732 to
1735 (and possibly later) was Robin Cave, who
was assisted by two whippers-in. In 1758 the
huntsman's duties were fulfilled by one Penney,
who was evidently a well-known character, as
witness the following verse from an old hunting-
song :

In seventeen hundred and sixty and three.
The third of December I think we agree,
At eight in the morning by most of the clocks
We rode out of Lincoln in search of a fox.
There was jolly Ned Wills and Hobart so keen,
And Lawrence in scarlet with capes (ik) that

were green,
With Penney and Raley, those huntsmen so stout,
Lords Bertie and Monson, and so we set out.

It would appear from the family letters that
the best sport was obtained on 'the heath.'
This heath, as will be seen from the old maps,
included all the land on the clifF north of Lin-
coln to Kirton, and south as far as Corby. All
the northern portion was enclosed by the end of
the eighteenth century, but that to the south of
the city, especially the areas nearest to it,
remained open heath ^ until a later date.

The second Lord Monson appears to have
been far more assiduous in his duties as master
than his father, whom he succeeded in 1748.
Indeed, his mother, Margaret Lady Monson,
complains in a letter that ' he spends too much
of his time hunting with his hounds down in
Lincolnshire.' It was this Lord Monson who
added to Burton Hall in 1769, mainly with the
view of increasing the accommodation for his
hunt breakfasts. The hounds were then removed
to kennels at a greater distance from the house,
and they occupied this new site until transferred
at the special request of the sixth Lord Monson
from Burton to Reepham by Lord Henry Ben-
tinck between the years 1842 and 1845. From
the time of the construction of the new kennels
in 1 77 1 until 1 8 10 better care was taken of the
hunt records. For this we are possibly indebted
to that most capable huntsman John Evens,^ who
had charge of the pack during most of this period.
Very fairly complete annual lists and pedigrees
of hounds are still extant. Perusal of the
history of the Brocklesby Hunt will show
that the Burton blood was much sought at
this time by the Brocklesby, Belvoir, and other
celebrated hunts. To give an idea of the sport

' It was upon the heath to the immediate south of
"Lincoln that the Lincoln races were annually held for
over fifty years, until transferred to the present race-
course in 1 77 1.

' The grandfather of the well-known breeder of
Lincoln Reds, Mr. John Evens, who is still a tenant
on the Burton estate.

enjoyed we may well quote here from one
of the many old MS. note books. We read
that: 'For the seven years from 178 1 to 1788
377 foxes were killed.' In November 1 809 the
fourth Lord Monson died, leaving as his heir a
son nine months old. There were in the kennels
at this time 47 couples of hounds. It is prob-
able that the prospect of so long a minority
brought about the sale of the pack, for shortly
afterwards, in 1 8 10, it passed into possession
of Mr. Osbaldeston. The stud in the stables
was also disposed of. The sale took place on
13 January, 18 10, and the 35 horses realized
j^3,82i 6s. Although from this time the
mastership of the hunt passed from the Monson
family, their interest in it cannot be said to have
ceased. When, in 18 16, Mr. Walker desired
to return to the mastership, the following clause
was inserted in the agreement between him and
Lady Monson :

If desired by Lady Monson Mr. Walker can be
accommodated with walks for sixty (60) young
hounds, and it is presumed that Mr. Walker will
have no objection to the hunt being styled the Burton
Hunt, and all notices of the days of hunting headed
with this tide.

This rule has been adhered to up to the present
day, and the first meet of the season is invari-
ably held at Burton Hall.

Mr. George Osbaldeston, who appears to have
held for a brief period the mastership of the
South Notts before he came to Lincolnshire,
may be said to have served his real apprentice-
ship as a master of hounds in the Burton
country ; he resided at the Palace, Lincoln,
where he kept up a large establishment. He
showed excellent sport, hunting five days a
week ; once, when for five weeks he took the
pack to the Wragby Woodlands, he had hounds
out six days a week. So well educated were the
foxes that he laid a wager with a friend that two
or three would face the open directly they heard
his voice. The friend took up his position, the
squire went into covert and began to cheer an
imaginary pack of hounds, when out bounced
several foxes at different points, and he won
his bet. He was assisted in hunting hounds by
his friend Mr. John White. In after years he
bought many hunters out of the Burton country,
and the little 14.3 mare which he bought in the
hunting-field after seeing her jump a big place
at the end of a run, he offered to run against
anything in England over four miles of country,
for a thousand a side. James Wilson, who had
been second whipper-in to Evens, remained as
first whipper-in to Mr. Osbaldeston, who hunted
the pack himself, his second whipper-in being
Tom Sebright, who came from Carter, Sir Mark
Sykes's huntsman, with the character of a capital
horseman, and very honest, but stupid. Under
Mr. Osbaldeston this ' stupidity ' was soon trans-
formed into very superior talent. Mr. Osbaldeston

500

SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN

held office until 1 8 13, when he resigned, receiv-
ing from the hunt a silver salver in token of
appreciation. He always retained his regard for
the blood of the Monson kennel. The ' Squire '
was succeeded by the Mr. Walker already
referred to. This gentleman only remained one
season, in 18 14 giving place to Mr. G. S. Fol-
jambe, who in 18 16 was succeeded by Mr.
Assheton Smith. This famous hunting man
brought with him a good many followers from
the Quorn. The eight seasons he spent at
Burton were marked by the best of fox-hunting,
but the friends who had followed him from
Leicestershire dropped away one by one to return
to their old haunts, until at last Sir Harry Good-
ricke and Captain Baird only remained. Possibly
they did not appreciate the east - country dykes.
On one occasion Mr. Smith found near the
kennels a fox which went away over a dyke
called the Lilla. The pack and master followed,
but fourteen Meltonians got a ducking, and not
one of the field got over safely. Mr. Smith
once jumped from a narrow bridge over the
Fosdyke on to one parallel to it, because a high
gate on the former was locked, and the one on
the other was open. While at Burton he bought
some of 'John Warde's jackasses,' very big
hounds, with the nose of beagles, but no pace.
Mr. Smith had at various times some of the
most skilful hunt servants in England ; among
them Jack Shirley (who had been huntsman to
Lord Sefton), Dick Burton, Joe Harrison, and
Tom Wingfield. ' Jack Shirley,' says Dick
Christian {Silk and Scarlet), ' was one of Mr.
Meynell's whips ; he was an owdacious fellow,
big and stout, with a rough voice.' Mr. C. J.
Apperley (Nimrod) says he was a fine rider over
a country, and that his nerve and pluck were
wonderful. He used to ride young horses at 1 0^.
a day when he whipped-in for Mr. Smith ; per-
mission to do this was always granted provided
they did not kick hounds. Tom Wingfield was
very good in his casts. He had been with
Mr. Meynell, and Joe Harrison had hunted the
Quorn for Lord Foley. Mr. Smith hunted six
days a week, and took no subscription. He rode
as hard in Lincolnshire as ever he did with the
Quorn, his object being always to get into the
next field, with or without a fall.

Sir Richard Sutton succeeded Mr. Assheton
Smith in 1824, buying the hounds and keeping
on the huntsman, Jack Shirley. Shirley con-
tinued to hunt the hounds for one season, after
which the new master carried the horn himself,
save for a season when he -was incapacitated by a
broken thigh. Sir Richard's term of mastership
lasted until 1842, when he left to take the
Quorn. His resignation threatened a great blow
to sport in the Burton country, but a new
master was found in Lord Henry Bentinck,
whose acceptance of office was felt to be a
high compliment in view of the fact that he had
at the time the option of taking the Quorn.

Lord Henry Bentinck's reign, 1842 to 1862,
was a most brilliant one. As already stated, the
new master early in his career transferred the
hounds to new kennels at Reepham, where there
were also built a covered ride and a Turkish
bath capable of receiving eight horses at a time.
Lord Henry hunted six days a week, and to
meet his requirements he had sometimes one
hundred couples of hounds on the benches and
a hundred horses in the stables. He would
sometimes have two packs out on the same day.
He was particular to the last degree about the
horses he rode ; he bid j^i,500 for The Colonel,
winner of the Grand National, to ride as a
hunter ; he also gave ;^6oo for a horse called
Shropshire, and allowed the former owner ;^ioo
a year as long as he rode him. He was a fine
horseman and a good huntsman, but did not
often carry the horn himself, though no one
better understood and appreciated hound work.
He never allowed hounds to be interfered with,
and any huntsman who tried lifting them was
speedily discharged ; indeed, he seldom kept one
more than two seasons. He always made it a
great point that every hound should get away
from covert with the fox, and always kept well
away from them until they had been some
minutes at check. Lord Henry had a great
opinion of Mr. Foljambe as a fox-hunter, and
thought highly of his hounds, using the blood
freely. He considered Mr. Foljambe, Mr.
Musters, and Will Goodall the three great
hound-men of the day. Lord Henry Bentinck's
stallion hounds soon became famous ; and Con-
test, Tomboy, Comus, and others were in great
demand by the leading kennels. His pack was
originally purchased from Lord Ducie, who
hunted the V.W.H. country, but thirty couples
more were secured at Mr. G. S. Foljambe's
sale. The Belvoir, Brocklesby, and Grove, and
occasionally Sir Richard Sutton's, were Lord
Henry's favourite kennels. Two years after he
gave up the Burton he sold his pack for j/^3,500.
Dick Burton was huntsman from 1843 ^° 1849 i
his master held him the best hand at entering
young hounds he ever saw. Lord Henry was a
very difficult master to please. He greatly dis-
liked seeing a whipper-in turn his head when
watching a ride, affirming that no man could
watch one properly who did so. He dismissed
one man because he turned his head seven times
in five minutes. The Burton country and
hounds gained much in prestige during Lord
Henry's mastership. In 1862 he retired, lending
his splendid pack to his successor, Viscount
Doneraile. Lord Doneraile resigned in 1865,
making way for Mr. Henry Chaplin, who in
1864 had purchased the pack from Lord Henry
Bentinck. Mr. Chaplin agreed to hunt the
country as it had been hunted heretofore ; and
he continued to do so until 1871, when he
found himself unable to reconcile the duties of a
member of Parliament with those of a master of

501

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

hounds hunting six days a week. Unwilling
entirely to sever his connexion with the hunt,
he made an arrangement under which the
country was divided, and with this division the
' Old Burton ' hunt passed into history. Mr.
Chaplin retained the southern portion under
the name of the Blankney (q.v.), and the northern
half of the country, known since 187 1 as the
Burton, passed under the rule of Mr. F. J. S.
Foljambe, son of the master of the Grove, who
had as his huntsman Will Dale. Mr. Foljambe
soon got together an excellent pack of hounds, bred
chiefly from the Grove strains, and he hunted his
country four days a week, and showed admirable
sport until he retired in 1880. He was followed
by Mr. W. R. Erskine Wemyss, who in his
turn gave way (1882) to Mr. C. P. Shrubb.
Mr. Shrubb held office till 1885, when Mr.
Wemyss had another turn of mastership, but
with a somewhat reduced country, a portion
having been lent to Mr. G. Jarvis. Both Mr.
Wemyss and Mr. Jarvis retired in 1888, and
Mr. Thomas Wilson took over the Burton
country in its entirety. He laid the foundation
of his pack by purchasing Mr. Jarvis's hounds,
which boasted many of the best strains of blood,
the Old Burton being strongly in evidence. Mr.
Wilson, who carries the horn himself, has con-
tinued to breed on these lines ever since, going
back to Old Burton blood whenever possible, and
breeding only from the best working bitches and
best working sires. For outside crosses of blood
he has turned to the Belvoir, the Brocklesby,
Lord Galway's, and the Southwold. Purchasing
the estate at Riseholme, he there built new
kennels, after Lord Herries's plan, with accommo-
dation for eighty couples of hounds. There are
plenty of puppy walks. He has a splendid stud
of well-bred horses, and to encourage hunter-
breeding in his country he gives the mares to
the farmers when their hunting days are over,
stipulating that he is to have first refusal of the
foals.

The boundaries of the hunt were as follows :
From Gainsborough on the north, by way of
Springthorpe, Willoughton, Snitterby, Bishops
Norton, Glentham, Toft Newton, West Rasen,
and Lissington, to Hainton, on the Brocklesby
borders ; and southward from Hainton, with the
Southwold for neighbour, by way of Sturton,
Baumber, Hemingby, Waddingworth, and
Southry, to Billinghay. The Belvoir boundary
on the south was by way of Bloxholme, Straggle-
thorpe, and Barnby in the Willows to Newark.
The Trent, from Gainsborough to Newark, was
its western boundary. But the Blankney now
hunt as far south as Sleaford, the rest of
the boundary being much the same as in
Lord Henry's time. A line from Kettlethorpe
to Lincoln, and thence to the Southwold border,
may be said to mark the division of the Burton
and Blankney countries as at present. The
present Burton country is some 22 miles in

extent from east to west, and 16 from north
to south. It is a ditch country, for the most part
plough, but carrying a rare scent, and with every
variety of fence. There are a few big wood-
lands, the Wragby Woods being the largest.

Sidney Dale (son of Mr. Foljambe's old hunts-
man. Will Dale, afterwards with Lord Yar-
borough and the Duke of Beaufort) is first
whipper-in ; he hunts hounds in the master's
absence.

The Burton Hunt point-to-point meeting,
after having lapsed for about fifteen years, was
re-established in 1 90 1. The course is at
Walesby, over part of the old Market Rasen
steeplechase course. In 1 901 the programme
consisted of a members' race for a cup given by
Mrs. Wilson, wife of the master, and a farmers'
race for £20. The second year an open race
was added, and the next included a yeomanry
race for a cup given by Mr. E. Larken. In
1905 the events were the farmers' race, won by
Mr. J. G. Nicholson's Stella ; the open race,
won by Mr. J. D. White's Noble Bentinck ;
Mrs. Wilson's cup, won by Mr. W. E. Cart-
wright's Patience ; Try Again open race, won
by Mr. E. Davy's Dogger Bank. Also a sport-
ing match of £$ a side between Mr. J. H.
Bainton's Saxon and Mr. E. Larken's Bristles,
owners up, 14 St. each ; two miles. The race
was run in twenty minutes, and the competitors
between them took nine falls, Bristles winning
alone. The course at Walesby has four ' made '
fences, the others being natural. In 1906 the
venue of the Burton Hunt Steeplechases was
moved to a new course at Burton, three miles
from Lincoln.

THE BLANKNEY HUNT

The Blankney Hunt dates from the year
187 1, when the Old Burton territory was
divided. Its boundaries extend from Lincoln to
Leadenham, some eleven miles from north to
south, and from Newark to Sleaford, about
twenty miles from west to east. Kettlethorpe
is the most northerly meet, Skellingthorpe and
Hartsholme Hall being nearest to Lincoln ;
North Clifton, Besthorpe, Collingham, and
Coddington Hall the most westerly ; Gautby is
on the extreme north-east ; Barnby Manor,
Sleaford, and Asgarby are on the south ; while
Haverholme, Digby, and Kirkby Green are
fixtures on the east. The Burton hounds hunt
the country on the north ; the RufFord and
Lord Galway's on the west ; the Belvoir on the
south ; and the Southwold on the east. When
the Blankney country was created for the
reasons given on a previous page, Mr. Henry
Chaplin built the existing kennels at his country
seat, Blankney Hall, and a committee was
formed with Colonel Edward Chaplin as master.
That gentleman continued in office till 1877,
when Mr. Chaplin took the reins and continued

502

SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN

to hunt the country four days a week till 1881,
when on the death of his wife he retired from
the active duties of the office. The Blankney
hunt owes its foundation to Mr. Henry Chaplin.
He was one of the finest welter weights of his
time, a famous hound-breeder, and most popular
with the farmers. Henry Dawkins, who had
turned hounds for Charles Hawtin during Mr.
Chaplin's mastership of the Old Burton, had
become huntsman when the division took place,
and showed much sport in the new country,
having Charles Boxall as first whipper-in. Mr.
Henry Chaplin, remaining nominally master, in
1 88 1 made over the responsibilities of office to a
committee, with Major Tempest as acting
master. The northern portion of the country,
as far as the Newark road, was under the new
management lent to Mr. Jarvis of Doddington
Hall, who hunted it with his own hounds.
Major Tempest, who brought with him a high
reputation as a sportsman, hunted the country
from Coleby Hall for fourteen years (i 881-1895),
with the exception of the first two months
of the season 1885-6, when Lord Lonsdale
took his place, bringing with him a fine
pack of hounds from the Woodland Pytchley
country. Lord Lonsdale's brief connexion
with the Blankney deserves mention for
the fact that he also brought with him Ben
Capell, who remained on as huntsman when
Major Tempest resumed office in 1886 and
continued in the service of the hunt till 1896.
During the later years of Major Tempest's
mastership, 189 1— 1895, the northern portion
of the Blankney country, which had been
formerly lent to Mr. Jarvis, was hunted by the
Burton under Mr. T. Wilson. This area was
resumed by the Blankney when Mr. N. C.
Cockburn succeeded Major Tempest in 1895.

In 1896 Mr. Cockburn purchased the hounds
from the country. Capell in that year left to
take service under Sir Gilbert Greenall at
Belvoir, and his place was taken by the present
huntsman, George Shepherd, who had been
turning hounds to Mr. E. P. Rawnsley for fifteen
seasons with the Southwold and had learnt his
business under that most able amateur hunts-
man. Mr. Cockburn's term of office was a
most successful one ; he planted new fox coverts
and rented shootings in order to preserve foxes.
In 1902 he was joined by Lord Londesborough,
who had purchased Blankney Hall ; and after
two seasons of joint responsibility the masters
retired (1904) in favour of Mr. Edgar Lubbock,
brother of Lord Avebury, who purchased the
pack from Mr. Cockburn on taking office, and
showed capital sport during his first season ; a
fine run on 19 November from Wellingore
Gorse to ground near Bloxholm, an hour and
three-quarters, being the best. Another good
gallop came off on 17 December, an hour
and five minutes from Welbourn Low Fields.
Arrangements have recently been made by

which Lord Charles Bentinck should take over
the hounds from Mr. Lubbock and join that
gentleman in the mastership.

The Blankney is a purely agricultural hunt ;
the holdings are large and the farmers men who
have been bred and born to fox-hunting. It is
for the most part a ditch country, but there are
walls in places. There is light plough on the
heath and the vale is mostly grass, there being
very little woodland, the largest tracts being
Stapleford and Haverholme. Lincoln and
Sleaford, respectively on the Burton and Belvoir
borders, and Newark, from which the Belvoir,
RufFord, and Lord Harrington's may also be
reached, are the best centres.

Among the hounds brought by Lord Lonsdale
was Villager, a most valuable sire. Mr. Chaplin
had used Lord Doneraile's blood, also that of
the Grove and Milton, with good results.
Belvoir sires, among them Rubicon, Senator, and
Gambler, made their mark in the kennel, and
Brocklesby blood has also been regularly used.
The Blankney bitches, which were bought from
Mr. Chaplin by Lord Lonsdale, were sold by
him in 1887, and for the first few years of
Major Tempest's second mastership the entries
were largely made up of drafts from other
kennels. Belvoir and Brocklesby then began to
contribute once more. Shepherd has depended
principally on the Belvoir for sires, but two of
his own breeding, Ambrose (1898) by Belvoir
Falcon (1893) and Cromer (1899) by Belvoir
Dexter (1895), have done no little good in the
kennel. At the Peterborough Show of 1894 the
Blankney representatives were among the prize-
winners.

The Blankney Hunt started a point-to-point
race meeting in 1886 with two events, one for
gentlemen and the other for the farmers of the
hunt. The first meeting was run over a course
by Coleby, and again in 1894. In 1895-6—7
the course was at Welbourn. Major Tempest,
a distinguished Lincolnshire horseman, and
at one time master of the hunt, on four
occasions rode in the Grand National, twice
getting second ; his finest performance being on
Captain Ball's Hall Court in 1869, The
Colonel's first year. In 1873 he rode Pickles to
victory in the Grand National Hunt Steeple-
chase. There were Blankney point-to-point
meetings in 1889, 1899, and 1902 at Brant
Broughton. The last meeting was held in 1903
at Scopwick.

THE SOUTHWOLD HUNT

In no part of the county are its sporting
traditions better maintained than in the South-
wold Hunt, and nowhere does the field include
more tenant farmers. Agricultural depression
has laid its hand less heavily on the South-
wold country than elsewhere in the county.
Some of the farms are thousands of acres in

503

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

extent. The country extends some thirty miles
from north to south, and twenty-four from east
to west. The Brocklesby is its immediate
northern neighbour ; the Burton and Blankney
adjoin on the west ; to the south — really Belvoir
territory — the country is not hunted ; and the
North Sea forms the eastern boundary. The
earliest records show that the Brocklesby used to
hunt it for two months in the year, from kennels
at Ketsby, till 1795 ; and for the next five years
some trencher-fed harriers hunted fox or hare
impartially. Then for two years, 1820-2,
Mr. Brackenbury kept a pack at Scremby, which
he called the Gillingham. In 1822 the hunt
became known as the Southwold, hounds being
kennelled at Hundleby. The country as at
present constituted has existed since 1841 ; prior
to that date hounds had hunted two or three
days a week, but enlarged boundaries adopted in
1 841 have enabled the pack to hunt four days a
week.

The first master of the Southwold proper
was the Hon. George Pelham, brother to the
first Earl of Yarborough, who took office in
1823. Before taking over the Southwold he
had kept harriers at Barnoldby, and was
a thorn in the flesh of old Will Smith of the
Brocklesby, as his hounds were not stooped ex-
clusively to hare. He once took out a horse-
dealer's licence, and fixed to his house at Laceby
a board to notify the fact. Mr. Pelham, who
had been in the army in his younger days,
always had a good stud of hunters and thorough-
breds, and won considerable success as a race-
rider. While master of the Southwold he lived
at Legbourne.

The run of 9 March, 1824, is historical.
Meeting at Revesby, hounds found immediately
in Horstham Wood, and after running in covert
for a quarter of an hour, forced their fox away
towards Scrivelsby. Then they turned left-
handed over the Horncastle road, with Haltham
on the left, crossed the Bain opposite Roughton,
skirted the village and ran nearly to Well Syke.
Turning to the right through White Hall Wood,
the fox just entered High Hall Wood, ran over
the Moor towards the Tower, and through
Bracken Wood and Hawstead Wood. Skirting
Horsington Wood, hounds then pressed on
through Bucknall Wood to North Springs Wood,
turned right-handed through New Park and
Gautby Park, and ran through the Bramble Hill
Woods nearly to Gautby village. The line
thence was over Minting parish and the Horn-
castle and Wragby road, through Sturton, Ranby,
Market Stainton, Benniworth, Donington, Bis-
cathorpe, Gayton le Wold, and Grimblethorpe
to Calcethorpe, where the hounds ran from
scent to view and pulled their fox down after
a run of three and a half hours, having traversed
twenty-two lordships ; the point was close on
seventeen miles. The Southwold has had
many distinguished sportsmen as masters, but

the reigns of none have been long ; Lord Kintore
held office for a season after Mr. Pelham retired
in 1826, and Mr. Joseph Brackenbury followed
for two seasons till 1829. Sir Richard Sutton
was master for the season 1829—30, and was
followed by Captain Freeman (1830-2), Mr.
Parker (1833-5), Mr. Heanley (1835-41),
Mr. Musters (1841-3), Mr. Hellier (1843-52),
Mr. Henley Greaves (1852-3), and Mr. Cooke
(1853-7). For nineteen years after Mr. Cooke's
resignation the country was managed by a com-
mittee (1857-76). But the 'Golden Age' of
the Southwold may be said to have commenced
when Mr. E. P. Rawnsley succeeded Mr. Crowder
in 1880, as each succeeding year saw the pack
improve in work and looks, while the sport
provided was excellent. Mr. Rawnsley is a
splendid horseman and one of the foremost
amateur huntsmen of his time ; as a woodland
huntsman he has no equal. Much had been
done before to get a workmanlike pack together,
but it was left to Mr. Rawnsley to bring things
to their present state of efficiency. Realizing
that a quick, active hound was the stamp re-
quired, he began with drafts from the York and
Ainsty, the Burton, and the South Wilts. The
first sire selected was the Belvoir Struggler, a
descendant of Mr. Osbaldeston's Furrier, and
eleven and a half couples by him were put
forward in one entry. Most of the Southwold
trace back to a bitch called Freedom (1881),
which was given to Mr. Rawnsley by Lord
Yarborough in 1884. The mating of this
bitch with Belvoir Weathergage ('76) produced
wonderful results. Freeman being one of the
litter. The pack to-day is practically made up
of the blood of Belvoir Weathergage and South-
wold Freeman, each considered by the man who
hunted it to be the best working foxhound he
ever saw. Mr. Rawnsley also dipped freely into
Quorn blood to get quickness and activity.
Brocklesby Wrangler (1899) has been one of
Mr. Rawnsley's favourite sires in recent years.
Mr. J. St. v. Fox, Mr. Rawnsley's step-son,
became joint -master in 1902. The hon.
secretaryship since i8ii has always been held by
a member of the Walker family, Mr. W. Walker
occupying the post till 1857, another Mr.
W. Walker till 1862, and Mr. E. Walker
till 1 87 1, when the present secretary. Major
George Walker, took over the office. The
best centres are Horncastle, in the best of the
country, Spilsby, and Louth, from which last
Lord Yarborough's and Mr. Ewbank's can be
reached. Subscriptions are expected, but the
practice of capping has not been adopted. The
hounds, fifty couples, belong to the country ;
the kennels are at Belchford. There is a better
supply of foxes now than was formerly the case,
and though there is some wire in the country,
practically the whole of it is removed in the
hunting season. A few gorse coverts have been
planted during recent years.

504

SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN

MR. EWBANK'S HUNT

Mr. Ewbank's country on the east coast
consists of an area of flat land partly in the
Brocklesby and partly in the Southwold, which
was seldom hunted by either pack, and unless a
fox ran thither was practically never visited by
hounds. There are no coverts except a few
spinneys and ' screens ' ; but it is the resort of
many outlying foxes, and a few litters are bred
there. It is a formidable country of wide, deep-
cut drains, and the fences, where such exist, are
well trimmed and very stiff ; there is also much
timber. The only drawbacks are the occasional
wide outfalls and rivers, impassable for horses.
Receiving permission from the Earlof Yarborough
and Mr. E. P. Rawnsley in November, 1904,
Mr. W. A. Ewbank, of Fulstow Hall, near
Louth, got together a few couples of hounds to
provide a little sport for the farmers for whom
the nearest meets of the two old-established
packs lie somewhat wide. The farmers and
local gentry have given him cordial support,
and several of the leading masters of hounds,
among them the Duke of Beaufort, the late
Captain Lane Fox of the Bramham Moor, the
masters of the Quorn and the Sinnington,
contributed to the pack, which numbers some
ten couples. Since the hunt was established
there have been many really fine runs with the
wild marsh foxes. Long runs are the rule, and
hounds nearly always account for their fox if he
remains above ground. The kennels are at the
residence of the master, who hunts his hounds
himself, his whippers-in being Mr. W. M. Cass-
well, North Ormsby Hall, and Mr. T. Mountain,
Utterby. Mr. W. G. Smyth, Elkington Hall,
is the hon. secretary. The country extends
from Holton le Clay and Tetney to the railway
from Louth to Mablethorpe ; and from the
railway from Holton le Clay to Louth to the sea.
There is very little grass. Some wire occurs
near the sea, but there is none farther inland.
The hunting days depend on the fixtures of the
Brocklesby and the Southwold, and meets are
notified only to those owners and farmers over
whose lands the hounds hunt.

THE BELVOIR HUNT

The greater part of the Belvoir^ country lies
in Lincolnshire. The northern boundaries ex-
tend from Newark by way of Leadenham and
Sleaford eastward to the North Sea, but the fen
country east of the railway from Sleaford to
Bourne is not hunted, the wide drains and out-
falls making it impassable for horsemen. The
Blankney is the Belvoir's immediate neighbour on
the north, and the Cottesmore marches with it
on the south. There is nothing to show when
the boundaries of the Old Burton and the

' For history of this hunt see F. C. H. Leic.

Belvoir were fixed, and no change seems to
have taken place since the earliest records.
Grantham, in the centre of the hunt, and
Sleaford, on the Blankney borders, are the best
Lincolnshire hunting centres for followers of the
Belvoir.

The best country on the Lincolnshire side
lies round Folkingham, where there is a wide
extent of grass and two capital gorse coverts —
Folkingham Gorse and Heathcote's Gorse j
the Sapperton and Newton Woods also always
hold stout foxes. There are some large woods
on the southern part of the Lincolnshire country.
Aswarby, Culverthorpe, Dembleby Thorns, Hay-
dor Southards, and Rauceby, are the best coverts
in the north. Round Stubton Gorse, the
starting point of many a good gallop, there is
another fine stretch of country.

Perhaps the best run recorded on the Lin-
colnshire side was that from Ancaster Gorse on
15 December, 1865, hounds going by Ingoldsby
and Laughton to below Dunsby and thence to
the Forty Foot Drain at Hacconby, where they
killed their fox.

Among the prominent followers and fox-pre-
servers on the Lincolnshire side are the Which-
cotes of Aswarby, Mr. J. E. Welby of Allington
Hall, the Gregorys of Denton, the Reeves of
Leadenham, the Fanes of Fulbeck, the Nevilles
of Stubton, the Tumors of Stoke Rochford,
Heathcotes, Tollemaches, Thorolds of Syston,
Brownlows of Belton, and the Parkers, Hutchin-
sons, and Hornsbys of Grantham. Mr. Hardy,
the Grantham banker, was one of those who
invariably got to the end of the best run ; and
Mr. J. Litchford of Boothby Hall, a squire of
the old school and somewhat of a character, was
a great authority on hunting ; his knowledge
of woodland hunting was exceptional. Colonel
Reeve of Leadenham and the Rev. T. Heathcote
of Lenton were very prominent men in their
day, and Mr. Bemrose and Mr. T. Casswell
were hard-riding farmers. The most noted of
the Belvoir parsons was the Rev. J. Houson,
rector of Brant Broughton and Great Coates.
When in his seventy-fourth year he had the best
of a forty minutes' run from Folkingham Gorse
to Aslackby Wood, and Major Longstaffe (in
his time a very good man with hounds) says
at eighty years of age he could lead the Belvoir
field.

THE MARQUESS OF EXETER'S HUNT

The Cottesmore claim a corner of Lincoln-
shire at Bourne, but the country is seldom hunted,
and some of it has been lent to the Marquess of
Exeter, who shows much sport. The Marquess
of Exeter's pack, partly foxhounds and partly
harriers, was established in 1899. It was at
first a harrier-pack pure and simple, with hounds
entered in the H. and B. Stud Book. In the
season 1905—6 the marquess entered his hounds

505

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

to fox, hunting that part of the Fitzwilliam in neighbouring countries. Lord Kesteven,

country lent him by Mr. G. C. W. Fitzwilliam formerly Sir John TroUope, used to hunt up to

in the immediate neighbourhood of his residence, Bourne Wood, and Mr. Tailby came right up to

Burghley House, Stamford, with invitation days Manton Gorse.

HARRIERS AND BEAGLES

There are now no harriers in Lincoln- provides excellent sport in the neighbourhood

shire. Both the Hon. G. Pelham and and attracts a large field. The master hunts

Mr. W. Wright of Wold Newton kept harriers them himself, and the honorary whipper-in,

in the last century, and Major Allott has a Mr. E. H. Cartwright, carries the horn in his

pack of beagles kennelled at Louth, which absence.

OTTER HOUNDS

No otter hounds are kennelled in the county, Yarborough's domains. In 1904 Mr. Evan

but now and then a pack pays it a visit, Jones brought the Ynysfor hounds and killed

hunting the Bain in the Southwold country a fine otter in the brook between Ulceby

and the various brooks and becks in Lord and Thornton.^

RACING

Racing in its early days, depending as it did
entirely on local support, was most popular in
horse-breeding districts, and Lincolnshire there-
fore figured prominently with organized race
meetings at a remote period. Among these was
that at Stamford, which dates back to the
fifteenth century. 'To fix the date of the first
race meeting at Stamford is I think impossible,'
writes Mr. C. O. Eaton, of Tolethorpe Hall,
Stamford, in a letter revised by Captain E. C.
Clayton of Cottesmore. ' It was subsequent to
the bull-running which was instituted in the
reign of King John by William earl Warren,
the first lord of the town.' Francis Peck, in
his Annals of Stamford {i J 2"]), writes that :

The ancient and public sports of Stamford are not
many, in all but two, but too many by one. The one
a sport favouring both manhood and gentry, a con-
course of noblemen and gentlemen meeting together
in mirth, peace, and amity, for the exercise of their
swift running horses, kept for the race every Thurs-
day in March. The prize they run for is a silver
and gilt cup and cover, to the value of seven or
eight pounds provided by the care of the Alderman
for the time being, but the money is raised out of the
interest of a stock formerly made up by the nobility
and gentry, who are neighbours or well-wishers to the
town.

Whether these March races took place on the
existing racecourse or on Wittering Heath there
is no means of knowing. The present grand
stand was built in 1766, and formerly races
were run on Wittering Heath ; in all probability
the March races, run on the Thursday before
Mid-Lent Sunday, for a plate of ^fio value
provided by the town, were held there. The

fifth of the ' Articles ' or rules under which the
matches were run is singular :

If anye of the matched horses or their riders chaunce
to fall in anye of the foure heats, the rest of the riders
shall staye in theire places, where they were at the
time of the fall, until the rider so fallen, have his foote
in the stirroppe againe.

Harrod, the historian of Stamford, says :

In October, 1679, horse-racing articles are mentioned.
The old course, four miles in length, was discarded in
1 7 1 5 or 1716, and the new one laid out in 1 7 1 6 saw
the last meeting on Thursday and Friday, 20 and 2 1
July, 1873.

Mr. C. O. Eaton says :

I have no records till 1734, in which year on the
lith, I2th, and 13th June, a plate of ^^50 was run
for, and won in the three heats — twice round the course
— by Mr. Pitt's bay horse Liberty, which beat five
others ; on the 1 2th by Mr. Weaver's Sober John in
three heats, four miles ; on the I 3 th by Mr. Curzon's
roan colt by Cade in four two-mile heats, beating

I I others.

In 1755 similar prizes were offered, the winners
being Mr. Sisson, Captain Vernon, and the Duke
of Ancaster. In 1808 there were three days'
racing. The Town Plate of ^^50, the winner to
be sold for 150 guineas, was the principal race ;
it was twice round, about two and three-quarter
miles. There was also a sweepstake of 20 guineas

' In compiling the history of fox-hunting in Lin-
colnshire, acknowledgements are due to Lord Monson,
Mr. Cuthbert Bradley, Mr. G. S. Lowe, Mr. T.
Wilson, M.F.H., Mr. E. P. Rawnsley, M.F.H.,
Mr. T. F. Dale, and Mr. J. Maunsell Richardson.

506

SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN

each for three-year-olds, once round and a
distance (240 yards). The sport continued to be
much of the same character. The first meeting
witnessed by Mr. Eaton was that of 1837, when
he believes the two best horses ran that were ever
on the course. One was Redshank, by Sand-
beck, the property of Mr. Bird ; this horse
gained immortality as the sire of Ellen Home.
The other celebrity was Lord Exeter's Troilus, a
beautiful horse by Priam, winner of the Derby,
his dam Green Mantle winning the Oaks ; he
was sent after his racing career as a stallion to
Ireland. The chief local supporter of the meet-
ing was Lord Exeter, who generally had twenty-
six horses in training at Newmarket ; the Stam-
ford course was situated in his park. The late
Lord Kesteven, then Sir John Trollope, some-
times ran a horse ; Sir Gilbert Heathcote, owner
of Amato, winner of the Derby in 1 838, was also
a consistent supporter of the races, though as he
resided at the Durdans, Epsom, seldom attended
them.

In 1839 the number of days' racing was
reduced to two, and in 1841 the date was altered
to October, probably in the hope of attracting a
superior class of horse, for the ground, having a
shallow covering of soil, was hard in July. The
course was oval in shape, with a wood in the
middle ; the Cup course, three times round, was
exactly 4 miles. There was a very good straight
mile which was generally used for two-year-old
races. The grand stand erected in 1766 was
built of stone : it was 40 ft. by 1 8 ft. on the out-
side walls, and had three floors. The time for
holding the races was fixed by the Jockey Club
co-operating with the marquess of Exeter. The
only races except plates were the Burghley
Stakes and the Gold Cup — ;^ioo — which
latter was instituted in 1799. The first
winner of the Cup was Mr. J. Heathcote's
Water, and among subsequent winners were
the Duke of Rutland, the Marquess of Exeter,
Sir Gilbert Heathcote, Sir H. Nelthorpe, and
General Grosvenor. The old meeting was
abandoned in 1873, but the present Marquess of
Exeter has organized two or three steeplechase
meetings under National Hunt rules in con-
nexion with his harrier hunt, which was established
at Burghley House kennels in 1899. The new
course lies over a grass country in the Vale of
Tinwell ; among the four events of which the
programme consist, one is the Stamford Town
Stakes. 'The Druid' gives many interesting
personal narratives connected with the old Stam-
ford meetings.

The racing history of Lincoln is of great
antiquity. The earliest authentic record occurs
in the Lincoln Corporation's papers ; ' it is an
entry dated 12 February, 1597. sanctionmg the
mayor's ' charges for a scaffold at the horse-race,'
the ' scaffold ' being a temporary stand for specta-
tors. King James visited Lincoln in 161 7, and
' Hist. MSB. Com. Rep. xiv, pt. 8, p. 75.

on Thursday — in March — there was a great horse-race
on the heath for a cup, where his Majesty was present ;
and stood on a scaffold the city had caused to be set
up, and withal caused the race a quarter of a mile long
to be railed and corded with ropes and stoops on both
sides, whereby the people were kept out, and the
horses which ran were seen far. On Friday there
was a great hunting, and a race by the horses which
rid the scent for a golden snaffle, and a race by three
Irishmen and an Englishman, all which his Majesty
did behold. The Englishman wonne the race.

It is also recorded on 5 March, 1635, that

The Mayor and aldermen shall have the liberty to
deal with those gentlemen that desire allowance for a
cup to be run for with horses on the scath on the
south side of the city, and to agree on such articles as
they shall think meet.

Another entry in the proceedings of the Lin-
coln Corporation,'' dated 24 July, 1669, shows
that endeavour was made by that body to estab-
lish the town race-meeting on a permanent basis.
The scheme is broadly sketched in the resolution
recorded :

Whereas divers persons of honour and quality out of
their kindness and respect to this city and for the
benefit and advantage of the citizens and inhabitants
thereof, have a desire that one or more horse-races
may be set up annually for ever upon the heath in the
parishes of Harmston and Colby, under such articles
as shall be thought fit by the trustees, viz. Lady Dorothy
Stanhope, the earl of Lindsey, Henry earl of Ogle,
John earl of Exeter, George Vise Castleton, Bennett
Lord Sherrard, John Lord Roos, Sir John Monson the
elder, bart., and Sir Robert Carr, bart., and that lands
may be purchased and settled on them and their heirs ;
and that in case a constant rent of ^^24 per an. or
more be raised, and that one third part may be employed
for a lesser plate to be run for by hunting horses, and
the other two parts be for the providing a greater
plate, not to be run for the same day, and that no horse
above six years old be admitted to run for either ; and
they are desirous to know what money will be given
by this city ; it is agreed that £zo be for this end
advanced.

In June, 1800, there is mention 'that annual
gifts sometimes of plate and sometimes of money,
rising from ;^20 to ;^50 [are made] towards the
horse-races.'

At the beginning of the century racing was
vigorously carried on at nearly all the cathedral
towns in the kingdom ; probably because they
were also the county towns. The fact remains
that of the modern enclosures, some of the best
are those which are held beneath the shade of
abbey or minster, and the category includes
Lincoln.' Lincoln in 1899 adopted the style
of the modern racing club or company. The
course, situated about a mile from the town, is
one of the best in England. It is on sound old
turf, and is i mile 6 furlongs round, much the
same shape as that of Doncaster Town Moor.
There is a straight mile — with a slight elbow in

' Ibid. p. 106.

' Charles Richardson, The English Turf.

507

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

it — on which the Lincolnshire Handicap is run,
and on portions whereof the Brocklesby and other
short races are decided. The round course has
a straight run of nearly half a mile, and the turn at
the junction of the two courses is somewhat
abrupt. The last of the finish is downhill and
narrows somewhat awkwardly. Lincoln has now
three meetings during the season, one of three
days in the spring, which (unless Easter is un-
usually early) is the first fixture of the racing
season ; the June meeting (two days) dates from
1900 ; and the late autumn meeting (two days)
is generally held in the week following the New-
market Houghton. This last, though it brings
out large fields, does not rank so highly as the
spring meeting. Take away the Lincolnshire
Handicap and the Brocklesby from the Lincoln
Spring Meeting and little would remain but plating
events. The present secretary of the Lincoln
Meeting, Mr. Charles Brook, who has been on
the Race Committee since 1880, and chairman
for many years, writes : —

The moving spirit of Lincoln Races in the 'forties
and 'fifties until his death in 1862 was my father
Mr. W. H. Brook, who raced in partnership with the
late Revc^ John King of Ashby de la Launde ; the
horses ran in my Father's name — Manganese, grand
dam of Apology, won the One Thousand Guineas,
and many other races. My brother Thomas Brook
was Chairman until his death in 1880 ; in his time
— the 'seventies — the straight mile was made : the
leading betting men of the day (Steel, Nicholls, and
others) subscribing j^joo, so that they might have a
fair run for the Lincolnshire Handicap. Maidment
had won it several times, partly, it was thought, by his
bold riding round the turn. Mr. W. Ford, who had
been clerk of the course and manager of the races for
more than thirty years, succeeded as chairman in I 880,
when his son Mr. W. J. Ford became clerk of the
course and has remained so up to the present time.
In 1896 the Committee was formed into a Limited
Liability Company as the Lincoln Race Committee
Ltd. with myself as chairman. In 1 897 large new
•stands were erected in Tattersall's ring and the five
shilling ring : of so excellent a type were these they
have served as patterns for most stands erected in the
country since. The circular race course is held upon
lease from the corporation of Lincoln ; the first half
•of the straight mile is the absolute property of the
Race Committee. Personally I can remember seeing
Kingston, Maid of Masham, Fisherman, Saunterer,
Caller Ou, Lord Lyon, Manganese, Warlock, and
many other notable horses run on Lincoln Race
Course.

Habituis of the turf — owners, trainers, jockeys,
bookmakers, backers alike — begin their year at
Lincoln in March, and go on from there to
Liverpool. On the first day of the meeting the
Batthyany Stakes Handicap is the chief attraction,
and on the second day the Brocklesby Trial Plate
always produces a big field. This is a five-
furlong handicap, in which the runners are for
the most part horses against which candidates for
the Brocklesby Stakes have been tried, and the
race is a most useful one. The Lincolnshire

Handicap is the race of the meeting, and though
the class is on the whole not quite so good as that
to be found in the City and Suburban or Jubilee
Stakes, the race always brings out some of the
best milers in training, and is seldom won by a
bad horse. Very few three-year-olds are entered.
The best performance the Lincolnshire Handicap
has known is that of Clorane, who won in 1896,
carrying 9 St. 4 lb. in a field of eighteen. No
other horse has ever been successful with 9st. in
the saddle.^ This Lincolnshire Handicap was
first run in August, 1849, As a spring handi-
cap it first had place on the programme of 1853.
The Brocklesby Stakes, founded in 1842, was,
until 1858, run at the autumn meeting: it has
reached over ;^i,000 in value. Many good
horses have won the stake. The Bard, Donovan,
Semolina, and Minting Queen are among good
ones who made their d^but at Lincoln. Kyoto,
who won the race after the great frost in 1895,
was a mere pony at the time. At the autumn
fixture the Great Tom Stakes, a handicap on a
straight mile, and the Lincoln Autumn Handicap
of a mile and a half are the chief events. Large
fields are the rule at each of the fixtures. Amongst
Lincolnshire celebrities who have won the handi-
cap must be mentioned Mr. Henry Chaplin's
Guy Darrell in 1872. In I905and 1906 there
were fifty-one subscribers to the Lincoln Handi-
cap. Mr. W. E. Elsey, who trains near Lincoln,
in 1905 headed the list of winning trainers ; and
his apprentice Elijah Wheatley was head of the
winning jockeys.

The Brocklesby Hunt Union Club was estab-
lished at Caistor in November, 1835. The
minute book shows that the club started with a
roll of fifty-four members. Mr. Thomas Brooks
(' Old Tom Brooks of Croxby ') was its first
chairman, and Mr. W. Torr, junior, of Aylesby,
its hon. secretary and treasurer. The first
' steeple race ' took place the same year, from
Riby Slingsmere, and was followed, in accordance
with invariable custom, by a dinner, generally
held at the George Inn, Caistor. Members who
failed to attend were fined 3/. each, which" went to
the wine fund. The conditions of the early races
were as follows : A sweepstake of ;^5 each, with
5^50 added from the club funds. Open to all
England. Weights : four years old, 11 st. ; five
years old, n st. 9 lb. ; six years old and aged,
I2st. ; mares allowed 2 lb. Distance, 4 miles
across a country. The owner of the second
horse to receive i o sovereigns. To be ridden by
gentlemen, or farmers, or members of a fox-
hunting or racing club. Messrs. R. Nainby,
Thomas Brooks, and Theophilus Harneiss were
the first stewards, and Mr. Thomas Borman was
judge. Old Will Smith, the Brocklesby hunts-
man, used to start the race with a twang of his
horn. Mr. Lionel Holmes won the first race on
a mare belonging to Mr. Hargreaves. He took

?o8

' Charles Richardson, The English Turf.

SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN

a toss, but remounting the mare as she rose to
her feet again, lost little time. Flying Billy, the
property of ' the squire of Limber,' who ran
against Touchstone for the Doncaster Cup, fell
at the last fence. Mr. Coates's Cannon Ball,
ridden by Mr. Grantham, won in 1836, jump-
ing a sheep-fold in a corner at the last fence but
one. The course was parallel to the Barton
Street, from Barnoldby to Riby cross-roads, the
same as that over which were run the point-to-
point races of 1892.

In 1837 there were fifteen nominations, of
which thirteen faced the starter, and the judge
placed the following : ist, Mr. G. Skipworth's
Antelope ; and. Captain J. Skipworth on Mr. H.
Whitworth's Bumpkin ; 3rd, Mr. R. Nainby's
Moses ; and 4th, Mr. Richardson on Mr. Thomas
Whichcote's Longwaist. Mr. G. Skipworth fell
all his length into the winning field, but was first
past the post after all. * After the race,' says the
minute book, ' a party of seventy-one gentlemen
dined with the Stewards at the Granby Inn,
Grimsby, Mr. Richard Nainby in the chair.' An
old grey horse called Valentine won in 1838, the
course being over Clixby, Grasby, and Owmby
lordships. He had done service in a harvest wagon,
and had, moreover, been lame; but Mr. W. G.
Loft patched him up, and riding with the greatest
care, won in a field of twenty-one starters ; Mr.
Cook's Transport, ridden by Mr. Riby Nicholson,
was second. According to the ' Druid ' Ormsby
won the next year, Peter Simple being second ; but
Will Smith, in his diary, says that Mr. Carnley
won on Old Mr. Fry. Gay Lad, who had run in
1 839 and 1 840, made a third and successful bid for
it in 1 84 1. He owed his win to the quickness of
his rider. Captain Skipworth, who noticed that the
winning wagon had been moved, and pulled round
in order to go the right side of the flag. The
owner of Croxby (by Velocipede) had to refund ;
this cost the club ;^I40. There were no better
chasers in England than Peter Simple and Gay
Lad, though some declared they were not the
equal of Lottery. Mr. Loft won on Creeper in
1 842, with Mr.C. Nainby second, and Mr. Baxter
third. Then Mr. Charles Nainby won for three
years in succession on his father's horses. Crocus,
Newcastle Tommy, and Northallerton Tommy.
Crocus's race was the last one attended by the
second Earl of Yarborough. Newcastle Tommy
and Northallerton Tommy were sold for ;^200
each ; ;^30 would have bought the latter a few
months before the race, but a storm prevented
him from crossing the Humber to Beverley Fair.
Captain Skipworth won on the hard-pulling
Dubious in 1 846, and Mr. Lamplough on Holder-
ness the next year took the stakes out of the
district for the first time with Salvation ; Mr. Old-
acre won on the last two occasions races were held,
with his own mare Jenny Lind and Mr. Richard
Nainby's Rachel. In 1839 the added money
from the club funds was increased to £,60, and
in 1840 to jTyS ; in 1839 winners of the steeple

races (matches excepted) had to carry 7 lb. extra^
while in 1840 the race was confined to maiden
horses. This restriction was dropped in 1841 and
re-introduced in 1842, after which date it was
maintained. A second race had been added to
the programme the previous year, namely, a
sweepstake oi £■] each with ^^15 added, open to
horses of all ages, to carry 14 St., the distance
4 miles across country. This was Mr. Charles
Nainby's first race, and he won on Mr. Tom
Brooks's Hang 'Em in a field of five runners.
Cure All, who won the Liverpool Grand National
in 1845, and was bred, owned, trained, and also
ridden in the great race by Mr. W. G. Loft,
does not appear to have run in any of the
Brocklesby chases. On 24 March, 1867, Mr. H.
Chaplin's Snowstorm won the Open Race, and Mr.
W. Richardson's Peter Lord Yarborough's Cup.
The Brocklesby Hunt course is arranged
and the trimming of the fences supervised by
a sub-committee. The five races include Lady
Yarborough's Cup, the Curraghmore Stakes,
the Scawby Stakes, and the Brocklesby Open
Steeplechase. ' The Druid ' credits Mr. Tom
Brooks with having ridden the winner of the first
steeplechase ever run in Lincolnshire ; but
Mr. George Collins, in his History of the
Brocklesby Hunt, states that his father-in-law

formerly knew an old Mr. Draper of Wickenby, who
frequently used to refer to a steeple race between
Mr. Tom Cartwright and Mr. Tom Clitheroe that
took place some years before 1 8 2 1 , the course being from
Wragby Church to Wickenby Church. Mr. Brooks's
great race with Mr. Nicholson took place on 30 March,
1 82 1, and was from Stourton Church to Wickenby
Church, a distance of eleven miles.

Mr, Field Nicholson rode in the first Hunt
Steeple Race in 1836, when Captain Becher fell
over a gate. To quote again the same authority,
' Mr. W. Marris of Limber, owner of the grey
Peter Simple, also bred Half Cast, winner of the
Grand National in 1859, Green in the saddle.'
Half Cast was by Morgan Rattler. Mr. Edmund
Davy was the owner of Gay Lad, winner of a
great many steeplechases with Captain Jack Skip-
worth generally in the saddle. He was subse-
quently sold to Mr. John Elmore, the price being
^1,000, with another ;^500 if he won the Grand
National — a large sum in those days — and this
Gay Lad did in 1842.

On 27 March, 1873, Mr. J. Maunsell Richard-
son won the Grand National at Liverpool on Cap-
tain Machell's Disturbance, a great day for North
Lincolnshire ; and the following year he won
again on Reugny. Mr. Richardson is one of the
finest horsemen of his age.

Mr. Robert Walker, another well-known
Lincolnshire sportsman, won the Grand Sefton
Steeplechase at Liverpool on Keystone in 1 870,
and three years in succession, 1869, 1870, and
1 87 1, the National Handicap Steeplechase at the
Eglinton Hunt Meeting on Mr. Henry Chaplin's
Snowstorm. In 1884 he won a hunt steeplechase

509

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

on the four-year-old Heirloom over the Grand
National course, being then in his fifty-eighth
year and riding lost. 4 11\

Three first-flight men with the Brocklesby
and brilliant men between the flags were
Messrs. H. Brooks, Neil MacVicar, and G. E.
Davy. Mr. Brooks won thirteen races at
Brocklesby, riding the winner of each of the five
races in 1884. Mr. Neil MacVicar of Limber
Hill rode under the name of ' Mr. Bolwyn,' and
between 1874 and 1886 had 210 mounts, win-
ning forty-eight times and being second on forty-
five occasions. Mr. G. E. Davy, who used to
live at Thoresway, was another good man over
regulation fences, winning a great number of
races under National Hunt rules. One of his
best horses was Sultan, who won for Mr. Cyril
Flower, M.P., the first House of Commons point-
to-point race, under the name of Home Rule,
but was disqualified.

The Belvoir Hunt meeting originated in 1885,
its chief promoter being Mr. W. L. Burdett Coutts
and the gentlemen hunting from Grantham.
The course is over two miles of undulating hunt-
ing country between Ingoldsby and Lenton
villages, across which winds a brook. The going
is all grass ridge and furrow, riding well except
when the ground is very wet, and the fences are
natural hunting fences. Situated ten miles from
a town and seven from a station the meeting has
a charm of its own, resembling a point-to-point
gathering. Four events originally constituted
the card, but latterly these have been increased to
six, and include two for farmers, a red coat race,
a united Belvoir and Blankney Hunt race, the
Grantham Steeplechase, and, richest race of the
meeting, the Tally-ho Steeplechase, value 60
sovereigns, to which Major Paynter has always
contributed 25 sovereigns. The gathering on
the hill-side below Lenton Spire consists of Bel-
voir, Blankney, and Cottesmore followers, with the
country residents of the district. Mr. R. Burrows
is clerk of the scales, and the making of the course
from its commencement has been superintended
by Mr. Thomas A. R. Heathcote. The duties of
hon. secretary have been ably filled by Mr. Francis
Crawley, Major Amcotts, Mr. Thomas A. R.
Heathcote, and Mr. E. W. Griffith.

One of the best supporters of the meeting is
Mr. Edgar Lubbock, the present master of the
Blankney ; on six or seven occasions he has
steered his own horse to victory in the red coat
race. Probably the most distinguished horseman
at this meeting was the late Captain 'Bay' Middle-
ton. A horse called Gamecock, which eventu-
ally carried the royal colours as a chaser for the
Prince of Wales, ran at an early Belvoir meet-
ing when the property of a farmer. Clawson, a
Grand National candidate, won a race on this
course for Mr. A. Jolland ; and old Arran,
owned and trained by Mr. Frank Godson, who
had a useful string of chasers at Temple Bruer
by Lincoln, scored one of his numerous successes

at this meeting. A point-to-point was attempted
on only one occasion, namely, in 1889. Amongst
well-known riders who have ridden winners at
this meeting may be mentioned Captain Cecil
Grenfell, Mr. F. A. Soames, Mr. Greville
Clayton, Lord Edward Manners, Mr. V. Hemery,
Mr. Chandos de Paravicini, Mr. W. Gale, and
Mr. A. Burdett Coutts, who won the first red
coat race instituted.

The first races of the Market Rasen Union
Hunt Steeplechases as now constituted were run
on 9 April, 1883. Previously, however, a
meeting was held at the village of Walesby, but
no records can be found. The accounts in
1883 are credited with a balance oi £^^1 3^- H'^^'
from the old meeting ; the modern meeting
occupies one day ; four races were run in 1883,
five in 1890, and six in 1892 ; but since 1894
five events have formed the card. These are a
£\0 Selling Hurdle Race, a j^30 2-mile Maiden
Steeplechase, a ;^30 Selling Steeplechase, a £t^(>
Town Steeplechase of 3 miles, and the Town
Hurdle Race of £t,o.

The course, situated on the Caistor Road by
Market Rasen, is egg-shaped, a good proportion
being grass, and all the fences are natural.

The most distinguished horse competing at
this meeting was a 15-band grey named Hamlet
by Strathconan — Lace, belonging to Mr. H.
Botterill of Tathwell Hall, Louth. Hamlet
won the Committee's Steeplechase in the years
1888 and 1889, also the principal races in the
local steeplechases, and ran unplaced in the
Grand National. He had a wonderful stride,
and won many races in Lincolnshire and York-
shire, beating a prominent Grand National horse
in the Slow and Sure Steeplechase at Derby.
Ridden by Mr. Leonard Botterill, he won in all
seventeen steeplechases. Hamlet was eventually
sold to go to Germany. Ballot Box, another
Grand National horse, competed here.

The Southwold Hunt Steeplechase meeting
was established in 187 1, and has been held at
Louth and Horncastle in alternate years. The
old Louth steeplechase course was a very severe
one, the Hallington Brook, which had to be
jumped twice in each race, being very formidable.
In 1890 the Louth committee changed from
this course to one more modern, near Bracken-
borough, about a mile from Louth Railway
Station, and there the steeplechases are now run.
This course is one of the best in the country ;
it is all grass, except one small field, and every
fence is a fair one ; it is i|^ miles round. The
meeting is very popular, well-known members of
the hunt acting as officials. There are five
steeplechases run at the meeting, and Mr. J. St.
Vigor Fox now gives a silver cup to the winner
of the Southwold Hunt Plate. Many good
horses have won over this course at different
times, among them Hamlet. Another good
horse which commenced his career on this
course was Highland, by The Lambkin out
o

SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN

■of Lowland Maid ; he made his first appear-
ance in 1894, and won the Southwold Hunt
Steeplechase with Mr. Jack Sharp in the saddle.
Afterwards he won several flat races, and was
trained under racing rules. In 1895 Highland
won seven handicaps. He also was the property
of Mr. Richard Botterill of Tathwell Hall,
Louth. In recent years Mr. William Chatterton
of Hallington has been a successful owner at this
meeting, one of the best of the many useful
horses he has run being Flourman, winner of the
Keddington Plate, 1905.

Races were held at Caistor and Grimsby dur-
ing the first quarter of the nineteenth century,
but were abandoned many years ago. On
4 April, 1826, Mr. George Pelham rode Mr.
Davy's brown mare Shepherdess at Caistor races.
At the same meeting Mr. Tom Brooks won
the first race on his Weeper, Sir Tatton Sykes
being second on Mr. Ferriby's Skinflint. The
races were run in heats. The remains of an old
racecourse still exist in Grimthorpe Park by
Bourne, where a former Lord Willoughby used
to train his horses.

Lincolnshire has claims to distinction as a
horse-breeding county. Among the best-known
breeders of blood stock are Lord Kesteven at
Casewick Park, Mr. R. C. Vyner at Gautby,
Mr. Taylor Sharpe at Baumber Park, the grand-

father of the present Marquess of Exeter at
Burghley by Stamford. The most famous record is
that of Blankney in the palmy days of Mr. Henry
Chaplin. The name recalls that of Hermit, the
most remarkable horse connected with the history
of Lincolnshire. Hermit, a chestnut, was bought ^
as a yearling in 1864 from Mr. Blenkiron--by
Mr. Henry Chaplin ; he stood 1 5 h. 3 in., very
lengthy and blood-like, with excellent substance ;
he won the sensational ' snow-storm Derby ' of
1867 from a field of twenty-nine, his price being
100 to 15 against. In 1870 Hermit was put
to the stud at Blankney Hall at 20 guineas.
His fee in 1886 was 250 guineas. The most
distinguished of his progeny were Holy Friar,
St. Agatha, Trappist, Charon, Monachus, Lan-
caster, Industry, L'Eclair, Ambergris, Rylstone,
Devotee, Out of Bounds, Peter, The Abbot,
St. Hilda, Angelina, St. Louis, Thebais, Tris-
tan, Wandering Nun, Shotover, St. Blaise,
St. Marguerite, Queen Adelaide, Lonely, and
St. Alvere. In 1879 1,400 guineas was given for
Shotover, a filly by Hermit, who won the Derby in
1882. In 1 880 at the Blankney sale another filly
by the same sire fetched 3,600 guineas, the total
amount realized for fourteen yearlings being 1 4,200
guineas, an aggregate which gave the highest
average then recorded. Other noted sires at the
Blankney stud were Galopin and Friar's Balsam.

POLO

Polo was introduced into Lincolnshire in i i
The first game with four a side was played by
hunting farmers in a field close to Lenton spire
overlooking the Belvoir Hunt Steeplechase course.
After some preliminary play matches were ar-
ranged as an attraction at the Folkingham Flower
Shows in 1892 and 1893. The sides were
arranged by Mr. Cuthbert Bradley and Mr.
Thomas A. R. Heathcote ; and in one of these
games a well-known player, Mr. W. J. Hornsby,
made his first appearance on a polo ground. In
1894 greater things were attempted at Grantham
on the occasion of a Whit Monday sports gather-
ing. The result of this game was the establish-
ment of a polo club at Barrowby, two miles
from Grantham, with Mr. W. J. Hornsby as
captain. It had but a short existence, owing to
expense and the diflSculties of gathering players
in a wide and scattered district. A new club

rose from its ashes in 1894 at Burghley Park,
and the surviving members of the Grantham
Club trained their ponies every Friday to the
rendezvous. Stamford proved a much better
centre, and the game has flourished there ever
since. The club plays on a full-size boarded
ground, provided by the president, the Marquess
of Exeter. The first captain of the club was
Captain the Hon. A. F. Greville, of Lady Anne's
House, Stamford. Since the club was instituted
its hon. secretary has been Mr. Blundell Williams.
The members' roll bears thirty-six names.
Matches are arranged in August and September
with Holderness, Warwickshire, Market Har-
borough, and private teams.

In 1906 a club was started at LafFord,
Mr. Chandos de Paravicini was the president.
Dr. G. D.Thompson the hon. secretary. There
are over a dozen playing members.

SHOOTING

The sport obtainable in the different parts of
the county varies with the character of the land.
The immense wold fields with low-cut hedges
and little cover provide scant accommodation for
breeding partridges, and leave the sitting birds

exposed in peculiar degree. The hare is easily
seen, and her run found by the poacher. On the
low-lying land where the fields are small, with
big and often ill-kept hedges, the partridge breeds
abundantly. Where there is plenty of heather

511

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

and bracken, and where the keeper is active in
the performance of his duties, the partridge
flourishes and affords plenty of sport. In the
fens and marshes the native bird does not thrive,
but the ' Frenchman ' appears hardy enough to
->, withstand the more trying conditions of life
there prevailing. Lincolnshire is, comparatively
speaking, a well-wooded county, and provides
excellent pheasant shooting. In some parts there
are nice little coverts, conveniently situated not
far from one another, and this enables the keeper
to place his guns in such a position as to ensure
the birds ' going well.' Then again there are
some fine large woods, the thorough shooting of
which involves much careful management. There
are also in North Lincolnshire some very long
woods which extend for miles, but nevertheless
are easy to control, and provide excellent sport.
Big bags are obtained on the shootings round such
centres as Lincoln, Grantham, Brigg, and else-
where. The woods for the most part consist of
oak, ash, hazel, and blackthorn, with undergrowth
of bracken and fern. Every few years certain
parts of the woods are cut down, entirely altering
the beats.

The principal game birds of Lincolnshire are
partridges (English and French), pheasants, wood-
cock, snipe, wild duck, teal, wigeon, green and
golden plover, wood-pigeons, and hares and rab-
bits ; in rough weather large flocks of wild geese
and occasionally swans are seen. Not many
years ago grouse and black-game were shot in
parts of the county. The late Rev. W. South-
well, rector of Rothwell near Caistor, possessed a
stuffed grey-hen he had shot at Nettleton in the
sixties or seventies. A hybrid between a black-
cock and a hen-pheasant was shot on Bromby
Common, near Scunthorpe, about 1885. Grouse
and black-game, however, have now been exter-
minated. Large quantities of wild duck are
always to be seen in the Fens and along the
coast, and on certain lakes and sequestered ponds
near Brigg the duck breed. They are less
numerous near the Humber than they used to
be. Still, a mallard and his mate can generally
be got in the Blow-wells and stream near Great
Coates by Grimsby. Snipe and jack snipe are
numerous also in these parts. There is a large
preserve at Great Carlton near Louth, where a
good bag of duck is made yearly. The green
plover occurs in large quantities and affords good
sport, but perhaps not so good as the golden
plover, which feed in great numbers on the
marshes. These birds have certain flights, and
the experienced observer discovering them can
obtain good bags. The old-fashioned green
pheasant {P. colchicus) is very rare in Lincolnshire
now. Some preservers have procured a certain
number and distributed them among their shoots,
and an example is occasionally seen ; but the
ring-necked variety (P- torquatus) predominates.
The principal shoots round Lincoln are those at
Gautby (Mr. Robert Vyner), Sudbrooke, Hatton,

and Canwick (Mr. Montague Waldo-Sibthorp),
Panton (Mr. Turnor), Norton Place (Sir H.
Cholmeley), Haverholme (Lady Winchilsea),
Nocton (Mr. Hodgson), Doddington (Mr.
Jarvis), and a little further off, Tattershall (Lord
Fortescue). Mr. Sibthorp's shooting extends over
10,000 acres, and produces game of all sorts.
His largest bags are usually at Hatton and Sud-
brooke. Both pheasants and hare have been
driven out of the coverts below Canwick, despite
its propinquity to the city. As a rule Mr. Sib-
thorp gets over a thousand pheasants on his best
days at Hatton and Sudbrooke. For example,
in 1889 and 1898 at Hatton he got 1,103 and
1,020 respectively ; and at Sudbrooke in 1890,
1,072, and in 1905, 1,003. I" I904~5 ^^^
total bag was 16,763 head, of which 5,500
were rabbits ; in 1905— 6 the bag actually shot
was 11,289, namely, 2,117 partridges, 5,663
pheasants, 775 hares, 2,583 rabbits, 45 wood-
cock, and 106 various. About 90 brace is a
good day's bag of partridges. On most of
the other shoots mentioned, from 1,000 to 1,500
pheasants are obtained in one day on the best
beats. The record bag of partridges in Lincoln-
shire— 303 brace — was made at Tattershall near
Boston in 1896, when leased by Mr. Alfred
Shuttleworth. The guns were Lord Yarborough,
Major Shuttleworth, Sir Hugh Cholmeley, Mr.
R. H. R. Rimington-Wilson, Mr. T. S. Pearson-
Gregory, and Colonel Mason. As a rule 100
hares are killed on most of the above shoots in a
day. At Doddington, before driving came into
vogue, two guns got 98^ brace of partridges.
On none of these shoots are woodcock common,
the largest number killed in one day being four-
teen. A large quantity of rabbits are usually
shot at Gautby, but on most shoots they are kept
down in deference to the interests of the tenants.
The principal shoots in the Grantham district
are on lands owned by Sir J. Thorold, Lord
Brownlow, Lord Ancaster, Mr. E. C. Turnor,
Sir Hugh Cholmeley, Sir C. Wells, and Mr.
Pearson- Gregory at Harlaxton. The partridge
bags in most cases have greatly increased during
the last few years, special care having been taken
to foster the game. In the opinion of some,
driving has been instrumental in producing this
result. A large number of pheasants are also
reared. Mr. T. S. Pearson-Gregory's bags of
partridges have been heavy, especially taking into
account the acreage of his property and the fact
that it lies in the midst of a great hunting coun-
try where foxes abound. In the season 1904—5
on 1,500 acres he killed 176 J brace, 100 brace,
and 119!^ brace on three consecutive days ; and in
1905—6, though the weather was not conducive
to large bags, 91^, iio^, and 126 brace in three
days. Good bags have been obtained at Tumby,
Sir Henry Hawley's place. The owner has
killed six or seven hundred brace of partridges in
a season, and nearly 2,000 pheasants ; and in
one season he got 7,124 head of game. Colonel

SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN

Ruston, who has the shooting at Norton Place,
kills many partridges. In four days of the season
1905-6 he averaged over 100 brace a day. The
Blankney shoot, in five consecutive days, yielded
over 100 brace each day. There are several
good shooting properties in the neighbourhood of
Brigg. These are Elsham (Sir F. E. Astley-
Corbett, bart.), Wrawby, Kettleby, and Roxby
(Mr. Gary Elwes), Manby (Lord Yarborough),
Appleby (Lord St. Osvirald), Normanby (Sir
Berkeley SheflSeld, bart.), Scawby (Mr. R. N.
Sutton-Nelthorpe), Walcot (Mr. Goulton-Con-
stable). Elsham has some lovely woods of great
variety, some low-lying, others on the hill-
side where the birds come high and well. In old
Sir John's time, before the trees were felled, a
good shot was needed to get the tall rocketers in
' Deep Dales ' ; the ' Strip ' also affords sporting
shots. Pheasants do well at Elsham and good
bags have been obtained, but no special records
have been kept. The writer has helped to shoot
close upon 1,000 in a day. Partridges and hares
do well on the Wolds and in the Carrs, and
afford good sport. Some time back, in response to
complaints made by the tenants, 500 hares were
shot. Sir Francis always maintains a good head
of hares for the Brigg Coursing Meeting. Years
ago when the Carrs lay under water a large
number of wild duck and geese were shot. The
former still haunt the ' Decoy ' and the Pond.
Woodcock breed at Elsham. On Wrawby and
Kettleby shootings good bags have been obtained.
The Roxby Woods and partridge ground also
provide excellent sport. The year 1905 was
better than many ; 747 pheasants were killed in
one day, and 222 partridges in another. Mr.
Cary Elwes believes in driving partridges, and he
tells the writer that ten years ago when partridges
were walked up the total number killed during
the season was 165, the largest bag for one day
being thirty-four ; whereas the total number
killed in 1905-6 was 1,139, and the largest bag
in one day 222. Leaving the birds undisturbed,
exchanging eggs amongst different nests, care on
the part of the keepers, and the maintenance of
the best relations between landlords and tenants
and labourers, have brought about this satisfactory
result. Mr. Cary Elwes does not get more than
thirty or forty woodcock in a season, but his
father killed ten in one day to his own gun. The
Manby shooting, situated in the parishes of
Broughton and Castlethorpe near Brigg, has for
some years been rented by Mr. Arthur Soames.
Pheasants, hares, and woodcock have been shot in
abundance. The principal beats are ' Rose Cot-
tage,' ' Heron Lodge,' and the ' Home Beat.'
In 1 900- 1 Mr. Soames shot 603 partridges,
6,648 pheasants, 484 hares, 90 woodcock, and
sundries. In 1901-2 666 partridges, 7,156
pheasants, 654 hares, 47 woodcock, &c. In
190S-6, 765 partridges, 6,399 pheasants, 816
hares 56 woodcock, &c. Some of his best days
are as follows :— 1899, 17 December, 1,017
2 5

pheasants; 8 December, 986 ; 1902, 9 and lo
January, 738 and 711 pheasants respectively;
1904, I December, 1,069 (second time over);
1906, II January, 801 (second time over).
These figures show the quality of the shooting.
Woodcock breed regularly at Manby. In 1903
in one day twenty-four were bagged. In 1904
eighty-one 'cock were killed, and in 1900— i
ninety. Some years ago a white woodcock fre-
quented the woods. The head keeper, Metcalfe,
once discovered it sitting. In due course the
brood of three appeared, but they did not resem-
ble their white parent. The old Manby game
books do not contain any mention of very large
bags compared with the shoots of the present
day. They used frequently to get 200 pheasants
a day. There was generally a fair number of
woodcock. For instance, in the seasons 1857-8
III were bagged ; 1858-9, 129 ; 1862-3, 192;
1863-4, 125 ; and the old keeper relates that
sixty were shot in one day in 1853, Lord Henry
Bentinck and old Sir Richard Sutton being of the
party. Quails were frequently shot in these
times. The late Colonel Morland Hutton and
his father in 1 854 shot forty-four woodcock in one
day between them. The Earl of Yarborough does
not now rear pheasants in his Brocklesby woods,
but when he did the sport was excellent. Occa-
sionally he has a day amongst the wild birds, of
which there are a great number, despite the
careful preservation of foxes. Just across the
road from Manby is the Scawby shoot, owned by
Mr. R. N. Sutton-Nelthorpe, but for some years
rented by Mr. Joseph Cliff, who has other shoot-
ing of his own adjoining. The old Scawby
game books do not show any great days in the
old time when Sir John Nelthorpe and Rev.
Robert Sutton, Mr. Nelthorpe's father, shot the
land, but they often got from 100 to 200.
The woods are of the same character as those at
Manby ; the partridge shooting is excellent, and
hares abound. The 'Twigmore' beat yields
very varied sport, for besides pheasants, hares, and
woodcock, wild duck, wigeon and teal are killed.
Mr. Sutton-Nelthorpe has a stuffed specimen of a
cross between a cock-pheasant and a grey-hen,
which was killed in the eighties. He has also
some very interesting specimens of birds and
vermin killed on his estate, viz., sundry buzzards,
common and rough-legged ; peregrine falcon,
a female osprey, a pole-cat, a red kite, &c. In
1 87 1 his father sometimes tried a kite, but with
poor success. Within the last forty years black-
cock and grey-hen have been seen or shot in the
vicinity of Twigmore.

Adjoining the Manby shoot on the north is
that of Appleby, owned and shot by Lord
St. Oswald. The woods and partridge ground
provide excellent sport. Lord St. Oswald's
largest bag of pheasants in one day was 1,160,
and in one season 3,620. Under special care
the partridges have increased considerably. The
present owner remembers being told when he

13 65

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

was a boy that his father and three others shot
1,000 brace of birds in ten days with muzzle-
loading guns over dogs. Woodcock breed in
these woods, and sixty have been killed in a
season. Normanby, Sir Berkeley Sheffield's
place, is noted for some big shoots. Burton
Wood, i^ miles long, gives good sport and tests
the shooters' capacity. One day 1,867 phea-
sants were killed. It is grand partridge land, 415
having been shot one day ; hares also abound.
Woodcock breed here. Sir Berkeley Sheffield's
neighbour, Mr. J. Goulton Constable of Walcot,
has plenty of pheasants, partridges, and rabbits,
with an occasional duck.

Hungarian partridges have been turned down
in various parts of Lincolnshire with varied
success. One gentleman who tried the experi-
ment says that his stock much increased after their
introduction, but the majority failed to discover
any improvement. Mr. Soames, for example,
turned down seventy-five brace of Hungarian
partridges one year, but no perceptible increase
of birds followed. French partridges have
notably increased since their introduction into
Suffolk many years ago. They are numerous
south of the Humber, and are spreading into
Yorkshire. As a rule in bad seasons they thrive,
while the grey partridges suffer. They are
universally popular for driving purposes, but
otherwise are not liked. One noble lord intro-
duced them on his shooting and they spread all
over it. Large numbers of woodcock arrive on
the coast generally about the end of October
and beginning of November, and being as a rule
in a very exhausted condition many are knocked
on the head before they can recover and find
safety inland. The appearance of a grey-back
or Norway crow is a sure indication of the early
arrival of woodcock. Woodcock Sunday-' is
proverbial and generally to be relied on.

The changing of partridge eggs from nest to
nest and from shoot to shoot has notably im-

proved the stamina of the birds, and is almost a
universal practice nowadays. A good deal of
disease has been noticed among the pheasants
during the last few years. Some game preservers
attribute it to ' staled ' ground, caused by con-
tinuous rearing on the same area ; others to
parasites derived from the hens used to hatch the
eggs. A great authority on birds and their ail-
ments states that the disease is pneumo-enteritis,
generally caused by herding birds together in
large numbers, but may be acquired in a con-
tagious form by foul drinking-water. The
disease was not a serious matter till hand-rearing
came into vogue. It has been greatly fostered
by the modern system of poultry breeding and
rearing. The old disease of gapes still attacks
pheasants and partridges.

The introduction of the lOs. gun-licence
made a great difference to the hare, and in many
parts she is seldom seen.

Wood-pigeon or stock-dove provide good
sport. They are seen in immense numbers at
certain seasons. Mr. Sutton-Nelthorpe some
years ago with the help of a large number of
neighbours bagged 500 stock-doves in a day.
The birds do much harm to roots and young
seeds.

The principal enemies of game in Lincolnshire
are the weasel, stoat, pole-cat (foumart), fox,
carrion-crow, jay, magpie, hawk, and rook. The
fox wreaks havoc where there are large fields
and low hedges. Cut there are many shoots on
which large bags are got and where hounds
always find a fox. The badger, which abounds
in some parts of the county, is thought by some
to be destructive, but is a very harmless beast in
reality. Fifty years ago it was the custom
in a celebrated shoot to have cards printed as
now, but with this addition : ' No. of shots
fired ; claims ; killed.' It is hardly necessary
to add that as a rule the 'claims' exceeded tlie
'kills.'

WILD FOWLING

From the earliest times this county has been
famous for the number and variety of wild-fowl
which resort to it. Low flat shores and im-
mense tracts of fenland combine to offer the
most favourable feeding-ground and habitat for
the migratory water-fowl which visit the east
coast of Britain in winter. It seems certain that
this dead-level tract of black peaty soil was, in
times far remote, as heavily timbered as it is now
bare of wood. Oldfield, in his History of
Wainfleet, says: —

From the numerous remains of trees which are
found buried at a considerable depth below the pre-
sent surface of the Fenland, it is evident that in pre-

' The 2 1st Sunday after Trinity.

historic times this must have been a well-wooded
country.

All writers of one hundred years ago or more
were in agreement respecting the great number
and variety of fowl then frequenting this part of
the country.

Dr. Fuller ^ says of Lincolnshire that it may
be termed

the aviary of England, for the wild-fowl thereof being
remarkable for their (l) plenty, which is so great that
sometimes in the month of August 3,000 mallards
and other birds of that kind have been caught at one
draught (as 'tis here said) ; (2) variety, there being
scarce names enough for the several kinds ; (3) deli-

Circa 1660.

514

SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN

ciousness, wild-fowl being more dainty than some,
because of their continual motion. But particularly,
this shire affords two sorts of birds, most admirable
meat, viz. : knutes and dotterells. The Knute is a
delicious bird, brought here out of Denmarlc, at the
charge and for the use of King Knut or Kanutus
when he was received King of England. As it has
a royal name, so it is esteemed royal dainties, and no
country almost hath them but this ... To these we
may add, not only such as are of great value in other
countries, as teal, quail, woodcocks, pheasants, par-
tridges, etc., but such as are of so delicate and
agreeable flesh, that the nicest palates always covet
them, as puits and godwits.

Camden ^ says : —

At certain seasons of the year, not to mention fish,
amazing flights of fowl are found all over this part of
the country, not the common ones which are in
great esteem in other places, such as teal, quails,
woodcocks, pheasants, partridges. Sec, but such as
have no Latin names, the delicacies of the table and
the food of heroes, fit for the palates of the great —
puittes, godwittes, knots, which I take to mean
Canutes birds, for they are supposed to come hither
from Denmark ; dotterell, so-called from their ex-
travagant dotishness, which occasions these imitative
birds to be caught by candle-light ; if the fowler
only puts out his arm, they put out a wing, and if his
leg, they do the same ; in short, whatever the fowler
does, the bird does the same till the net is drawn
over it. . . . The fen, called the West Fen, is the
place where the Ruffs and Reeves resort in greatest
numbers ; and many other sorts of water-fowl, which
do not require the shelter of reeds and rushes, migrate
hither to breed, for this fen is bare, having been im-
perfectly drained by narrow canals which Intersect
it for many miles. The birds inhabiting the different
fens are very numerous. Besides the common wild-
duck, wild-geese, garganies, pochards, shovellers, and
teals breed here. Pewit-gulls and black tern
abound, and a few of the great terns or tickets are
seen among them ; the great-crested grebes, called
gaunts, are found in the East Fen, the lesser crested,
the black and dusky, and the little grebe, cootes,
water hens, spotted water hens, water rails, rufB,
red-shanks, lapwings or wipes, red-breasted godwits
and whimbrels, are inhabitants of these fens. The
godwits breed near Washingborough. The whimbrels
only appear for about a fortnight in May, near
Spalding, and then quit the country. Opposite to
Fosdyke Wash, during summer, are vast numbers of
avosettas, called there yelpers, from their cry as they
hover over the sportsman's head, like lapwings. Knots
are taken in nets along the shores near Fosdyke in great
numbers, during winter, but disappear in spring.

The knute or knot is still plentiful on the
extensive sand and mudbanks of the Wash, and
is taken in considerable numbers by the flight-
netters of the district.

Pennant, in 1768, refers to Lmcolnshire as
'the great magazine of wild-fowl in this

kina;dom.' , . , ■ , ,

The market value of fen birds m early days
is given, in the 'Northumberland Household
Book,' under date 15 12:

■ Brit. 1695.

Lapwings, knots, and dotterells, iJ. each; sea-gulls,
plovers, woodcocks, and red-shanks, i|</. each ;
pigeons, terns, and snipes, 3 for i^ ; stints, 6 for
id. ; ruffs, reeves, and partridges, 2 J. each ; bitterns
and curlews, i^J. each.

The fenmen found in this abundance ot
water-fowl a means of subsistence ; the ' Fen
Slodger,' as he was called, took toll of the birds
in every possible way ; fowling was his trade
and almost his sole means of livelihood ; and
being then practically unrestrained by law, the
Fen Slodgers at certain seasons used to muster in
great force, and have their yearly drive of the
young ducks before they took wing. A wide
tract of marsh would be beaten and the birds
driven into a net. Frequently as many as 2,000
birds were taken in this way at one time. Ac-
cording to Fuller, this number was sometimes
exceeded, for in writing of Crowland he says : —

Their greatest gain is from the fish and wild ducks
that they catch, where are so many, that in August
they can drive into a single net 3,000 ducks ; they
call these pools their cornfields, for there is no corn
grown within five miles.

These old-time fowling methods, together
with the large number of decoys in use in the
county in former times, brought about the en-
actment of laws for the better protection and
preservation of wild - fowl. The reign of
Henry VIII saw the passage of

An Acte' agenst the Destruccyon of Wylde-fowl at
such time as the seid olde fowle be mowted and
not replenysshed with fethers to flye, nor the yonge
fbwle fully fethered perfyctly to flye,

the close time fixed being between ' the last day
of Maye and the last day of August.' It is,
however, one thing to pass protective measures
of the sort, and quite another to compel their
observance in remote country districts, and this
enactment apparently failed to effect all that was
desired. In the time of Queen Anne an Act '
was passed making it an offence to take birds at
unseasonable times, the penalty being ^5. for
every bird so taken ; clauses of this Act were
re-enacted * in the tenth year of the reign of
George II, the time allowed for taking birds
being from the end of October to February.

Wild-fowling and fishing were the fenman's
chief support, but he added to his income by
gathering the reeds that grew abundantly in the
fens ; these were used for thatching before tiles
and slates came into use. This work was pro-
fitable, as Camden says that a stack of reeds well
harvested was worth from ;^200 to ;^300.
These facts explain the determined resistance
offered by the inhabitants to schemes for the
drainage and enclosure of the fenlands. When
the drainage was effected some concession was
made, for we read that under the ' Lynn Law '

' 25 Hen. VIII, cap. xi.
* 10 Geo. II, c. 32, § X.

9 Ann. c. 27, § 5.

515

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

the decoy pools or ' meeres ' were exempt from
the drainage plans. These decoys, so important
in those days, are well described by Sir R. Payne
Gallwey,^ who, remarking that this county was
truly the home of decoys, gives a list of no
fewer than thirty-eight, only one of which is
now worked — that at Ashby.^ The decoys of
Lincolnshire were chiefly found in the east and
south, notably between Sleaford and Crowland,
and from Wainfleet to Boston. A line drawn
from Sutton St. Mary near Cross Key's Wash,
via Crowland, Market Deeping, Bourne, Folk-
ingham, Sleaford, Tattershall, Spilsby, and Wain-
fleet, to the sea at the latter place, would enclose
the large majority of the Lincolnshire decoys.
The principal fens, beginning north, near Wain-
fleet, were the East and West Fens, on the
eastern side of which the Friskney, Wainfleet,
and Wrangle decoys were situated — Wildmore
Fen, Holland Fen (22,000 acres) ; the Kyme
Fens, Sempringham Fen, Pinchbeck Fens, Bourne
Fen, Deeping Fen (15,000 acres) ; Cowbit and
Whaplode Fens ; besides these were the great
marshes of Gedney, Holbeach, and Moulton,
situated between Spalding and the sea. The
fens which reached from Tattershall to Lincoln
were drained at the close of the eighteenth cen-
tury, and twenty to thirty square miles of country
were enclosed in consequence. In 1808 it was
calculated that near 200,000 acres of fen had
by drainage been brought under cultivation in
Lincolnshire. It was about this time that most
of the decoys were abandoned.

Previous to the last extensive drainage in
1 810, Wildmore and Holland Fens were often
under water throughout the winter to a depth
of from 3 ft. to 6 ft. The late Mr. Pedley '
says that the fenmen were good shots, and fre-

' The Book of Buck Decoys, 1886.

' A decoy is made by enclosing one and a half to
three or four acres of water in some secluded place
and planting it round with trees ; it is planned in the
form of a star, having four or six ' arms,' each arm
being made by digging cuts in the land, curving as
they branch outwards from the centre of the star ;
these cuts are covered in by light arches of wood
covered over with netting, and gradually tapering
towards their extremities, at which is placed a tunnel
net, to be taken off when the ducks are driven into
it. These cuts and over-arching nets are termed
* pipes,' and on each side of a pipe are screens of
reeds to shelter the decoy man, who, when decoying
fowl, walks on the outer curve or bend of the pipe ;
divisions are made in the reed screens on that
side for his dog to pass over, and also for him to
appear at the right moment, when driving the fowl
liigher up the pipe towards the tunnel net at the end.
Referring to the ' feeding ' method in decoying,
Pennant says : ' The decoy ducks are fed with hemp-
seed, which is flung over the skreens in small quanti-
ties, to bring them forwards into the pipes, and to
allure the wild-fowl to follow, as this seed is so light
as to float.'

' Fens and Floods of Mid-Lincolnshire.

quently used a horse for stalking the wild-fowl ;
others used 'Shouts,' or 'Shallops,' of which
numbers might be seen drifting like logs of
wood, and only betraying the occupation of
their owners by the discharge of guns. In
summer subsiding waters left a crop of coarse
grass, which offered nest sites to the wild birds.
Pennant says the Lincolnshire decoys were
commonly let at from ^^5 to ;^20 a year, and
that they contributed principally to supply the
markets of London. Amazing numbers of
birds were taken ; in only ten decoys in the
neighbourhood of Wainfleet the takes amounted
to 31,200, principally wild duck, wigeon, and
teal. Further, Pennant remarked :

It is also to be observed, that in the above par-
ticular, wigeon and teal are reckoned as but one, and
consequently fell but at half the price of the ducks.
This quantity makes them so cheap on the spot, that
we have been assured several decoy men would be glad
to contract for years to deliver their ducks at Boston
for tenpence the couple. The account of the num-
bers here mentioned relates only to those that were
sent to the capital.

arge number of decoys existing in
in olden times, and the quantities

From the
Lincolnshire

of wild-fowl taken in a season, it is evident the
fowler's occupation in those days was a busy,
and probably also a lucrative one. Records have
been kept at the famous Ashby Decoy, the only
one now worked in the county, from the first
winter it was started, in 1833-4, down to that
of 1867-8, each day's capture being noted ; this
shows an average take per annum of 2,741 head.
The largest number captured at a single drive
during late seasons at Ashby was 113 wild duck ;
and on the same day 248 ducks were caught
altogether. In thirty-five seasons the total sums
up to nearly 100,000 wild-fowl, viz. : — Wild
duck, 48,664; teal, 44,568; wigeon, 2,019;
shoveller, 285 ; pintail, 278 ; gadwall, 22.

Throughout the winter months along the
Friskney and Wainfleet ' flats,' and at other
places on the broad stretches of saline marsh
bordering the Wash, may be seen great lengths
of netting, 6 ft. high, and from 1 00 yards to a
quarter of a mile long, suspended between poles,
the distance between the lines of net being
sometimes only 100 yards. These are the
' Flightnets,' which for generations have been
used to take wild-fowl ; they are made of fine
twine, with meshes from 5 in. to 7 in. square.
The bird-netters usually make good catches on
wild, moonless nights — the ' November darks,'
as they are tersely called, being especially favour-
able, many migrant fowl arriving at that time
of the year. When the tide ebbs, and as
early as possible, before the birds hanging in
the nets can be attacked by gulls or crows,
the fowler comes to clear them. Many species
of shore bird and other fowl are taken in flight-
nets, viz. : Wigeon, curlew, knots, plover,
16

SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN

stints, and larks. A flock of geese or ducks in
flight may burst the net or break it down,
though at times geese are taken despite their
strength and weight. Large birds captured in
the nets are sold at 25. apiece, and the small,
or 'half-birds,' as they are called, fetch from
bd. to 6j. a dozen, dealers reckoning four of
them as a couple.

Of the principal species of wild-fowl known
to resort to this county within comparatively
modern times, or still found there in proper
season, may be mentioned the Whooper and the
Bewick swans — more especially during the
prevalence of hard weather accompanied by
easterly winds. The Polish and Mute swans
are said to have been seen in the county.
Naturalists hesitate to accept the latter as truly
feral examples, having regard to the number of
these birds kept in a state of semi-domestication.
Nevertheless they may well be wild birds, since
the Mute swan occurs in southern Sweden and
northern Germany, whence so many of our
migrants come.

Several kinds of wild geese have formerly
existed or are now found in the county. Yar-
rell states in his History of British Birds, pub-
lished in 1843, that in former days the Grey lag
was common in the fens throughout the whole
year ; these were driven away by drainage and
cultivation, and have long since ceased to breed
there. The remaining varieties of wild geese
frequently or rarely seen are the Bean, Pink-
footed, White - fronted, Bernicle, Brent, Cana-
dian, and Egyptian Goose. Of these the
commonest species at the present day is un-
doubtedly the pink-footed. One strong gathering
of these birds has long made the islands and mud
banks of the Upper Humber its winter quarters.
The writer has had in view at one time at least
4,000 birds — their number, however, fluctuates
year by year, varying, no doubt, in accordance
with the character of the breeding season in the
north whence they come to us, the nature of the
-weather, and possibly the direction of the wind at
the migration season ; as also with the abundance
or scarcity of suitable food. Pink-footed geese
are inordinately fond of grain, especially barley,
and may be seen gleaning the great barley
stubbles on the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire
wolds — the first-mentioned range of hills being
their chief feeding ground. It has been noticed
that the vanguard of the migratory flights arrives
in the Humber district with unfailing regularity
about 25 September ; the main body comes
towards the middle of October and stays till
about March, the laggards departing towards
the end of the latter month or the beginning of
April. Next, in respect of number, comes the
brent goose, a marine species that seldom or
never strays away from salt water. Brents, or
black geese as the fishermen and punt-gunners
of the coast term these birds, are found on the
Wash ^nd in smaller quantity upon the lower

Humber. The bernicle goose is also to be seen
on rare occasions in both of these districts.
In Lincolnshire the bean goose and the white-
fronted goose are usually found feeding upon the
inland marsh grasses. As a rule only small
gaggles of either species are seen, and their
visits are not by any means frequent. As both
Canadian and Egyptian geese are kept in semi-
domestication in England and Scotland it is
always doubtful whether the rare examples of
these birds that have been found in Lincolnshire
were really wild or had merely escaped from
some ornamental water. For instance, the large
Canadian goose is kept by the Earl of Leicester
at Holkham Park, North Norfolk, and these
birds occasionally visit the Wash.

Of the ducks now found or known to have
formerly existed in Lincolnshire may be enume-
rated : — The sheldrake, which is fairly common
along the coast and in the Wash, and breeds in
some numbers in the rabbit burrows in the sand
dunes stretching northwards from Gibraltar
Point ; the common wild duck, still widely
dispersed throughout the county, more especially
in the fen district and along the inland and
saline marshes of the lengthy coast-line. In
Lincolnshire the number of native-bred wild
ducks seems to have increased since the passing
of the Wild Birds' Protection Act of 1880 ; but
nesting as they do on unpreserved lands, they are
the prey of fox, stoat, rat, carrion-crow, rook,
and other natural foes. The shoveller, garganey,
and teal also breed in the county. The last is
the most numerous of the three, the garganey
being the rarest. It is probable that the gadv/all
nests in the county, and although the writer
cannot point to any sufficiently authenticated
instance, he has met with this bird when
shooting in August. Of ducks not known to
nest in Lincolnshire, but resorting thither in
winter, may be mentioned: — Wigeon, numerous
on the Wash and fairly plentiful in the Humber
district ; pintail, pochard, tufted duck, scaup
duck, long-tailed duck (rare) ; golden-eye ;
common scoter ; velvet scoter (rare) ; and
eider-duck, also rather rare.

The wading birds of general interest to wild-
fowler or naturalist are : — The curlew, whimbrel
or half-curlew (curlew jack it is called in south
Lincolnshire), golden plover, grey plover, lap-
wing, ringed plover, knot, oyster-catcher or ' Sea-
pie,' turnstone, bar-tailed godwit, black-tailed
godwit, greenshank, common redshank, ruff and
reeve, grey phalarope, sanderling, dunlin, &c.
There are also woodcock and the three snipe —
the great, common, and jack snipe. In early
days the great bustard, little bustard (a casual
visitor), and bittern belonged, more or less, to
this county.

In spite of the changes brought about by long
years of drainage and cultivation which, together
with increased population, has altered the whole
aspect of the fen district, gradually reducing the

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

number of birds, there are still many places in
Lincolnshire where wild-fowl are fairly plentiful,
and both shore-shooters and punt-gunners in the
Wash and at various points round the coast still
ply their trade, though recent mild winters have
not been favourable to its successful prosecution.
The shore-shooter has great opportunities on the
flat shores of the Wash, especially in the vicinity
of Gibraltar Point near Wainfleet, and along
the Friskney flats ; as also at Freiston Shore and
the Kirton-Skeldyke and Fosdyke marshes. On
the northern coast, in the estuary of the Humber,
the shoulder-gunner and the punt-gunner often
obtain good sport, for wild ducks, wigeon,

curlew, and plover are tolerably plentiful.
Grey geese, as before remarked, come every
autumn to the upper Humber, and at points
on both the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire shores
these birds are constantly seen, though few,
comparatively, are shot. In all districts of
Lincolnshire, however, as in other parts of the
country, the wild-fowler is now more depen-
dent upon the advent of migratory fowl than
was the case one hundred years ago. The
reclamation of land and the advancing tide
of civilization have driven away many species
that formerly remained practically the whole
year round.

COURSING

The large enclosures and low fences of Lin-
colnshire are peculiarly favourable to coursing,
and the sport has flourished in the county for a
long period. The first meeting of which re-
cord ^ exists is that of Louth, some 30 miles from
Lincoln. In the year 1806 Mr. George Chaplin,
residing at Tathwell, ' being an amateur of
coursing, and keeping greyhounds,' agreed to
furnish the ground required for a coursing meet-
ing by a number of gentlemen who proposed to
form a club, to be called the Louth Coursing
Society. Mr. Chaplin held the deputations of
his relations' manors of Hangham, Tathwell,
Raithby, and Hallington, all connected and lying
round his residence, also the deputation of
Withcall, the property of Lord Gwydyr, extend-
ing over 3,000 acres and unenclosed save by a
boundary fence. At first two meetings were held
annually, but subsequently one was abandoned,
the other taking place on the third Monday in
November. The ground was principally arable
land, the fields being very spacious, extending from
100 to 300 acres, and what few fences occurred
consisted of posts and rails or sheep hurdles. The
Withcall ground was the most extensive, and
there the cup courses were run. The Coursing
Manual adds that ' The sport in general is ex-
cellent, and the hares are stout and in abundance.'
The coursing days were Tuesday, Thursday, and
Saturday. The prizes were : — A cup worth
fifty sovereigns, with ;^iO to the second dog, and
three sweepstakes of four brace of dogs each, and
two sovereigns each nomination. Amongst the
forty members of this club were the Rev. Francis
Best ; Messrs. Charles, George, and Richard
Chaplin ; Colonel Elmhirst, Sir Charles Kent,
Sir B. Grayham, Earl of Marlborough, Messrs.
G. F. Heneage, M.P., Hassell, Hoskins, and
Bartholomew. After some years a change was
made and coursing took place on three consecu-
tive days instead of on alternate days as originally
arranged. On 24, 25, and 26 November, 1840,

' Goodlake, Coursers' Manual, 1828.

a sixty-four dog stakes called the Great St. Leger
was run in addition to the Cup and Sovereign
Stakes for 16 greyhounds, the Derby and the
Oaks and the Withcall All Aged Stakes. Soon
after this date or early in the fifties the club
must have ceased to exist, as no meetings are
recorded. Several smaller meetings, however,
such as Wainfleet, Eastville, &c., were held in
the neighbourhood.

The Sleaford meeting, established in 1885,
is held on the Bristol estate close to the town of
Sleaford, and on land principally in the occupa-
tion of Mr. Fred Ward. After that of 1900
it fell into abeyance, but was revived, a suc-
cessful meeting having been held in 1905.
Previous to the establishment of the Sleaford
Club some very successful meetings were held
on the Blankney estate by permission of Mr.
H. Chaplin and his tenants. The latter were
revived in 1904 under the name of the Blankney,
Boothby, and Navenby meeting. The first
fixture proved somewhat disappointing owing to
the scarcity of entries. The second held on 1 3 and
14 November, 1905, was a great success, full
entries being received for four sixteen-dog stakes
and three smaller ones. A feature of this meet-
ing was the abundance of hares. When all the
courses had been run, hares enough were seen
to have run the meeting right through again.
Cups and trophies were presented to the winners
of the three principal stakes in addition to the
prize money.

There was a capital entry for the Sleaford
revived meeting held on 10 and 1 1 October, 1905,
the last meeting being in 1 900. Mr. F. Ward and
his son took the management of the drives, the
coursing being held on lands occupied by them,
hares ran quite in their old form and afforded
excellent trials. Cups and other trophies were
also added to four of the stakes, and all the trials
were run ofF by one o'clock on the second day.
Mr. G. R. Lee of Sleaford, in a letter to the
writer says, ' I think, speaking without prejudice,
the best meetings we ever had in I^incolnshire

518

SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN

were held at Spalding, good management, good
hares, good entries, and big attendances. They,
too, have had a year or two's rest, and are hold-
ing a revival this year (1906) late in October.
The land is all that could be desired, and the
owners, Messrs. J. Ward, S. and G. Freir,
W. Banks, and T. Mawby, vie with each other
in promoting the sport.' Forty years ago the
Heckington Fen meeting was inaugurated by
Mr. B. Smith, and ran over the famous ' Six Hun-
dreds' estate.' For several seasons it was well pa-
tronized . Five years ago a very successful attempt
was made to revive this old meeting, which lasted
tor two seasons. Messrs. G. Godson and J. Greet-
ham provided the land and hares. There has,
however, been no meeting for the last three
years.

Ewerby, after four or five successful meetings,
was given up owing to the objections of the late
Lord Winchilsea. Several other smaller meet-
ings existed at this time during the lapse of the
Sleaford meeting, that of Billinsborough taking
place over the lands which had served the Slea-
ford coursers on the Marquess of Bristol's estate.

The first Brigg meeting probably occurred in

the late 'sixties ; it flourished during the sub-
sequent decade and was much frequented by
coursers from Northumberland. The fixture fell
into abeyance for a time, but was revived in
1892, when after a postponement — compelled by
frost — a very successful meeting was held on
14—15 December over the lands of Mr.
Astley Corbett, who had strictly preserved the
hares over his carrs. Sir John Astley, as in
former days, took the chair at the draw on the
night previous to the coursing. The Brigg
meeting was under the patronage and by per-
mission of the late Sir John Astley, Lady
Astley, who was a fine horsewoman, also taking
great interest in the sport.

Another meeting, long since abandoned, was
that of Barton on Humber : this was an im-
portant fixture in the early 'forties, providing
three days' sport on the estate of Mr. Charles
Winn of Appleby. The chief event was the
St. Leger Stak s, which in the season 1840—41
brought an entry of 38 dogs. Captain Daintrees'
famous King Cob proving the winner. The
ground and hares were equal to any in the
kingdom.

ANGLING

The principal rivers in the county other than
the Humber are the Trent and Welland.
Others of fair size are the Witham, Nene,
Ancholme, Bain, and Glen ; there are smaller
streams such as the Lud, Lymn, Eau, Rase, and
Slea, and various natural brooks. An old rhyme
says : —

Ankolme eels and Witham pike,

In all England are nane syke.

In the Trent the tidal bore rushes up the river
with great force, and many boating fatalities have
been caused by it from Gainsborough downwards.
Salmon ascend the Trent, Ouse, and their tribu-
taries to spawn ; but it is almost notorious that a
salmon has never been caught in the Trent with
the fly ; the fish is occasionally taken with a
spinning bait, generally artificial ; and sometimes
with worm. An old professional angler, Charlie
Hudson of Dunham, who for thirty years or more
fished for carp-bream and barbel at Dunham
Dubbs, caught fourteen salmon in the Trent
with worm during his angling career, which
closed with his death in 1889. Angling in the
Ancholme only begins at the navigable portion at
Bishop Bridge. The waters of this river, which are
somewhat sluggish, contain trout, tench, perch,
roach, bream (common and white), rudd, dace, king
carp, gudgeon, eels, bleak, tommy ruffe, flounder,
and burbot or eel pout. Bishop Bridge, Brandy-
wath. Sandhills, Engine House (all above Brigg),
Coal Dyke End, Appleby Carrs, Horkstow
Bridge, and Ferriby Sluice, are favourite places

for anglers, to whom licences are granted on
payment. Stringent regulations as to fishing
are in force. There are many miles of spawning
ground in the tributary streams. The commis-
sioners have re-stocked the river annually since
1888, from which time till 1905, 27,500 trout,
2,163 king carp, 9,662 tench, and 2,825 """dd
have been turned into it. Large quantities
of roach and bream taken from the cominis-
sioners' own drains (which may not be fished)
have also been turned in. Tench and rudd have
given the best results. The Ancholme is a fine
angling river, and all species of fish attain a good
size. Very good catches of bream were made
during the summer of 1905, individual baskets
of 30 lb. and 40 lb. being taken. Eleven mem-
bers of Wilson's Coopers' Angling Club of Hull
killed 1131b. in a match; top weight 241b.
Worksop's Tradesmen's Club, twenty-six mem-
bers, in four hours, 1301b.; top weight over
21 lb. Hand-in-Hand Club, Hull, top weight
191b. in one match and 10 lb. in another.
Boston maybe called the metropolis of the angler
for coarse fish. Five or six years ago 6,000
people from Sheffield were expected at Boston to
spend the week-end. Foremost stands the
Witham, which gives excellent sport throughout
the twenty-one miles from Bardney to Boston.
Roach and tench abound, and some of the finest
bream in England are taken here. In 1 90 1 one
weighing 7^ lb. was caught, and bream scaling
6 lb. have been fairly common during the last
two or three years ; many catches of from 2 to

519

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

3 stones per day by one rod have been made
during the same period. Heavy catches of roach
are constantly made, and occasionally a fish of
2 lb. is taken. Tench are fairly plentiful and
are sometimes taken up to 4^ lb., but he who
lands one of 3^ lb. is fortunate. Rudd are not
plentiful, but during the 1905 season two
weighing respectively 3 lb. 6 oz. and 3 lb. 2 oz.
were killed. Dace are very scarce in this length
of the river. Pike are plentiful and large ;
several of 1 6 lb. and 1 7 lb. have been captured
within recent years, and fish of 20 lb. are
recorded. The South Forty Foot drain is one
of the many watercourses made to drain the fens.
The principal fish are roach, perch, tench, pike,
and bream, the last being more generally found
within a couple of miles of Boston. Roach are
abundant, catches of from I to 2 stones being
fairly common. Pike also were plentiful at one
time, but now a fish of 10 lb. or 12 lb. is con-
sidered a good one. The North Forty Foot
drain is much narrower and shallower than the
' South,' which it joins at Boston. Good-sized
roach and tench are caught, and also a few
nice pike. In the small Gill Syke drain,
a Boston angler once caught 52 lb. weight of
pike in four hours. The Hob Hole drain
for the first two or three miles of its course
is very shallow and somewhat weedy, but from
Its confluence with Bell-water at Midville to
the Pumping Engine Station at Old Leake (two-
and-a-half to three miles) it contains a great
quantity of bream, roach, and perch. Pike and
tench are fairly numerous. On 22 January,
1902, the writer caught at the junction of
Bell-water and Hob Hole two well-con-
ditioned tench of 2f lb. and 2^ lb., and a fellow-
angler one of 2 J lb. The largest pike captured
in ' Hob Hole ' of recent years weighed about
1 6 lb. Many good bags of bream are made, but
in size they compare unfavourably with the
Witham bream. Of late years great damage
was done by the admission of salt water
through defective doors at the lower end ;
many fish were killed, and others were driven
to the upper reaches. The doors have since
been repaired. The remarks on fishing in the
Hob Hole drain for the most part apply also
to the Bell-water drain, which starts five miles
away at Thorpe Culvert. For about a mile
from its junction with the Hob Hole drain the
fishing is very good. When the pumping
engine at Old Leake is working, the depth both
of this drain and Hob Hole is lowered, and
it is then almost useless to fish for anything
but perch, as the water runs so rapidly. A well-
scoured cock-spur worm floated under the
bridge near the Duke of Wellington Inn will
generally secure a good basket of perch, which
run up to 2^ lb. The Mount Pleasant drain
flows from Mount Pleasant village to Cowbridge
(two miles from Boston) ; it abounds with roach,
and there are some bream. Though the water

is fished heavily throughout the season it in-
variably gives good sport with roach. Miles of
small and shallow drains serve as spawning
grounds for the fish in Mount Pleasant. The
East Fen catchwater drain affords, in some
respects, marvellous fishing. Very shallow —
varying from 1 5 in. to 2 ft. — it abounds with
fine roach, large bream and tench, and con-
tains a few good-sized pike and enormous eels.
Opposite Dovecote Farm the writer has taken
2^ stones weight of bream, roach, and tench,
in one day's angling, and twenty-one roach
weighing 20 lb. were once caught at the
Iron Bridge. The tench, though not real golden
tench, are very golden in colour, and run
from 2 lb. to 3^ lb. A short distance from
' The Poplars,' below Stickford, there is a
stanch over which another drain runs, and below
the stanch are a great quantity of fine dace.
East Fen catchwater drain joins the West Fen
catchwater drain nearly two miles to the north-
north-west of Sibsey church ; the combined
drains thence flowing southwards are not worth
attention from anglers. Salmon, trout, and
grayling are entirely absent from the waters about
Boston. In the spring, sea trout come up the
Witham as far as the Grand Sluice at Boston,
but are seldom caught.

The Lymn, popularly known as the Steeping
river, for some miles below its source is strictly
preserved, and trout are numerous. In the
reaches above Partney Mill the stream widens
and forms the mill-dam. From above the mill,
nearly as far as the rifle butts, are a few trout,
which, however, seldom rise to the fly. There
are great quantities of fine dace, gudgeon,
numerous but generally small, and a few fair-
sized roach. The mill-pit is preserved, as also is
the stream nearly as far as Halton Holegate.
After passing under the railway line (Spilsby and
Firsby branch) the stream becomes straighter and
more resembles a drain. In these lower reaches,
particularly at the bridges, roach abound in great
numbers, and there are also a few dace and
gudgeon. During the winter months pike, from

2 lb. to 6 lb., resort to the deep scours under the
bridges. In the winter of 1 90 1— 2 the writer
and a fellow-angler caught with live bait on two
days nine and twenty-two pike respectively. The
two largest weighed 5f lb. and 5 lb. The roach
at the bridges named run to a great size, but it is
useless to fish there except on the day after a heavy
rain has caused a rapid rise of the river. Numbers
of I lb. roach are taken in a catch weighing 2 cr

3 stones; in the winter of 1903-4, at Clough
Bridge, eight roach weighing 1 1 lb. 12 oz. were
taken. At Thorpe Culvert, opposite the inn,
there is a pool containing both pike and roach, in
which the writer has caught 3 stones of roach in
one day. On the far side of the Steeping river
at Thorpe Culvert large dace and fair-sized perch
are caught. Below Wainfleet the river widens
and deepens ; in July, August, and September

520

SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN

the reaches there are fished almost entirely to the
exclusion of the parts above Thorpe Culvert.
Pike up to 12 lb. have been caught occasionally,
but they are rare. Three or four years ago a
large disused brick-pit near Thorpe Culvert
station was pumped out, and many perch up to
4 lb. in weight and eels of 7 lb. and 8 lb. were
secured.

The angling waters near Lincoln are (i)
Upper (river) Witham, from Witham village to
Brayford water in the city ; (2) Lower Witham,
Brayford to Tattershall Bridge ; (3) Old Witham,
from the Stanch (Fiskerton pumping-engine) to
Bardney Railway Bridge ; (4) the Fosdyke
Canal, from the Trent at Torksey to Brayford ;
(5) Sincil drain, from the Witham near Boultham
to Bardney Railway Bridge ; (6) North Delph
drain, from Lincoln to Fiskerton pumping-engine ;
(7) the Barlings river, from Rand to the old River
Witham. The fishing rights of all these, which
contain roach, bream, pike, perch, and eels, also
a few rudd, are leased to the Lincoln Angling
Association. Nos. I, 3, and 7 contain chub and
dace ; in Nos. 2, 4, 5, and 6 there are a few dace ;
Nos. I, 2, 3, 4, and 7 contain tench ; No. 7 a
few trout ; Nos. i, 2, 3 and 7, gudgeon in small
numbers. There is a trout stream at Scopwick
owned by Lord Londesborough. There are also
several private lakes and large sheets of water in
the near neighbourhood of Lincoln.

The Lud contains a great number of trout,
but a pound fish is exceptional until the mill-dam
at the entrance to Hubbards Hills is reached ;
there they are occasionally caught up to 2 lb.
The deep lower dam near Bridge Street also
holds fine trout. The riparian owners hold the
fishing rights. Of late years there has been a
good deal of poaching in Hubbards Hills Valley.
It is feared most of the coarse fish at the
Louth end of the Louth and Tetney Canal
have been killled by the washings of casks
used in a weed-killing business, or by the
drainage from Louth. Nowadays, anglers
seldom fish before they reach Alvingham ; before
the pollution of the water the ponds below
Ticklepenny Lock furnished the best roach and
gudgeon fishing in the canal. The writer several
times secured baskets of roach up to 2 stones in
weight, and from forty to eighty fine gudgeon
in addition. Of recent years the commissioners
have added bream and king carp. The latter
have grown rapidly. A trout stream also runs
from Legbourne, about three miles from Louth,
to Carlton. The Louth Angling Association has
the fishing rights just below Legbourne. At
Carlton the fishing is very good, the rights being
in the hands of the riparian owners. In the
neighbourhood of I^outh there are several large
sheets of water in private grounds ; these contain
tench, roach, bream, pike, and perch.

About the year 1904 the Market Rasen
Angling Club for coarse fishing was formed. The
Market Rasen Angling Association was formed
2 52

in 1888 to preserve and improve the trout in the
River Rase, and to stock with trout any suitable
waters that could be acquired. The River Rase
holds a fair number of trout, and large quantities of
dace and gudgeon, also eels ; below West Rasen
mill occasional pike and perch occur. The right
of fishing in the Rase, except in the parish of
Tealby, belongs to the Angling Association.
Among other waters in the district are Willing-
ham Ponds, owned by Captain Barnc ; these
used to contain perch and very large quantities of
roach up to J lb., but when the Angling Associa-
tion acquired these ponds the coarse fish were
cleared out. The trout fishing is very good, the
stock being artificially maintained. Tealby
Lakes, owned by Mr. E. T. D'Eyncourt, of
Bayons Manor, Tealby, contain fine carp, large
quantities of silver bream, roach, and perch. In
the upper four miles or so of the Rase are excel-
lent spawning grounds, but below Market Rasen
the deep agricultural draining, put in some years
ago, spoiled the gravel beds. Trout therefore
spawn only in the upper part. Dace and gudgeon
breed freely. Re-stocking is carried out by the
Association in the Rase and the Willingham
ponds, many thousand trout having been turned in
during the past few years. The common indi-
genous trout does best in the stream, but for the
ponds it is difficult to say which species is the
most suitable. Loch Levens do not thrive.
Trout have been taken from the Rase up to
4 lb. A fario of 5 J lb. was killed at Stainton le
Vale by Mr. A. J. Tillett, and trout of 3^^ lb.
and 3 lb. 3 oz. have been killed with minnow.
Scores of trout from I lb. to 2 lb. have been
taken. The best day's catch of trout re-
corded is sixty-three, all on the cow-dung fly.
The mayfly has not been seen in the dis-
trict for some years. The best roach caught
in the district weighed 1^ lb. The best
catch of roach with one fly — thirty-seven in one
hour. Some prosecutions a few years ago prac-
tically stamped out poaching in the Market
Rasen district. A few herons at West Rasen
are the worst fish foes ; an otter was killed at
Willingham four years ago.

The Bain, on which Horncastle stands, is an
ideal trout stream, especially in the 3^ miles
below the town, which is preserved by the Horn-
castle Angling Association. There are trout
only below the rifle butts, principally fario and
Loch Leven. Thanks to the abundant food —
caddis, fresh-water shrimps, and snails — the fish
attain a large size ; one trout just under 6^ lb.,
three over 4.^, and scores over 3 lb., have been
taken. Formerly there were grayling, but these
have entirely disappeared. In the lower reaches
there are large chub, some splendid dace, and
numerous gudgeon. Fly and artificial minnow
are the only permissible trout lures. For many
miles north of Horncastle the angling rights are
in the hands of private owners. The fish are
principally trout, though coarse fish, chiefly dace,
I 66

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

occur here and there. Numerous becks and
rivulets run into the main stream, and these con-
stitute splendid breeding-places. The Bain in its
course from Horncastle to Coningsby was, in
past times, cut in no less than five places to make
it navigable : the first cut being about 3^ miles
below Horncastle. Up to eight or nine years ago
the ponds between the locks were full of coarse
fish, principally pike, perch, roach and gudgeon,
but the water is now too low for angling, most
of the lock doors having fallen to ruin ; and of
late years the waters have been frequently run ofF
and hundreds of thousands of fish destroyed. The
lower reaches of Haltham and Kirkby-on-Bain
are leased by Sheffield anglers ; there are still
good fish in these parts, but not a tithe of
the number in old times. At Coningsby mill-
pit are a few large bream. Between Coningsby
and Tattershall the writer has caught chub up to
3 lb., but there are many much heavier. The
roach frequently weigh from f lb. to I lb ; before
the navigation became derelict a catch of 10 lb.
to 20 lb. of roach was often made in the evening,
and the capture of a dozen or more pike in an
afternoon was not uncommon. Quite recently
an angler caught twenty-one chub, the smallest
weighing I lb. The Association carried on
pisciculture for years, but the enterprise proved
only partly successful and was given up ; year-
lings are now purchased, and during the 1905
season 800 were placed in the river.

Revesby Reservoir contains roach, bream,
perch, pike, and eels. It is supplied from a small
spring rising at Asgarby, three miles away, and
in its course gathers surface water from the foot
of the Wold Hills. The reservoir consists of two
lakes of thirty-eight and four acres respectively,
connected only by a six-inch overflow pipe.
The largest fish recorded is a 24-lb. pike, caught
by the Hon. Mrs. Edward Stanhope. Several
pike weighing 15 lb. and upwards have been
killed. At Holbeck Hall, the residence and pro-
perty of Mr. F. S. Heywood, are two lakes of
about five or six acres, fed by a spring. The
lakes were cleaned out a few years since and
■stocked with rainbow trout, which have thriven
remarkably well. It is not unusual to catch
them of from 4 lb. to 5 lb. in weight. The fish-
ing is private.

The Fresh ney, which rises in a deep hollow
beside the Barton Street, and flows into the old
dock at Grimsby, provides sport with the fly. Its
flow for three miles above Laceby is not infre-
^^uently broken for a year or more, depending as
it does to a great extent on the winter rainfall.
In normal years, about April, it breaks out
through many fissures ; and in some seasons, at the
■spring-head, Welbeck, the water forms a pond of
20 or 25 yds. across, in which trout rise, whilst
in other seasons it is perfectly dry. The stream
;above Laceby is only worth fishing in very wet
seasons, when abundant water brings the trout
uip from below the village. In years gone by the

writer has made many heavy bags of trout in this
portion, the best weighing from i lb. up to nearly

2 lb. ; he has known them caught (by tickling)
up to 4 lb. From the boundary of the late
Mr. W. R. Marshall's property downwards, the
fishing rights are held by the Freshney Fishing
Club. Its numerous gravel beds make it a very
fine breeding river, but there was great destruc-
tion of trout during 1905, when the river was
cleaned out. Sixteen or eighteen years ago
5,000 Loch Leven yearlings were placed in the
stream, but they are now indistinguishable from
the indigenous trout. In a dry season particu-
larly, a great quantity of the larger trout find
their way down to the various docks at Grimsby.
They are occasionally caught weighing from 2 lb.
to 5 lb. by anglers for smelts and whiting, which
abound in the docks during August and Sep-
tember. Below Laceby, down to the Great
Central Railway, a distance of about three miles,
trout up to 2 lb. 5 oz. have been caught with
the fly, but this is exceptional. Under the rail-
way bridge, where worm-fishing is permitted, a
trout of 3 lb. 5 oz., and another of 4 lb. have
been caught within the last two years. An old
angler (now dead), resident at Laceby, once
caught with worm 55 j brace of trout in a large
bend in the stream near the wood below the
hunting bridge. This was before the rormation
of the Freshney Fishing Club. The natural
mayfly is not known on the stream. For many
years in the lower reaches there were a great
many roach, some of nearly 2 lb. Another trout
stream near Grimsby is the Waithe Beck.
The Rev. M. G. Watkins, formerly a rector
of Barnoldby le Beck, has described this brook in
his work. In the Country (1883). Trout up to

3 lb. have been caught in the Waithe ; but dry
seasons and the depredations of otters have greatly
reduced the number of trout. Within the last
few years several thousands of yearlings and fry
have been turned 'into it, but the results as
regards fry are not encouraging. The riparian
owners hold the fishing rights. In the lower
reaches of the stream there are fine dace weigh-
ing up to 14 oz., some roach, and many very
large gudgeon. A stream which rises near
Keelby, about eight miles from Grimsby, flowing
thence past Stallingborough to the Humber,
contains a few trout in the deep water above the
sheep wash near Little London, 45- miles
from Grimsby. Another trout stream, rising in
one of the Earl of Yarborough's woods near the
Great Central Railway line between Habrough
and Brocklesby stations, still contains some fine
trout near East Halton. The stream is sluggish
and quite unsuitable for fly-fishing. There are
some gudgeon in the stream about Thornton
Abbey. The last seven miles of the Louth and
Tetney canal provide excellent coarse fishing,
particularly with roach, which have been caught

' up to I lb. 1 2 oz. A perch, weighing 3^^ lb.,
was once caught there. Perch of from 2 lb.

522

SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN

upwards are caught in this length of the canal.
Tench, bream, and king carp have been added of
recent years ; eels abound, also gudgeon, and a
few small pike. The favourite resorts in this
length of the canal are Austen Fen, Firebeacon,
Fulstow Bridge, Fulstow Drain End, and
Thoresby Bridge. By the roadside, on the way
from North Thoresby station to Thoresby
Bridge, are the pits known as ' Butts Ponds ' —
the one farthest from the road contains very large
king carp ; the other two, pike, tench, roach,
perch, and eels. The writer, with a friend, a
few years ago caught in the smallest pond, in two
days, sixty-one tench of good size. The fishing
is now reserved by the owner. On the Earl of
Yarborough's Brocklesby estate are some very
fine sheets of water, ' Lambert Hill ' in particular,
containing large carp. Newsham Lake contains
fine roach and very large pike. The best fishing,
however, is in Croxby Pond, ten miles from
Grimsby. It is about half a mile long, and from
80 to 100 yds. wide, and the depth seldom
reaches 2 ft. It contains trout, tench, perch and
enormous carp, certainly up to 30 lb. in weight.
In recent years they have been caught up to
20 lb. Mr. Overbeck, of Grimsby, four or five
years ago hooked one at 1 1 a.m., and played it
until 4.30 p.m., when he lost it ; he has caught
in one day's fishing there three carp totalling
over 42 lb., the largest 17 lb. 8 oz.

At New Holland, on the Great Central line
from Grimsby, are several brick-pits — one or
two communicate with the Humber by drain or
delph up which the tide flows at high water ; sea
trout up to 2^ lb. in weight have been caught in
these brick-pits — one season a fine salmon remained
there for several months. At Thoresway near
Croxby are ' Black Springs ' and the Manor
Farm reservoir. The fish in Black Springs are
reputed the very best for ' Sport, Colour, Con-
dition and the Pot.'

The Slea joins the Witham at Chapel Hill
about twelve miles above Boston. During the
years 1903-4-5 trout of great size were caught
on the mayfly, viz.: gib., 7I lb., 61b. and
several of 5 lb., the general run of fish, how-
ever, except when the mayfly is ' out,' is quite
normal. Five years ago the writer fishing the
water known as the Papers Mills, just outside
the town, took with the fly in a few hours
twenty brace of trout, none over 10 oz. From
the Haverholm Lock to Cobbler's Lock some
excellent dace fishing can be had, and from
Cobbler's Lock to its junction with the Witham
the roach and pike fishing is very good. Two
anglers in February, 1905, killed in one day ten
pike of the aggregate weight of 77 lb., the
largest being loj lb. In this stretch, roach of
from if lb. to 2 lb. are frequently taken, and a
bag of 16 lb. to 20 lb. in weight is not un-
common. From a little above South Kyme to
the Witham, a distance of seven or eight miles,
the fishing is practically free. Ashby de la

Launde pond, about seven miles from Sleaford,
belonging to Captain Reeve-King, contains some
large carp ; the weight of the largest caught is
9 lb.

In the neighbourhood of Stamford the Wel-
land contains pike, perch, roach, bream, chub,
tench, and dace. Pike up to 17 lb. have been
caught, and bream up to 7 lb., the principal
bait for the latter being worm. Standing on the
town bridge early on a spring morning the river
appears a black mass of moving bream. Through
the town of Stamford itself, and for nearly a
mile below, the fishing in the Welland is entirely
free. In the neighbourhood of Tallington the
Earl of Lindsay has the fishing rights. Permits
are sparingly granted. The Guash (local ' Wash ')
rises in Rutland and joins the Welland at
Newstead, about half a mile below Stamford. It
contains trout and grayling, the latter having
been introduced about 1895. It is a lovely
little stream flowing over gravel. Trout up to
4 lb. 10 oz. have recently been taken, and gray-
ling up to i^lb. The Stamford Anghng Asso-
ciation holds the fishing rights for about eight
miles on the Welland and six miles (in Rutland
and Lincolnshire) on the Guash, from the
Marquess of Exeter, and re-stocks this stream
with trout and grayling. The first lot of 5,000
grayling fry have done so well that further sup-
plies are unnecessary. In 1 904 one member
took twenty-four brace of trout and ninety-three
grayling during the season. The Fishery Club of
Spalding has the fishing rights over the North
Drove, the South Drove, and the Counter
Drain. All these discharge into a basin at Pode
Hole, about two miles from Spalding, and drain
portions of Deeping St. Nicholas and Bourne.
The River Glen (about six miles) drains Pinch-
beck Fen and enters the Welland at Surfleet
reservoir. Pike, bream (silver), tench, perch,
roach, eels, and dace are the principal fish. The
Vernatt's drain contains some very fine dace.
On 14 March, 1905, two pike were caught by
Mr. H. J. Dennis of Spalding, weighing respec-
tively 20 lb. 2 oz. and 12 lb. 6 oz. In an
angling competition on 27 October, 1904, a
catch of roach weighing 53 lb. 8 oz. secured
first prize, and roach weighing 46 lb. 14 oz. the
second. An eel weighing 6 lb. 4 oz. is pre-
served by Mr. Seymour, its captor. The Wel-
land at Market Deeping contains large quantities
of fish of nearly all kinds except barbel, gray-
ling, and carp. A few trout are brought down
by floods from the Guash, which joins the Wel-
land near Uffington ; one of 6 lb. was taken in
March, 1905. From West Deeping, the Lincoln-
shire side down to Mr. Thorpe's mill belongs
to various owners. Below Mr. Thorpe's pre-
served fishing the right of angling through
Market Deeping and Deeping St. James down
to Kenulph's Stone, a distance of about six
miles, was purchased about thirty years ago from
the crown by nine gentlemen, who threw it

523

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

open to the public on payment of small fees. It
is no uncommon occurrence to take a stone
weight of roach and dace with the fly. Numbers
of pike are also killed. In the third week of
November, 1905, one of 16 lb. was captured.
On one day in October, 1904, an angler made a
basket of 4 stone, two or three of the fish ex-
ceeding ro lb. The very good fishing in the
New River at Crowland running into the Wel-
land (with its tributary drains) is preserved by an
angling society. There is very little poaching
in any portion of the Welland. In the upper
parts of the Glen river at Manthorpe, Wilsthorpe,
and Braceborough, the fishing rights of which
are held by a private syndicate, there are a few
nice trout. From Wilsthorpe to Gutheram,
the fishing is leased by the Bourne Angling
Association from Mr. T. M. Baxter, of Bourne,
who leases it as far as the Bourne Eau. This
river and the Glen are well stocked with pike,
perch, roach, and dace. Pike up to 10 and
1 2 lb. are frequently taken, and perch and roach
(the latter occasionally) up to 2 lb. Early in
the sixteenth century Queen Elizabeth granted
to one Presgrave the right of fishing in the
Glen * from the Ancient Stone which separates
the parishes of Thurlby and Bourne to
Gutheram Cote ' and in the Bourne Eau
'from St. Peter's Pool to the Glen.' This
right remained in the Presgrave family until
about 1895, when it was sold to Mr. T. M.
Baxter. The Forty Foot Drain ^ is exceed-
ingly well stocked with pike, tench, bream,
perch, roach and rudd. Pike up to 10 and 12 lb.
are frequently killed, and tench of 3 and 4 lb.
are now and again taken.

Grimsthorpe Lake (about forty acres), belong-
ing to the Earl of Ancaster, contains splendid
pike and tench. In March, 1903, an angler
landed sixteen pike, nine of which weighed
87^ lb., the heaviest being 1^^ and 14^ lb.
His companion caught twelve, eight of which
weighed over 70 lb. In March, 1905, the two
heaviest of a bag of seven weighed 18^ lb. and
1 2 lb. respectively. In September, 1 904, in one
day's fishing four ' tench weighing 4 lb., 3f lb.,
2^ lb. and 3J lb. were taken. Wytham Lake,
the property of Mr. W. L. Fenwick, covers
about two acres. It is well stocked with pike
and other coarse fish. Two years ago a carp of
29 lb. was found stranded on the side of the
lake. The same season a Bourne angler landed
a 19-lb. pike. Holywell Lake (three or four
acres) belonging to Colonel C. Birch-Reynardson
is we'll stocked with magnificent trout. The
Mere, Deeping St. James, consisting of some
old disused gravel-pits, covers twenty acres or more.
The pits are very deep and well stocked with
most kinds of coarse fish. Pike up to 30 lb.
have been taken.

' This is another section of the Forty Foot Drain
already referred to.

The River Witham about Grantham contains
very fine trout, roach, and dace, most of the
fishing being strictly preserved by the landowners.
In a dry summer the river may be crossed practic-
ally dryshod in places ; in the bends, however,
are deep holes, and there and under the banks
the fish lie. Large dace are killed chiefly — roach,
occasionally over i lb., chub, and pike, not very
large, are also taken. The artificial fly is not
used, but roach and dace are killed with natural
fly early in the season. The best of the chub
were practically cleared out by netting, before
this practice was stopped in 1905. The Gran-
tham and Nottingham canal is well stocked with
bream, tench, roach, rudd, perch, eels, and pike.
The Grantham Angling Association leases about
six miles of the water, and has for several years re-
stocked the canal. Denton reservoir, four
miles from Grantham, is one of its feeders.
Formerly a favourite angling resort, this has
been closed since 1904 owing to the scarcity of
water. Pike close upon 30 lb. in weight have
been caught in the reservoir, which also contains
the usual coarse fish. Syston Lake, at Syston
Park, and Denton Fishpond at Denton Park,
private waters preserved by the owners, contain
fine coarse fish.

The larger of the two lakes at Well Vale,
i^ miles from Alford, in a beautiful wooded
valley, contains fair pike ; there are also roach,
perch, eels, and tench. In the Withern Eau
there are numbers of trout, which at Belleau
run a good size ; there used to be a good
head of grayling, but these are now few.
Below Claythorpe, however, to Withern, about
three miles, grayling are plentiful, as also
are trout ; the former have been caught up
to 3 lb. ; the average is from I lb. to if lb.
The Withern Mill pit is the best portion
of the stream for grayling ; it also holds a few
small pike, a few trout up to 4 lb. in weight
and very large roach. The writer once landed
in five days thirty-four grayling, none under I lb.,
and some weighed if lb.; he has also several
times secured in a single day's fishing 3 stones of
fine roach. It is exceptional now for grayling
to be caught below the bridge, although in
former years they were occasionally taken two
and a half miles lower down. The Withern
Eau and the Guash are the only streams in
Lincolnshire that now hold grayling.

The Idle and Trent are the only natural
waters in the Isle of Axholme. The Idle con-
tains pike, perch, and roach in that portion of its
course, but it is a difficult river to fish, being fast
and generally very clear. The fishing rights are
held by a Sheffield Angling Association. Most
of the drain-heads where they join the Trent
are fishable at full tide ; bream are the fish
generally caught. Mr. Slater of Newark, spin-
ning for salmon in the water known as 'the
Gully' at Averham Weir, two miles above
Newark, played for three and a half hours a

524

SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN

sturgeon which he had foul hooked. The heaviest
sturgeon caught in the Newark district weighed
20 stones ; it was taken by fishermen when
* drawing ' for salmon. A few years afterwards
another was caught in a mill-dam almost in the
heart of Newark. The last sturgeon seen
locally in the Trent was shot near Muskham
bridge while swimming in low water. The
largest barbel captured of late years in the Trent
weighed 14^ lb, 'The Folly,' the ' Tawn '

and the ' Middle River ' contain perch, pike,
and roach, but being overgrown with weeds
they are not worthy the angler's attention. On
Keadby Canal the sloop traffic disturbs the
fishing. There are coarse fish, principally roach,
neither large nor numerous. Some Sheffield
anglers, two or three times a year, hold their
contests there, and these occasions see a line of
' pegged down ' anglers extending a distance of
two to three miles along the bank.

GOLF

Golf in Lincolnshire dates from the early
nineties, the moment of the ' Great Golf Revi-
val ', as it has been termed. In this county of
wold and dale, fen, marsh, moor and seashore, the
golf courses lie amid very varied surroundings.
The earlier clubs played the game in parks and on
commons, but the sand-dunes of the coast were
soon appropriated, and with increased member-
ship and means, the stronger clubs have moved
from indifferent to more suitable localities.

The first club established in the county was
the Burghley Park, formed at Stamford in October,
1890, principally on the initiative of Mr. Hubert
Eaton ; a nine -hole course being laid out by
permission of the Marquess of Exeter in the High
or Deer Park of Burghley House (actually situated
in Northamptonshire). The course is on good
turf, of capital length, with good greens, but the
comparative lack of hazards induced a move in
1892 to the pasture lands outside the park on the
Wothorpe road, where there were hedges, &c.
This course proving unsuitable, another move was
made after a season or two to the Waterloo Plain
in the Middle Park at Burghley. Difficulties in
connexion with grass-cutting, however, caused the
club to return in 1 900 to its original course in the
Deer Park. The membership is about seventy.

The Belton Park Club was instituted in
November, 1 890. The Rev. W. A. Purey Cust,
assisted by Mr. F. W. Thompson, was its chief
promoter. Lord Brownlow became president,
and a course was laid out in Belton Park, round
the villa. This was soon abandoned in favour
of the present nine-hole course, which has been
laid out with an eye to the beauties of its
surroundings. It is on sandy soil with fine
close turf; the greens are excellent and the
hazards numerous. A stream through the park is
crossed four times. There is a capital club-house
and the members number 1 08. The Ladies' Club,
playing over the same course, has a membership
of 100. Belton Park is the head quarters of the
Lincolnshire Ladies' County Club and many of
the inter-county matches are played here.

The most influential club in the county is that
of Lincoln, instituted in February, 1 8 9 1 . Among
the gentlemen who organized it were Messrs. A. H.
Leslie Melville, M. R. Waldo-Sibthorp, Robert
Swan, W. T. Toynbee, Rev. W, N. Usher, and

Mr. A. Shuttleworth. The last-named was
elected president, and has been a munificent
patron of the club. A nine-hole course was laid
out by Willie Park on the Carholme Common,
and a club-room was lent by the Race Committee.
In 1894 David Ay ton, the St. Andrews profes-
sional, was engaged and the course altered and
improved. In 1896 a club-house was built, the
course lengthened and further improved. The
club was strengthened in 1 90 1 by the adhesion
of the members of the South Park club who had
abandoned their course. Two years later new
links were adopted at Torksey, ten miles from
Lincoln and midway between Lincoln, Retford,
and Gainsborough. Seventy acres of perfect golf-
ing country were leased and a nine-hole course
was laid out by J. H. Taylor. Mr. A. Shuttle-
worth gave ;^i,ooo towards the new course and
club-house. Some ^^2,5 00 has been expended up
to the present (1906), when the question of mak-
ing a further nine holes is under consideration.
The course is upon what in geological language
is called ' ancient blown sand ' ; it is long and test-
ing with fine large greens ; the hazards are prin-
cipally large natural sand-bunkers and whins. A
professional tournament was played at the opening
in 1904, the scores being J. H. Taylor, 74, 75 ;
J. Braid, 75, 78. The club has made remarkable
progress since its move to Torksey. The mem-
bership is 250.

The Woodhall Spa Club was established in
March, 1 891, Dr. C. J. Williams and Mr. E. W.
Stokoe being the chief promoters. The first
course was on pasture land south of Woodhall
Spa, but in 1895 a very pleasant nine-hole course
was laid out, principally on the Spa Company's
land among the pine-woods. A club-house was
built in 1897, but five years later increased mem-
bership compelled a further move, and more suit-
able ground was sought. Mr. T. P. Stokoe, who
had had practically the whole management of the
club for some years, undertook the matter, and
with the assistance of Harry Vardon, he super-
vised the formation of a new course on a fine
stretch of sandy and heathery moor belonging to
Mr. S. V. Hotchkin, who furnished most of the
funds required. A course of eighteen holes was
laid out with great skill, and is now one of the
most charming in the country. The hazards are

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

sand-bunkers, heather-whins, and thin screens of
young fir trees. The holes vary in length from
133 to 530 yards, and play is possible at all
seasons. The new course was formally opened
by Lord Willoughby d'Eresby on 30 June, 1905,
when an open meeting was held and two pro-
fessional tournaments played. The leading scores
were as follows : — First day, H. Vardon, 69, J.
Braid, 73 ; J. H. Taylor, 73, T. Williamson, 75.
Second day, J. H. Taylor, 68, 72 = 140, J. Braid,
72, 68=140; H. Vardon, 76, 72 = 148, J.
White, 82, 85 = 167.

Clevedon House Social Club is run in connexion
with the golf club, which has 175 members.

The Lincoln South Park Club was formed in
October, 1893, principally on the initiative of
Mr. A. C. Newsum, Rev. H. J. Watney, and
Mr. J. H. Davies. The original course on the
south common was laid out by Mr. C. Pym. As
the membership grew, alterations and improve-
ments were constantly made, and a club-house was
built in 1897. Successful spring and autumn
meetings were held, and a challenge cup open to
the country attracted large entries. The course
was difficult to keep in order, owing to the nature
of the soil and the damage done to the greens by
horses and cattle, and in 1 90 1 the members,
numbering eighty, decided to close the links and
amalgamate with the Lincoln Club.

The Sempringham Abbey Club was established
in 1893. Messrs. B.Smith, T. Caswell, Lieut.-
Col. de Burton and Mr. A. G. Fletcher were
mainly instrumental in forming the club, and
the Earl of Ancaster became president. The
nine-hole course was laid out on undulating
pasture land and embraced the site of what was
formerly the Gilbertine monastery of Sempring-
ham. In 1904 the club was dissolved, most of
the seventy members joining the new Blankney
Park Club.

The Seacroft, originally the Skegness Club, was
instituted in April, 1899. A nine-hole course
was laid out on the sand-hills one mile south of
Skegness, on ground belonging to Mr. Massing-
berd Mundy. Mr. R. H. Ferguson practically
managed the club in its early days. In a pro-
fessional tournament at the opening, J. H. Taylor
made a record of 75, which stood for some seasons.
The Old Vine Hotel was the head quarters of
the club, and the members included a number of
fine players in Messrs. Ferguson, T. G. B.
Thomas, Lawrence Roper, and Dr. Carruthers.
The Skegness, Lincoln, and Belton Park clubs
were associated with the EastMidland Golf Union,
and Messrs Ferguson, W. L. de B. Thorold,
Rev. H. R. N. Ellison, and Mr. T. G. B. Thomas
played in the East Midland team which defeated
the Yorkshire team at Bulwell in 1898. Mr.
Ferguson also won the championship of the union
over the Nottingham course. In 1900 the club
was reorganized as a limited company, and the
name altered to the Seacroft Golf Club. Messrs.
F. Acton of Nottingham and T. Eastwood of

Derby were the principal promoters. Further
ground was secured and a fine eighteen - hole
course laid out by Willie Fernie. A club-house
was built in 1 904, and the course was rearranged
and improved in 1905. It is a first-class seaside
course of excellent length and sporting quality,
with fine greens. Members number 400.

The Grantham Club owes its inception to
Mr. A. E. Park, who learnt his golf as a boy at
Musselburgh, where he won Lord Hope's medal.
In association with Messrs. J. Lockhart, B. Bee-
son, A. J. Godfrey, and A. Shaw, he founded
the club in September, 1894, and laid out a sport-
ing nine-hole course on the Harrowby Hill, south-
east of the town. The membership soon rose to
seventy. The course was rearranged from time
to time until, in 1 903, the fields below the hills
were abandoned and a much improved course
was laid out by T. Williamson on the undulating
ground above. The turf is short and the hazards
are stone walls, quarries, and whins. There is
a small club-house.

The Grimsby and Cleethorpes Club dates from
October, 1894. Messrs. H. K. Bloomer, J. F.
Wintringham, J. Barker, and Dr. O. M. Booth
were the chief promoters. The course was laid
out on a fine stretch of turf, close to the sea,
south of Cleethorpes. The turf is of true sea-
side character and the nine holes are well arranged
and of good length. The greens are excellent,
and the hazards sand-bunkers. At the time of
writing (1906) the club has arranged with Lord
Carrington for the lease of an extensive adjoining
stretch of fine golfing ground in the direction of
Humberston, with the object of laying out an
eighteen-hole course. The members, who num-
ber 1 70, have a good club-house.

The Thonock Park Club was the third
Lincolnshire club instituted in 1894. The
course is situated in Sir Hickman Bacon's park,
a mile and a half from Gainsborough ; Sir H.
Bacon and Mr. P. A. Gamble were the founders
of the club. Willie Fernie of Troon remodelled
the links in 1899, and the nine holes are prettily
situated in the finely-wooded and undulating
park land. The turf is good though the soil is
rather heavy, the greens are excellent, and hazards
are sufficiently numerous. There are seventy
members.

A small club was formed at Brigg in 1897.
The course was on pasture land, but play was
impossible in the summer, and. the members after
a few seasons abandoned the ground and now
play with the Elsham Park Club.

The Barton-on-Humber Club was formed in
1899. The first course was laid out near the
' Blow Wells,' but was of indifferent character.
The present nine-hole course is between the Far
Ings and the Humber. The turf is fair and
the hazards principally hedges and dykes. The
membership is twenty.

The Louth Club, instituted in 1900, was
formed by Messrs. W. Allison, junr., E. H.

526

SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN

Cartwright, R. A. Fowler, and S. W. Marsden.
The nine-hole course lies on pasture land on the
farm of Mr. E. H. Cartwright at Keddington
Grange. The soil is heavy, but the greens are
good, and at their best in April and May. The
membership is seventy, and there is a small club-
house. Another club established in 1900 was
that of Holbeach, Dr. A. H. Atkin was the
chief promoter. The nine-hole course, on
pasture land close to the station, is not available
for play during the summer months. The
membership is about thirty. The Boston Club,
also formed in 1900, was organized by Mr. F. P.
Curtis, who became the first captain. The
course, of nine holes, on the east of the town, is
rather short but well provided with hazards.
The membership has grown to sixty. There is
no play in the summer months. The Spilsby
and District Golf Club was established in 1 90 1
by General Richardson, Mr. P. Robinson, and
Mr. H. Trinder. A sporting nine-hole course
was laid out by the river side at Partney, and the
membership soon rose to forty. The principal
hazards are whin bushes ; the greens are good.
The third seaside course in the county, that of
the Sutton-on-Sea Club, was opened in 1904.
It was laid out by Tom Williamson, the
Nottinghamshire Club's professional, on the sand-
hills a quarter of a mile from the town. There are
nine holes of sporting character and the hazards are
numerous. The membership now numbers 150.
The Elsham Club, which took the place of the
earlier established Brigg Club, was instituted in
1904 on the initiative of Rev. G. Lewthwaite.
The nine-hole course is in Elsham Park, the
property of Sir F. E. Astley Corbett, who has
been a good friend to the club. The turf is
good, with excellent greens, and the hazards are
principally whins. There are sixty members.
The Blankney Park Club, formed in 1904, owes
its existence to Lord Londesborough, who had
the course laid out by Archie Earl, the Lincoln
Club's professional, in the park surrounding
Blankney Hall. The Gaudin brothers. Snowball
and Earl, played the match at the opening ;
the best score was 77 by Snowball. The
nine-hole course is of good length on capital
turf, though the soil is very heavy ; good use
is made of the hazards and the greens are
well kept. The membership is about sixty.
The Sleaford Club is the most recently founded
Lincolnshire golf club. It was instituted in
April, 1905, through the efforts of Dr. Ewan.
The course of nine holes lies amid beautiful
surroundings at Rauceby, on the property of
General Sir Mildmay Willson, two miles from
.Sleaford. The soil is sandy and the turf good.
Hazards, principally sand-bunkers, are numerous.
There are about 1 00 members, who possess a
capital club-house.

Home and home county matches were played
by the Union in 1904 against the Nottingham-
shire Union of Golf Clubs. The first encounter

was on the Seacroft links, where Lincolnshire
won by fifteen matches to five. The return at
Hollinwell was won by Nottinghamshire by
thirteen matches to six. The following players
represented the Lincolnshire Union in one or
both matches : — Mr. R. H. Ferguson (Seacroft),
Mr. A. Wallace (Lincoln), Dr. J. Mathews
Duncan (Grimsby), Rev. H. R. N. Ellison
(Lincoln), Mr. B. C. Thompson (Belton Park),
Mr. H. K. Bloomer (Grimsby), Mr. A. H.
James (Woodhall), Dr. O. M. Booth (Grimsby),
Mr. J. F. Wintringham (Grimsby), Mr. W. J.
Cannon (Lincoln), Major Archdale (Elsham),
Mr. A. Thorpe (Elsham), Mr. R. Rothwell
(Grantham), and Mr. H. T. Cannon (Lincoln).
Others who may be reckoned county players
are : — Messrs. G. H. and H. G. Nevile (Oxford
University team 1900), Mr. F. C. Carr
(Grimsby), Mr. Stuart McRae (Belton Park),
Mr. W. E. Thompson (Belton Park), Mr. F.
Clements (Belton Park), Mr. S. Shaw (Grant-
ham), Mr. T. P. Stokoe (Woodhall Spa), Rev.
J. A. Beazley (Louth), Mr. W. P. Costobadie
(Woodhall Spa), Mr. R. Cartwright (Louth),
Rev. C. H. Lenton (Lincoln), Mr. S. H. Lowe
(Lincoln), Mr. P. Frankish (Lincoln), and Rev.
H. J. Watney (Lincoln).

The Lincolnshire Union of Golf Clubs was
founded in February, 1900, on the initiative of
the writer. Thirteen of the leading clubs in
the county became affiliated to the Union, and
the first championship meeting, extending over
a week, was held on the green of the Lincoln
Club in April of that year. The gathering was
very successful, and has become the most
important annual golfing event in the county.
In 1 901 the venue was Belton Park, and the
meeting has since been held at Woodhall Spa,
Cleethorpes (twice), Seacroft, and on the course
of the Lincoln Club at Torksey. The principal
events are the Ladies' Championship, the Men's
Championship, and the Club Team Champion-
ship, and the record of the winners of the
championship medals is as follows : —

Ladies' Championship : 1900, Miss Mary
Wilson (Belton Park) ; 1901, Miss Mary Wilson
(Belton Park); 1902, Miss Gwyn (Woodhall
Spa) ; 1903, Miss Nevile (Belton Park and
Lincoln); 1904, Miss E. C. Nevile (Belton
Park and Lincoln) ; 1905, Mrs. S. Thomson
(Lincoln) ; 1 906, Miss E. Wilson (Belton
Park).

Men's Championship: — 1900, Mr. A. E.
Park (Lincoln); 1901, Mr. Stuart McRae
(Belton Park) ; 1 902, Mr. G. H. Nevile (Wood-
hall Spa); 1903, Mr. F. Carr (Grimsby) ; 1904,
Rev. H. R. N. Ellison (Lincoln) ; 1905, Mr. A.
Wallace (Lincoln) ; 1906, Dr. J. Matthews
Duncan (Grimsby).

Team Championship : — 1900, Lincoln ; 1 90 1 ,
Lincoln ; 1902, Woodhall Spa ; 1903, Lincoln ;
1904, Grimsby and Cleethorpes ; 1905, Grimsby
and Cleethorpes ; 1906, Lincoln.

527

A HISTORY OF LINCOLNSHIRE

ATHLETICS

The most important athletic gathering in the
county is that held annually on the last Saturday
in August, under the auspices of the Lincoln
City Football Club. This meeting has been
established for nearly thirty years ; in point of
entries it holds a position almost unique among
athletic meetings. In the year 1903 for six
open events there were 354 entries; in 1904
388 entries were received for the same com-
petitions, and in 1905 the number had in-
creased to 416. These figures represent the
numbers of candidates in the foot-racing events
alone. Adding the entries for the cycling
and local races the grand total for the three
years is 2,523. In 1905 the enormous entry
necessitated the running of the twelve events in
seventy-seven heats. The races then took place
on a turf track 342J yards to the lap, yet the
racing was so well managed that the twelve
events occupied only three hours and fifty-one
minutes. A still older sports meeting — for it
has been in existence for thirty-two years — and
one which in Lincolnshire takes a very high
position, and is always well supported, is that
conjointly held by the local cricket and athletic
clubs on the August Bank-holiday at Spalding.
All the events at this meeting are handicaps,

but the large entries invariably include the names
of many of the best-known athletes. At Lin-
coln on Whit Monday, in recent years, an athletic
meeting has been arranged by the committee in
connexion with the Unionist Demonstration.
Other meetings in the county are those of
Washingborough, generally held at the end of
July or the beginning of August ; Grimsby,
where the proceeds are devoted to charitable
purposes ; Sleaford, organized by some friendly
societies ; Saltfleet, where, although the meeting
is under the management of a horse-show com-
mittee, open athletic events are included in the
programme ; Scunthorpe, also under horse-show
committee management, with open foot-races ;
Cleethorpe, of relatively recent origin ; Heck-
ington, a meeting annually promoted by two old
athletes ; Saxilby ; and Woodhall Spa. Small
meetings of less importance are held at various
villages, and a few gatherings which are not
under the laws of the Amateur Athletic Asso-
ciation. Meetings of the unregistered class,
however, are rapidly dying out, and, while
athletic meetings in Lincolnshire are numerous
and important, there are not many athletic clubs,
and these, with a few exceptions, have but a small
membership.

528

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